I didn’t start Growing Decks by studying the yachting industry from the outside and deciding what needed fixing.

It came from working in it.

The Team and the Idea

Justin and I first talked about the idea on our honeymoon in Tanzania. His family farms there, and being in that landscape while knowing how yachts actually run made the gap feel pretty clear. A couple of years later Michael came on board. He’s an engineer who works on yachts and had the same concerns we did. That’s how it became the three of us.

Life Onboard

I’ve worked on sailing yachts for the last six years. You notice things when you’re living onboard every day. The amount of fuel that goes into the tanks. The teak under your feet. How much waste comes with keeping a yacht looking the way it’s expected to look.

From the outside it can seem glamorous. Up close it’s a lot more practical, and sometimes messy.

You also get why change isn’t straightforward. Yachts need fuel. Teak decks aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Owners aren’t going to stop using their boats because someone tells them they should feel bad about the impact. That was never what I wanted Growing Decks to be about.

I just wanted to find ways to do things a bit better inside the industry as it is right now.

So that’s what we built.

What We Do

We help yachts offset the emissions from their fuel through certified carbon projects, and we have a teak replacement program that replants teak-for-teak trees in Tanzania.

Practical Change

Doing this while still being connected to the industry has been useful. I’m not guessing at what works from a desk. I still see the fuel going in. I still walk the decks. I talk to captains and crew about what’s realistic onboard and what isn’t. It means the things we’ve put in place actually fit into how yachts operate, instead of asking the whole industry to become something else.

Support from the Crew and Owners

Seeing the yacht I work on take part has been a really special moment. I’m incredibly grateful to the owners for believing in what we’re trying to build and for being willing to support it. Having owners who genuinely want to make a difference and help push the idea forward is exactly how change starts to happen.

Our captain has also been hugely supportive of Growing Decks and wants to help get the idea out there within the industry. Having that support from both the owners and captain means a lot, especially because they understand yachting and what is actually realistic.

Standing together on the stern in our Growing Decks shirts felt a bit surreal. It’s one thing to build an idea. It’s another to see the people around you believe in it enough to become part of it too.

Looking Forward

Growing Decks is young. There’s plenty more we want to do. But I do think there’s value in people who already understand an industry from the inside trying to shift it.