Ignacio Varisco has been named Sustainable Sailor of the Month for his incredible work with Capitanes de Barrio, a program dedicated to empowering young sailors and making the sport more inclusive. Certified by Sailors for the Sea and supported by Musto, who will gift him a sailing bag, this recognition highlights his commitment to both social impact and sustainability in sailing.
Congratulations on being named Sustainable Sailor of the Month! What does this recognition mean to you?
Thank you so much! It’s an honour to me. Being recognized internationally is something that makes me proud but I really see this award as a recognition not just for me but for the whole Capitanes de Barrios’s team, the Club de Pesca y Náutica Las Barrancas who opened their doors, and all the people who collaborate with the project. I am very conscious of the amazing team of volunteers we have. I enjoy and it's an honour for me to be part of this team, for me the award is for all of us.. I am just the one that is also part of the 29er Class community, and that is why I have been awarded but the whole team deserves to be awarded.
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You have an impressive background as a sailor, including finishing as World Vice Champion in the 29er class. How did your competitive sailing journey shape your approach to coaching and sustainability?
I competed in the Optimist, 29er, and 470 classes until I was 21 years old. Sailing and competing had shaped myself, my personality and my interests, and during that journey I was lucky to have great coaches who taught me not just how to sail and compete but how sailing can be life changing and how powerful the role of a good coach can be in the life of sailors.
What inspired you to start Capitanes de Barrio? Was there a specific moment or experience that sparked the idea?
One of those great coaches I had was Martin Manrique who founded Make Them Sailors Foundation which is about inspiring people to change lifes through sailing and giving social and environmental sailing programs visibility and funds, and try to make them work together.
I don't know why, if it was because of my experience having Martin as a coach and his philosophy (Make Them Sailors didn’t exist at that time) or what, but I feel as if I had that dream of trying to make a big impact in disadvantaged kids’s lifes for a long time and in the Club de Pesca y Nautica Las Barrancas, the Club were I used to work as a coach I found the facilities and the support I needed. Now, more than five years after we started thinking about it, I am really impressed by what a team we built and I am sure that I wouldn’t have even started making my dream come true if I hadn’t found the correct people.
But yeah, for sure Martin and his job with Make Them Sailors have been an inspiration to me.
Capitanes de Barrio provides not just sailing lessons but also life skills like English and naval carpentry. Why was it important for you to include these elements in the program?
Sailing is not just a sport but a way of life and an industry itself with as many specializations as there are ways to practice it.. it’s also such a global activity. In that way, not being able to communicate yourself in english is such a big barrier for people to develop in the sailing world. And the naval carpentry program they did last year is part of the vision we have of giving them the opportunity to develop themselves in the sailing related jobs of the industry. It was great, we are looking forward to keep going with it, but the kids we work with are still very young and we know we need to go slowly and together with their age and their rhythm.
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The program has helped around 60 children so far. Can you share a story of a student whose life has been transformed through Capitanes de Barrio?
Yes, I don’t want to talk about one kid specifically, but I can tell you that the impact in kids' lifes is very clear. They are not just learning a new sport that they couldn’t have access to if Capitanes de Barrio didn’t exist, but we are making a real social integration from these kids to the sailing community through sports and at such a young age. That is having an impressive effect on kids lifes. Choosing sailing over soccer in Argentina!? That is happening.. kids who have been with us for a long time have made their stronger friendships in the sailing community, breaking barriers completely without even being conscious that they did, their playground is the river and the sailing Club now instead of the street, having new references, and SO MANY things that the kids are experimenting. The impact is already very clear, but the kids are still very young and I am sure that we are gonna see the real scale and dimension of what Capitanes’ have done in these kid’s lifes in a couple of years.. the future is very bright.
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Running a social initiative is very different from traditional coaching. What are some of the biggest challenges and rewards of this work?
Sailing in Argentina is like a traditional/ family sport. Normally people enter sailing because someone in his family is a sailor. You get to know the power of that influence by working with a social program where you don’t have that. You are offering something to people that don’t have not even the slightest idea of where their kids are getting into, and that sometimes makes things a little bit more difficult for the team that is running the program. I also found lots of cultural differences, and slowly understanding and working with those differences makes you grow and improve as a person and as a leader.
Apart from that, sailing can be life changing for everyone.. doesn't matter where you come from!
How do you integrate environmental education into the sailing program, and how do you encourage young sailors to adopt sustainable habits?
To be honest we don’t run an environmental program as an activity itself (which doesn’t mean we shouldn’t! I have been thinking about it!), but we are sailors.. we have been educated through taking care of our ocean since we were little kids..
That is also a very shocking cultural difference. Most of the kids haven’t been educated in environmental care at all, and when they start in the program you can see that very clear.. but during the activities we always mark those types of attitudes, and teach them the importance of taking care of the sea and also the Club.. and making them conscious of our waste.. they slowly incorporate the sailor way of life during their time in the program.
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Your personal lifestyle reflects your commitment to sustainability. How do you hope to inspire others in the sailing community to follow your example?
Well I would love to inspire people through what Capitanes de Barrio is doing, and encourage them to make a difference by trying to make our sport more inclusive..
Actually, I would like to make people start thinking about what their own social impact is.. without even thinking about sailing.. sailing is the tool we as sailors have to make an impact, but every person has their own social footprint.. am I doing something for those who have less opportunities?
What role do you think sailing can play in creating a more inclusive and environmentally conscious future?
For those who want to support Capitanes de Barrio, how can they get involved? Are there specific needs or ways the global sailing community can help?
Now we are working very hard to raise funds because luckily things are getting better and bigger and we need that financial support to afford the coaches salaries, sailing materials, sailing events, opening more activities and to make all of this sustainable over time.
Sailing brands can also make a difference by making some sort of partnership for the Project to have some kind of benefit while maintaining their boats with the right equipment (blades, blocks, ropes, sails, spars, etc.) for our Optimists and 420.
Anyone interested can reach out through our email: capitanesdebarrio@gmail.com
Also they can follow the project on Instagram ( @capitanes_de_barrio ) and share the content they like.
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Looking ahead, what are your hopes and goals for Capitanes de Barrio in the next few years?
We have three main goals that we would like to achieve in the next years:
1) Even though we started five years ago, we are still conscious that the project structure is still being created while the kids grow (the oldest kid has sixteen years old) and we are gonna still be in that phase for the next more than five years.. it is our challenge to keep growing as a program while the kids grow to be able to give them more opportunities.
2) Most of Capitanes de Barrio’s activities are run inside the Club the Pesca y Náutica Las Barrancas and the Club is giving us their facilities and some resources. In the next few years we would like to not just stop using most of the Club’s resources but to help the Club’s sailing school by offering our own resources for shared activities.
3) Capitanes de Barrio is run by a volunteer team, and the Project has been growing since it was born and with it the necessities and demand also grew. One of our challenges now is making the Project self sustaining to be able to amplify the social impact and to sustain it over time, and that means slowly professionalizing our team.
Lastly, what advice would you give to young sailors who want to make a difference in their communities through sport?
Build a team and get started!
