Datchet Water Sailing Club invites you to solve marine CSI mystery 

The Green Blue team 'push the boat out' with interactive fun and learning

Datchet Water Sailing Club is inviting young sailors to don their detective hats and grab a magnifying glass to play the role of a marine special agent on The Green Blue’s interactive Marine CSI Challenge. Taking place from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, 16 May as part of the RYA Push The Boat Out initiative, Datchet Water is the first sailing club in the UK to run the brand new educational resource for sailing clubs.  

Who polluted Paradise Harbour?

The Marine CSI Challenge will see visitors undertaking fingerprint analysis, unscrambling puzzles and performing chemical tests to crack four cases. The cases involved an oil spill on a slipway, marine littering, chemicals poured into the water, and spreading alien invaders into Paradise Harbour – The Green Blue’s fictional crime scene.  

The CSI Challenge is designed to increase awareness amongst younger sailors of the impact that boating can have on the environment in a fun and engaging way and to advise all recreational boaters on how they can help keep our waters clean, safe and beautiful to sail in.  

To discover who spilt oil on the slipway, the fledgling detectives have to undergo fingerprint analysis of an overturned oil can suspected to be the source of the spill. Once they’ve detected the crime scene fingerprint, they have to match it against the fingerprints taken from six identified suspects to find the culprit.

Participants will also have to spot the items of litter hidden in photographs taken on board the suspects’ boats to identify which of the six individuals have let the most amount of litter blow overboard into the harbour.    

Show success

After seeing how successfully the Marine CSI Challenge engaged young sailors at the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show earlier this year, many sailing clubs approached The Green Blue interested in running a similar activity with their young sailors when off the water and also as an interactive session during sailing events.  

 Delighted with the high level of interest, The Green Blue team has created a standalone resource pack for any sailing club to plan and run their own Marine CSI Club Challenge. Datchet Water Sailing Club is the first in the UK to join forces with The Green Blue to pilot the CSI activity during their RYA Push The Boat Out event. Keen to demonstrate their commitment to being an environmentally sustainable club, officials believe it will bring added value to what they can offer to their members and prospective young sailors.  

Pushing the boat out!

Gabrielle Boase, the General Manager and Club Principal at Datchet Water, explains: “We’re thrilled to join forces with The Green Blue and immensely proud to be piloting the Marine CSI Club Challenge. Datchet Water Sailing Club welcomed over 100 visitors from as far away as Chichester and Cheltenham at last year's RYA Push the Boat Out initiative. Building on this success, the Marine CSI Club Challenge is set to make this year’s event even bigger and better.  

“We are fundamentally a green sport and we operate a green clubhouse at Datchet Water. Spreading the word about environmental impact and sustainability with our younger sailors and newcomers to the sport is helping to keep our waters clean and safe. Engaging with them also creates a long-lasting impact for the Club by helping to ensure even more people make sailing part of their future.”  

If your sailing club is looking for a fun, interactive and informative activity to engage your young sailors please contact Kate Fortnam, The Greens Blue’s Environmental Outreach Officer, on 023 8060 4227 for support on how to get your Crime Scene Investigation up and running. 

The Green Blue is the joint environment initiative created by the British Marine Federation and Royal Yachting Association (RYA) to encourage a more sustainable recreational boating sector. Launched in 2005 at the PSP Southampton Boat Show, the project enjoys the support of The Crown Estate’s Marine Stewardship Programme and the Environment Agency. For practical advice, help, guidance and even money saving tips, visit www.thegreenblue.org.uk