FINE FOR PAINT MANUFACTURER

Boat shows need to educate

The overriding topic at this year’s Dusseldorf boat show was green technology and sustainability.

The newly established Blue Innovation Dock in association with content partner the European Boating Industry, provided a platform, with topics ranging from sustainable propulsion to circular materials discussed.

Over the last few months, the leisure marine industry has noticeably stepped up a gear and is making a concerted effort to shift towards more sustainable practices and the use of cleaner fuels and boat shows need to continue to help fuel this transition, helping to change boaters’ attitudes and provide educational opportunities.

It is happening – but slowly. This year for the first time ever, there will be an Electric Pavilion at Miami International Boat Show and here in the UK, the Green Tech Boat Show will form a key part of the South Coast Boat Show.

Sailing is generally seen as a sustainable sport due to its contact with nature – sailors see the direct impact humans have on our planet with the increase in waste and plastics in the oceans.

International Paint has been fined £650,000 after toxic chemicals were washed from a holding tank into an estuary in a Special Area of Conservation.

International Paint, owned by multi-national AkzoNobel, appeared before Plymouth Crown Court in October 2022, where, at the end of a nineday hearing, it was found guilty on two charges.

The company had denied both offences relating to the discharge of hazardous waste from a tank located on the quay at its Newton Ferrers paint testing facility.

The case had been adjourned until January for sentencing.

International Paint had run a testing facility for its paints including marine anti-fouling paints on the River Yealm in Devon since 1928.

An investigation by the Environment Agency was launched after the company tried to sell the premises in 2015 and possible pollution was reported by Simon Friend of

Red Earth Developments.

The investigation found evidence that tributyltin (TBT) - used as a coating to prevent the build-up of organisms and plants on marine hulls - along with copper, arsenic and mercury, had been present in sediment in the tank at the site and some of this sediment had escaped out into the estuary.

TBT was banned from use on small vessels in the UK in the late 1980s and banned completely worldwide during the 2000s.

A bung on another tank was found to have come out leaving it open to the estuary, before it was eventually permanently sealed with concrete. The company denied having caused the discharge of the sediment into the estuary but did not answer what had happened to it.

The judge said International Paint had operated a ‘reckless system’ and failed to control the management of TBT.

And he said the chemical was only discharged when a potential purchaser for the site came along and the presence of TBT in the tanks was a serious problem.

The judge said he was satisfied a caretaker flushed the contents of the tank into the river which prior to the incident had been a ‘pristine environment’.

Dr Michael Waldock, an expert whose work led to the banning of TBT, found that nine out of 11 samples exceeded the safe limit for TBT and that, close to the site, one sample contained 80,000 times the safe level. He concluded that the TBT levels in the estuary were sufficient to have had a major toxic effect on marine life there.

In addition to the fine, International Paint was ordered to pay costs of £145,000. The company also agreed to cover costs of remediation works, likely to be at least £500,000.

But while some aspects of boating are becoming greener and progress is being made, the question remains as to whether this is happening fast enough. A very small minority of the boats themselves are made of recyclable materials, though this is an area that boatbuilders are looking at. Innovation Yachts won the Ocean Tribute Award 2023 for the world’s first completely recyclable and sustainable catamaran made of composite material for series production and Green Boats is another example, but this aspect of boating still has a long way to go.

According to figures from the EBI, between 30,000 and 40,000 boats will reach their end of life every year by 2030 with a potential annual recycling need of 23,100 – 30,800 tons every year.

In France, 72% of waste from dismantled boats in France is subject to recycling but other countries are still lagging behind and that still leaves 28% that is not recycled.

The technology is developing, but is more regulation needed? Should there be requirements for manufacturers to think about the end of the life of the boat when it’s being designed and built?

World Sailing says by the 2032 Olympics, competing boats will be manufactured from a majority of recycled and recyclable components, but it also says it has no idea how this will be achieved.

Answers lie in developing technology and for prices to come down. And for that to happen, manufacturers will need to drive the process.

If boat shows continue to educate the end user, then maybe there will be more of a push for manufacturers to do this.

We need to think beyond reducing our negative impact and also look at how to increase our positive impact.

BRIEFS Launch

Boatshed.com has launched a yacht charter service. Online yacht broker Boatshed.com has launched a new charter service, BoatshedCharter, that will allow boaters to charter boats in three Greek locations. The service has launched with an initial 47 boats - monohull and catamaran - and a range of manufacturers including Jeanneau, Beneteau, Lagoon, Hanse, BALI and Dehler.

Acquisition

BWA Yachting has acquired SOS Yachting, a multinational yacht charter financial agency that recently celebrated its tenth anniversary.

SOS Yachting was established in 2012 to provide financial representation services for EU and non-EU yachtowning companies that charter within the EU. The company manages more than 600 regular worldwide customers and has offices in France, Spain, Italy, and Croatia with plans to open a fifth in Monaco.

Decision

Sailing will not be reinstated for the LA28 Paralympic Games. The International Paralympic Committee’s governing board made the decision after assessing applications from International Federations wanting a place. The decision has been met with dismay from the RYA which has been working to reinstate the sport into the games. Other events are including Paralympic sailing with the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships the first championship event.

boot Düsseldorf 2023 saw nearly 237,000 visitors from more than 100 countries with more than 1,500 exhibitors from 68 nations on 220,000sqm in 16 exhibition halls.

The exhibition was forced to take a three-year break due to the Covid pandemic, and organisers say despite this and the difficult general conditions, the show was a success.

“We would not have dreamt of this outcome. boot has finally reached calm waters and is once again firmly anchored in its Düsseldorf home port,” said boot director Petros Michelidakis.

“The visits paid to exhibitors were incredibly good, viewing appointments on the boats completely booked up and the companies reported a large number of boat and accessory sales.”

Speaking on behalf of the German Marine Federation, MD Karsten Stahlhut summed up the situation in the industry: “Due to the ongoing crises since 2020 and two cancelled boot shows