Hi everyone,
We signed the lease and received the keys last week: we are IN the boatyard and so it all really begins.
How do we feel? Excited. Overwhelmed.
First steps are to finish tidying up and getting the work space totally clear so we can build a level, lofting floor. The concrete floor is quite bumpy and not straight, so this is essential to be able to draw the lines of the boat in full on sheets of plywood with confidence our measurements will be correct.
So, how to build the floor? That’s the first brain tickler we are contemplating. Remy found a local, elderly man offloading unused wood and blocks for a deck he unfortunately cannot continue with due to illness. Remy and Hunter picked it all up for a bargain 150€ Friday night and delivered it to the work site.
The aim was to clean up the space yesterday (Saturday) so we could start work on the flooring today (Sunday), however another chance opportunity came our way and we drove down to Lorient in the Morbihan region of Brittany (fabulous region, huge sailing community particularly with racers, AND home to many boatyards) to Nath Yacthing. Through one of our advisors, we met Nath, a very skilled and likeminded professional boatbuilder, with a secondhand ketch rig he’d like to donate to our association for the boat.
We got talking about our project and citizen science initiative, with Nath sharing his concerns about end-of-life boats and boatbuilding materials in general, especially his growing disdain for the racing industry. Nath thinks there are about 1000 boats on moorings in the Blavet River, which his boatyard backs directly on to. His guess is over 25 per cent of those boats are derelict and at their end-of-life yet sit on their moorings more-or-less abandoned. He’s also concerned about dust and paint pollution from his own boatyard, and with his girlfriend they have planted shrubbery along a fence to at least try to filter some of the micro-particles from flying into the river.
Nath is one of a handful of professional boat builders I’ve spoken to directly in the past months who are voicing their concerns about ecological and human health impacts from the marine industry - both racing and leisure - who also wants to find better solutions. Waste management is a huge challenge, he told me, because even when he has stripped a derelict boat of all the ‘good’ parts that remain, what should he do with the composite waste?
We do have APER here, with an eco-tax built into all new boat purchases, which should then finance disposal of boats reaching their end-of-life, but they are a very small team and there’s plenty of red tape and lack of awareness preventing the scaling of an otherwise good scheme.
This week, I have a call scheduled with the co-founder of Composite Recycling. They built a machine that uses a “thermolysis-based technology to recycle glass and carbon fiber, preserving the properties of the reclaimed oil and fibres so that they can be used for producing high-quality new composites and decarbonized plastics.” Rest assured I’ll fill you all in on what I learn. At the basic level, Remy and I want to be sure we’re correctly sorting our waste from the work site and making sure any composite waste gets sent to facilities that can do something with it. I know plenty of boat builders out there would be interested in this innovation should it be effective (got my greenwashing radar on!).
Whilst waste management solutions for end-of-life boats and boat production processes is critical, so is materials innovation. I told Nath we have a sample of a 100% BPA-free bio epoxy coming (derived from Algae, made in South Australia, distributor based in Spain), some basalt fibre samples from a professional boatbuilder mate in Lorient, and that we are aiming to do technical tests along with sending samples to Dr. Corina in the lab at Uni of Brighton (UK) for ecological testing. Nath’s eyes lit up and he took us into his workspace to show some hemp fibre samples he received from a friend running an association, also exploring hemp use cases in the marine industry. As per my desk-based research, hemp (and flax) soaks up quite a lot of resin, so I’m not confident it would be a viable replacement for GRP sheathing for our boat, but it’s great to see professional boat builders eager to innovate and push the eco needle forward. Nath gave us a small sample to take back to our work shop, and I will snip off a piece to send to Dr. Corina.
Samples of hemp fibre cloth being tested in boat building applications.
So back to the boatyard this morning to tidy up; Remy is staying there mostly alone today as I am managing the kids and we’re not quite ready to welcome volunteers (you can register your interest on the form at the bottom of our Support Us page on the website).
Day Zero: a little more cleaning required.
The photo above is from the day we moved in. This morning, we cleared it up even more, and started measuring out where both hulls will be built side by side. I won’t lie, it feels like a huge weight off the shoulders to FINALLY be in the work space. We were both absolutely ready to get our hands dirty and move a year of planning and research into the site and GET STARTED.
Come and join our ReTISS creative retreat taking place later in the year right here in Plouhinec, Finistere.
Adjacent, our citizen science initiative Regenerative Tides: Sailing for Solutions (ReTISS), won a small grant with IMPETUS (as part of the EU Horizon Fund). Our 7-month pilot project kicks off tomorrow - Monday, June 16th - engaging coastal communities here in Brittany in data collection and mapping, creative practice and policy advocacy to address the much overlooked issue of fiberglass pollution from derelict and abandoned boats on marine and human health.
As part of the initiative, we’ll be hosting a creative retreat for 4-5 artists here in Finistere in late September/early October (details dropping really soon) and are now inviting folks to register their early interest HERE.
Well, that’s it from us today. Thanks for being here as always!
Angie & Remy
