Balance 482 SeaLife’s Ocean Monitoring Project

Jono Rabley and his wife Helga and their son, Kai, have embarked on an ocean monitoring project on their recently launched Balance 482, SeaLife, and already two other families/vessels in the Balance Community have signed up to join them on the project. 

Jono is a civil engineer with a successful career in environmental preservation through environmental consulting, remediation, and industrial waste/product management.  Helga worked in the watersports industry and has competed in Stand-Up Paddleboard (SUP) Racing. 

As the nature of his work would suggest, Jono is passionate about the environment. He and Helga have always been passionate about the sea, sailing and kitesurfing, so it came as no surprise that they founded the NuEarth Foundation to inspire the next generation and create awareness for ocean monitoring.  

The family wanted to include ocean monitoring in their travels. So Jono spent time investigating the right fit in ocean monitoring equipment. They selected SubCTech’s  OceanPack™ RACE unit – the same ocean monitoring equipment carried by the Vendee Globe vessel which pioneered a similar monitor project for its last race. 

Starting in 2019, Jono began collaborating with SubCTech and James Cooks (Head of Electrical) and Peter Dean (Project Manager) at Balance Catamarans Cape Town to ensure that the unit would work effectively in the Balance 482 catamarans – including all future models.

The SubCTech OceanPack™ RACE equipment measures PH, salinity, water temperature and CO2 levels, as well as air pressure and air temperature. This data is then verified by a scientist and then made available to the scientific community to advance research projects. The goal is to build a body of research using the diverse travels of sailors to monitor sea health. 

The unit was installed in Cape Town last week, with a technical team from SubCTech overseeing the installation. Watch for more on our Balance channels as well as the NuEarth Foundation website.

You can email info@nuearthfoundation.org if you are interested in joining the project. All sailors – not just Balance owners – are invited to join this project!