Schemes focussing on environmental sustainability training for young sailors and reducing any negative impact sailing has on the environment will both be backed by the link-up.

As a sailing and maritime sustainability supporter, 11th Hour Racing promotes "collaborative, systematic change" to benefit the health of the ocean through the establishment of partnerships within the marine community.

The two projects 11th Hour Racing's funding will support aim to generate impact through two elements of a sailor's journey.

The projects seek to improve practice by engaging with sailors at a number of stages within the sport, but they are primarily focused at a grassroots level.

They will focus on offering environmental sustainability training for younger sailors and reducing the environmental impact that sailing clubs have by creating resources and benchmarks for clubs to improve their practices.

In terms of sustainable sailor training, the World Sailing Trust will work with World Sailing and other global partners to create a suite of sustainability modules for young sailors in six languages.

The project will build on existing resources, which have been tried and tested with children around the world, and additional subjects and lessons will be developed to enhance their global impact.

They will be targeted at a global audience via World Sailing's member national authorities and international partners.

World Sailing will officially endorse the resources and these will become the central knowledge base for sailors, clubs and coaches to learn about significant sustainability issues.

They will be freely available online for all to use.

As for sailing club sustainability, sailing and yacht clubs worldwide draw on natural resources and in some cases ageing infrastructure requires regular maintenance.

These clubs can improve their environmental impact performance but little international guidance exists to suggest best practice in this area.

To support clubs to improve, the World Sailing Trust will work with World Sailing and sustainability experts to develop a suite of resources to support clubs to make improvements.

Tools and resources will be created and made available publicly online and to clubs to enable them to benchmark their environmental performance and provide guidance on how to improve in areas ranging from energy efficiency and waste reduction to maintenance regimes.

Over time, it is hoped clubs will reduce their impact and continue to make improvements to their practice and infrastructure.

"The World Sailing Trust aims to ensure a lasting positive impact of our sport and safeguard the future of the planet’s waters," Dee Caffari, chair of the World Sailing Trust, said.

"11th Hour Racing are funding the very first part of the World Sailing Trust’s journey, supporting our Marine Health Fund and we are delighted that they share our vision.

"The two projects will set us on the pathway to implement a framework that will ensure worldwide change and generate long-term impact.

"The ocean is our playing field and by working with sailors at a grassroots level, we can tackle the issues right at the very heart of our sport."

Work on both projects is set to commence immediately.

The sustainable sailor training resources are due to be ready for distribution this summer, while the sailing club sustainability benchmark and suite of resources are scheduled to be available at the end of 2019.

With overall responsibility for developing the next generation of sailors and championing a more sustainable future, World Sailing established the World Sailing Trust in June 2018 as a catalyst for this change.