Our Work in Wales: UWC Atlantic

Atlantic Pacific began at Atlantic College, which itself has a heritage of boating building, water-based sports and a student-led water rescue service. As students of the college for over 60 years will attest, it is truly a special place, holding a spot in Atlantic Pacific’s heart, our history, and our mission.

During the semester, Atlantic Pacific runs an extracurricular activity with the college students on a weekly basis, and out of term time we run our exclusive Summer School and other programs from the college campus. Our first workshop is based at the college and we owe many of our innovations and ideas to the generations of dedicated students who work there.

Opened in 1962, UWC Atlantic is the founding college of 18 different schools and colleges across the globe that make up the United World College movement. Together they deliver a transformational education to over 9,500 students ages 16 to 18 each year.

Atlantic Pacific at Atlantic College

A UWC education at Atlantic College aims to inspire a sense of personal initiative and integrity in young people, leading to a lifelong commitment of social engagement and towards building a peaceful and sustainable world. Atlantic College works towards these aims by offering a rigorous curriculum based as much in extra-curricular activities as academics.

Atlantic Pacific has been part of these extracurriculars even before we were consolidated as an organisation, and we are honoured to have been officially operating as an activity for several years now.

Every term, Atlantic Pacific runs an activity with 25-35 students. This activity runs on a weekly basis throughout the semester, and also includes two Project Weeks, where the students spend one full week working together on a dedicated project.

Throughout their time with Atlantic Pacific, the students engage in a variety of activities and learning, including but not limited to:

  • boat building;

  • learning how to drive and maintain boats;

  • leadership and teamwork skills;

  • experimentation in design and construction;

  • learning about disaster response;

  • becoming qualified in first aid / casualty care

  • getting introduced to sea rescue

Atlantic College plays a key role in the origins of AP, but also in the history of the Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (RIB). Under the direction of then College Headmaster Desmond Hoare, the RIB was invented by the students in the 1960s as a solution to stay safe in heavy seas.

The History of the RIB

The students were familiar with inflatable boats, but the fabric bottoms of these vessels were easily damaged. They developed a design that used inflatable tubes attached to a rigid V-shaped hull and an open transom that allowed water to escape. This produced a robust vessel that served as a safety boat for seafront activities and as a rescue boat on the often challenging Bristol Channel.

The college became an Inshore Lifeboat Station for the RNLI in 1963, carrying out countless rescues over the next 50 years. In 1974, the students sold the patent to the RNLI for £1, offering the design of this boat to the public, “for the good of humanity.” The RIB is now one of the most widely used inshore boats worldwide, particularly in SAR, and is responsible for saving countless lives in difficult conditions.

The RIB was retroactively celebrated by the UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 2017 and received the Engineering Heritage Award.

Read a full history of youth-led sea rescue at Atlantic College in the Trained & Trusted book.

Ocean Revival Project

Consistent with the innovative spirit of Atlantic College students in Atlantic Pacific, and UWC’s aims of sustainability and action-based learning, AP is partnering with the college to tackle ocean pollution.

Building on AP’s mission of reducing drowning, this collaboration aims to tackle both worldwide drowning and plastic pollution. The goal is to take plastic out of the ocean and recycle it into life-saving products and, eventually, lifeboats made entirely out of recycled plastics.

Plastic waste makes up 80% of marine pollution worldwide, and we want to innovate a blueprint for repurposing this waste into life-saving equipment.

A plastic recycling machine is currently being built by AP crew, and we have plans to build an innovation hub with plastic recycling machines and other equipment out of a shipping container on the Atlantic College campus, in keeping with the style of our Lifeboat in the Box design.

UWCx Initiative

Atlantic Pacific is honoured to be an accredited UWCx Initiative.

UWCx is an accreditation awarded by United World Colleges International which aims to support and encourage organisations who do acts of service, innovation and outreach that contribute towards the UWC mission of creating a more peaceful and sustainable future. UWCx provides a framework to recognise, support, connect and publicise these initiatives - to help expand their reach and impact.