Originally published in our FSL Substack newsletter: https://voyagevirage.substack.com/p/dry-fitting-stringers-and-fsl-on
Dear FSL community,
This week, our grassroots association — just 18-months old — made it to national TV. Filmed in July, the feature on TF1’s prime time evening news segment ‘Grand Format’ shared the research we are gathering on end-of-life boat pollution in the Goyen Estuary to 4.74 million viewers (26.6% audience share).
The feature reveals abandoned boats are shedding materials such as fibreglass, resin, paint, other plastics and chemicals directly in to coastal waterways, threatening the health of marine life and humans. Despite an eco-tax scheme charged on the production of new recreational boats to fund boat dismantling centers across France by APER, transportation is not funded, leaving a huge gap for the policy to be actually effective. Our new report ‘Old boats, new plans’ found that for every 1 boat dismantled through the French scheme, 4 new production boats hit the water.
What struck me viewing the TF1 coverage is the boat being crushed looks relatively new. Also, as the giant claw dismantles the boat we see fiberglass parts and dust fly in the air — this is a concern for the surrounding ecosystem and the health of the workers.
Dismantling is also not the same as recycling. Our report found that the hull is the difficult part. According to APER figures reported in EBI’s 2023 roadmap, 60% of the scheme’s composite waste went to energy recovery and the remaining 40% was stockpiled pending a better option (EBI, 2023). In 2022, APER announced a partnership to bring mobile pyrolysis units to its centres from late 2023, but its 2025 report still describes recovery as mainly shredding for fuel or filler, with closed-loop reuse “limited” (Boat Industry, 2026).
Our friend at the Port of Hennebont, Alexandre Giry, has been removing derelict boats from his local river port out of the port’s own budget, with the challenge now that the boats are piling up in a carpark next to the port. Despite the boat’s being registered, owners may be hard to track down, elderly or deceased, or simply lacking in the financial means to cover the cost of transport to the APER center. When we met Alexandre earlier this year, he told us it costs about 100€ per 1-metre of boat to travel a mere 1 kilometer to the closest APER center. Here in the Goyen Estuary, we are 54 kilometers away from the closest center.
Our ReTISS ‘Bad Boat Mapping’ data tells us that 92% of the boats in our database are situated in estuaries, with half of all boats mapped partly submerged. This makes removal even more difficult. The state of the boats we map are far more degraded than the one being crushed in the TF1 news coverage, which is very concerning for the health of the surrounding ecosystem.
ReTISS (Regenerative Tides: Sailing for Solutions) is a UN Ocean Decade Action, engaging coastal communities in data collection, creative dissemination and policy advocacy on this overlooked issue of end-of-life boat pollution. To learn more, visit https://www.floatingstorieslab.org/regenerative-tides.
Back in the Boatyard
We welcomed Hunter (our middle child) back in to the boatyard last week, helping out with the epoxy work on the maritime pine planking during the school holidays. Hunter is a natural at resin work and it’s always a pleasure to have some mum-and-son bonding time working on the boat together.
Hunter applying Resoltech part-bio epoxy to the second face of the Tebo Pin Elite plywood planking.
With both hulls now erected, space is limited on the main building floor, but we have just enough room to bring our racks in and out of the drying cabin since we expanded slightly in to the empty hanger beside us. This is a temporary expansion with both the nod from the landlord and the feeling of ‘don’t get too comfy’.
We have about 25 panels remaining to coat on the second face, as we require a new batch of epoxy having worked through the first 100kgs (the boat will use an estimated 400-500kgs of epoxy, Part A and B, in total).
Remy dry-fitting one of the stringers to the starboard hull.
On the weekends, Remy has begun gluing the stringer scarfs and doing a dry fit with some of them to anticipate challenges we will face when we glue them in to the bulkhead notches. He has also built the stem and stern inner posts for the starboard hull and is getting those glued on. Our next major job is to cut the curve of the keels (we have glued the scarf joins on both keels) and bevel them, then glue both keels to the backbones. We have the wonderful Marc coming back in November to help us tackle this important project, and will be putting the call out for a few sets of hands later in the month for the big, physical job of gluing the keels on!
Upcoming Events
Angie and Dr. Corina Ciocan will be presenting at the The Ocean Symposium and Marine Exhibition 2026 at St. Peter’s Parish Community CentreBexhill, England, on Saturday, November 14, 10 AM - 4 PM. Tickets are almost sold out so do grab yours asap if you are able to come.
Snail Mail Coming Your Way
The print copies of our new snail mail newsletter ‘SLOW Footprints Snapshot’ arrived this weekend and I will begin to ship these out as a seasonal thank you for our 50€ and 150€ per year members. It is not too late to upgrade your Substack subscription or direct FSL membership so that you too can receive a special snail mail delivery.
In each envelope members’ receive a double-sided A4 riso-style printed newsletter on recycled paper, a double-sided postcard, and small set of stickers. A very special thank you to the very talented illustrator and marine biologist Marta Musso, whose Goyen stamps designed during this year’s art x science residency are featured on the back side of this season’s postcard and the sticker collection. Visit Marta’s website HERE and her Instagram page HERE.
Shipping this month to our 50€ and 150€ tier members. Become a member today to receive your package in the post: https://www.floatingstorieslab.org/support
Finally, FSL ‘gatherings’ will launch at the end of November — date and theme dropping soon. Limited spaces for members — upgrade your Substack subscription or become a member via our website direct: https://www.floatingstorieslab.org/support
As always, thank you for being here. We hope you have a great back and we’ll be back in the next week or two with more updates from an unusually warm Brittany.
Cheers,
Angie & Remy
