Hi FSL Community,
Thank you so much to all who have already submitted an application for our upcoming Regenerative Tides Citizen Science Creative Residency. The response thus far is fantastic. If you have not yet submitted, please don’t hesitate to send in an application. All the details and link to apply are up on our website HERE.
The residency is by-design ocean-immersive, with an emphasis on participating in citizen science fieldwork and exploring our local coastal region here in Finistère. Incorporated into the week-long program is a free diving underwater exploration with professional surfer and water woman Lea Brassy, catering to all levels and ocean competence, beginners included.
We took our youth members out with Lea on the weekend for their first ever free diving experience. Apprehensions were overcome for some, skills expanded for others, and it was smiles-all-round after their two hour underwater exploration. A large seal visited the group whilst the boys got up and close with kelp forests and an array of local fish species.
Sahara and I spent our afternoon playing in the rock pools; our youngest member celebrating her second birthday in her happy place. As most of you know by now, Remy is recovering from a broken neck — he was sorely missed though is motivated to be back in the water soon.
Boat Build News
It’s been a slow start to the boat build with Remy’s unexpected injury. With guidance from experienced wooden boat builder and FSL advisor, Pascal Petit, I have been back in the work site readying to build the lofting floor with a team of volunteers — we aim to kick off the first of two x two-day working bee blocks this week.
With the flooring out of the way we will be ready to draw the lines in August. We’ve poured over the plans now for a year, drawing out the lines already for the 1:10 scale model hull. Needless to say, excitement is building to draw the lines at full scale. We hope Remy will be well enough to come in to the work site for this milestone step.
ReTISS Citizen Science Initiative Gets EU Backing
Our first ever grant application was successful! Regenerative Tides: Sailing for Solutions (ReTISS) is officially in this year’s IMPETUS Science4Change Accelerator Program backed by the European Union, receiving a 20,000€ Kickstarter grant to carry out a 7-month pilot here in Brittany from June 2025 to January 2026.
Our pilot initiative has also been accepted into English and Biology curriculum at a local middle school for the entire first semester kicking off in September 2025. We are beyond thrilled to be engaging local youth and the wider community in data mapping and collection, creative practice and policy advocacy to address the much overlooked issue of marine pollution from abandoned and derelict end-of-life boats.
We will be welcoming our scientific advisor Dr. Corina Ciocan — whose groundbreaking research on fiberglass pollution on marine life in Chichester Harbour, UK, motivates our initiative — to Brittany in September to lead workshops at the school and train our fieldwork team leaders. In the meantime, we are busy developing the database and testing the interactive mapping software over the summer.
The ReTISS Creative Residency is an important component of the pilot; a week-long immersive creative program themed around human-ocean kinship relations.

Fire Pit Talks Podcast
Earlier in the year we launched Fire Pit Talks, a collection of long-form conversations where I sit down to talk story with fellow voyagers and folks from our global community. We kicked off the series interviewing Kiana Weltzien, Laerke Heilman, and Alize Jireh — better known as the three badass crew of Women & the Wind (if you haven’t seen the documentary yet, it’s streaming exclusively on KINEMA for $10 until July 27th, with 50% of ALL proceeds kicking back into the Women & the Wind Foundation).
The podcast will be gaining momentum in the second half of the year, with an exciting lineup of guests sharing fascinating stories. Every new episode will land first on Substack, ad free.
That’s a wrap for this newsletter folks. For behind-the-scenes boat build updates in real-time, become a paid subscriber and receive special access to our WhatsApp group.
Cheers,
Angie
Co-founder and President,
Floating Stories Lab Association