786 Global
One vessel, one route around the world, one mission: healthier oceans.
An independent, long-term sailing project for the protection of the oceans. One sailing vessel serves as a mobile, international platform: for entertainment that reaches a young audience, for science, for documentaries and for the organisations already working to protect the sea.
The idea
We are not founding a new NGO.
Many good organisations already do this work, often under difficult conditions and with limited means. 786 Global brings the existing ones to a larger audience, helps them find new supporters and contributes to their funding.
Awareness at every entry level. From a first, light contact through entertainment, to genuine interest, active participation and long-term support. Many people have little direct connection to the oceans, although their lives depend on them. We want to reach them where they are.
The name
A route that writes 7, 8 and 6 across the world map.
That is all the name started from. The numbers also tell the scale of the voyage: 7 seas, 8 years, 6 continents.
It has since been read as a sign of peace in more than one tradition, and we welcome that: whoever believes in a creator cannot believe that creator is indifferent to the destruction of creation.
One vessel, four uses
The series pays for the platform.
Everyone else who sails with us for the oceans pays only for their own time on board.
Aye Maties
Entertainment for a young audience. About 70 production days a year.
Earns the funding
Science
Universities and research institutes. Field studies and data collection.
Running costs only
Documentaries
Factual and educational films on suitable legs of the route.
Running costs only
NGOs
Partners met along the route gain an audience, supporters and funding.
Running costs only
Aye Maties: the entertainment arm
Entertainment first. The ocean is experienced, not lectured about.
Aye Maties is a partly-scripted reality format filmed aboard the project’s vessel. A diverse cast, drawn largely from social-media creators, faces real challenges at sea. It is made first for streaming and social platforms, where a young audience actually spends their time.
The show travels with the tour. An audience on the Pacific coast of North America or in Oceania cares less about the Mediterranean than about its own coastline. So the vessel goes where the audience is: each regional season shows what is at stake on the viewers’ own doorstep, with local casts and local partners. More at AyeMaties.com.
The route
Two phases, one figure: 786.
In effect the vessel sails twice around the world, and not by the easy trade-wind route: first westabout and back east, then eastabout and back west, through high latitudes from the North-West Passage to Cape Horn. That is why the 786 takes about eight years.
Phase 1, the first two to three years: the “Atlantic Circle”. Winters are always spent in the Caribbean, which also hosts each international seventh season. Summers are spent in Europe: in the western Mediterranean at first, later also in Ireland, the UK and Norway.
Phase 2, the 786 route: from the Caribbean the vessel sails the three figures that gave the project its name.
- 7North along the east coast of North America, through the North-West Passage, down to the Aleutians and Alaska.
- 8An upper circle through the Pacific, beginning with Canada’s Inside Passage and returning to the US West Coast; a lower circle south along the west coast of South America, round Cape Horn and north again to the Caribbean.
- 6South to Brazil, across the Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope, around the shores of the Indian Ocean, and back to Cape Town, where the 6 closes and the 786 route officially ends.
The route includes high latitudes, from the North-West Passage to Cape Horn; the vessel and crew must be equipped for both. After the 786, the vessel sails to a permanent home port, to become a museum ship telling the story of the voyage, or to keep sailing for the oceans without a fixed schedule.
Sail with us
Partners first, sailing area second.
We do not pick a region and then look for partners there. We look for the organisations that want to work with us, and plan the sailing area and schedule around them. If your work serves the oceans, talk to us now, while the route is still being drawn.
All enquiries: [email protected]
Using the vessel
No charter fee, only the running costs of your own use.
Aye Maties needs the vessel for about seventy production days a year. For the rest of the year, less maintenance and transfers, the vessel is open to partners whose work serves the oceans.
| Partner | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Universities and research institutions | Field studies, data collection, applied research in hard-to-reach waters |
| Documentary filmmakers | Factual and educational films on suitable legs of the route |
| Environmental organisations | Expeditions and visibility for their work along the route |
The terms
- Purpose. The use must serve the protection, study or understanding of the oceans.
- No charter fee. Partners cover the running costs of their period on board; what counts as running costs is set out in each agreement.
- Command and safety. The vessel’s master has the final word on board. Safety, manning and certification follow the rules of the flag state.
- Schedule. Aye Maties production days are fixed first; partner use is planned around them and along the route.
Financing
Aye Maties earns what the platform needs.
Science, documentaries and conservation get the vessel without a charter fee because the series carries the project. The concept has been developed over eighteen years and, so far, fully self-financed by its founder, with a personal investment of more than seven figures.
- Aye Maties income: sponsors and partners, platform and distribution deals, and merchandise such as the original soundtrack and the treasure map. Sponsors never gain editorial influence; a signed Declaration of Creative and Editorial Independence rules it out.
- First year: the first year of Aye Maties production is budgeted at EUR 3.2 million, from a single founding sponsor or shared among several.
- The vessel: financed separately, owned and operated by a dedicated special-purpose vehicle of the CLG.
- Transfer passages: berths for experienced sailors on the vessel’s transfer legs between sailing areas.
- Surplus: nothing is distributed. Surplus is reinvested; beyond the project’s needs it funds existing ocean organisations, in particular the smaller ones doing the hardest work on the ground.
Governance
It belongs to a non-profit, not to its founder.
All rights, trademarks and assets of 786 Global and Aye Maties will be held by Sail Wisely (Ireland) CLG, an Irish company limited by guarantee with no shareholders. Its constitution has been finalised with Mason Hayes & Curran LLP, Dublin; incorporation will follow.
Our Ethical Compass. Every agreement includes the project’s Ethical Compass: clear ownership of all rights by the CLG, accounts at market rates with receipts, funds used only for their purpose, plain and honest communication, and immediate exclusion for any misuse of project resources. Anyone who sees the project mainly as a way to earn money is in the wrong place.
- Asset lock: assets cannot leave the mission.
- No profit distribution: everything is reinvested or passed on to existing ocean organisations, preferably the smaller ones, with the independent Guardian involved in deciding where it goes.
- Pay cap: no one, the founder included, may draw more than EUR 100,000 a year.
- Full transparency towards partners and the public.
- Succession: any successor to the founder is overseen by an independent Guardian. In the long term, we hope this role can be held by a recognised institution of ocean science.
Where we stand
Ready to sail, looking for the vessel.
In place: a professionally produced Aye Maties teaser (Istria, early summer 2026), the website AyeMaties.com, an original soundtrack album, and a complete season architecture. Aye Maties is under the patronage of Archduchess Herta Margarete Habsburg-Lothringen and her charity Flame of Peace. Patronage is not exclusive: we warmly welcome every person and institution seriously willing to support our goals.
Our principal task now is securing a suitable vessel. Until the project has one of its own, we work towards collaborations with existing sail-training and research vessels and stewardship arrangements with owners of larger yachts.
We are looking for
- a founding sponsor, or several sponsors sharing the first year. This need not be pure philanthropy: any company that wants to reach a young, international audience gains real visibility with us, as long as it accepts that visibility never buys editorial influence;
- a vessel owner who would entrust a yacht to a meaningful purpose for a few years;
- universities, research institutions, documentary makers and environmental organisations who would like to sail with us.
Any cooperation is meant to be respectful, transparent and in line with our partners’ own missions.
Every Journey Needs Direction.
Impressum · Legal notice
Offenlegung gemäß § 25 Mediengesetz / Informationen gemäß § 5 ECG
Medieninhaber und Herausgeber / Owner and publisher: Capt. Peter E. Brucha, Jubiläumstraße 19, A-2345 Brunn am Gebirge, Austria. E-Mail: [email protected]
Gegenstand / Purpose: Information über das Projekt 786 Global und seine Partnerschaften / information on the 786 Global project and its partnerships.
Grundlegende Richtung / Editorial line: Schutz der Meere durch Unterhaltung, Wissenschaft, Dokumentation und Unterstützung bestehender Meeresschutzorganisationen / ocean protection through entertainment, science, documentaries and support for existing ocean organisations.
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