Clean Sailors podcast

During the 1950s, glass fibre reinforced polyester (GRP/FRP/fibreglass) composites displaced wood as the material of choice for boats as it permitted easier manufacture, smoother hydrodynamic surfaces and significantly reduced the maintenance costs.

Such materials revolutionised not just the production of vessels, leisure in particular, but also the accessibility of boating to a much wider audience. However, the durability of the composite materials is now becoming an issue given that many boats are no longer required and disposal is not trivial.

In this episode, podcast host, Holly, is joined by two teams changing the way boats are built. Listen in to hear how material science is revolutionising recyclability in boat-building with a view to solve the end-of-life problem, with guests Alessandro Stagni from NL Comp and Patrick Pacchetti from RECARBON.

Sails, like many things, have a long history. From papyrus leaves or animal hide rigged to catch the wind to today's highly complex highly engineered sail cloth, designed to withstand some of the toughest environments on our planet. With no formal recycling for end-of-life sails, anywhere in the world, we speak with Dede De Luca, Co-founder and CEO of OneSails, on the evolution of sail technology, why end-of-life materials are so complicated, and his top tips for looking after our sails.

Did you know that each year, in the UK alone, we flush more than 22,000 tonnes of glue down our loos? Each time we flush toilet paper, we are potentially adding thousands of microplastics to our waters. Joining our host, Holly, is Dave Hamlet, Managing Director of Tanki, the glue-free toilet roll , to discuss the makings of toilet roll, the impact of our daily flushes on our waters and how a simple switch by us all, on land and at sea, can help lessen our impact.

It’s easy to think that all fish belong in the sea. But not all fish belong in all parts of the sea….

Threatening local ecosystems, disrupting and at times eradicating other species entirely and even disrupting economies, our boats, large and small, can transport different creatures around our waters, and at times, across whole oceans.

In this episode, we’ll be looking how species spread across our planet, just what this costs us and how the warming of our oceans is likely to make this even more pronounced..

Joining our host, Holly, is marine spatial ecologist and all-round conservation superstar, Dr Alexandra Davies. She is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta and a true expert on this very matter.

'Microplastics' - we've all heard of them and over the last two years alone, have become aware of just how pervasive these tiny pieces of plastic are within our environment, and our human bodies… In this episode, we speak with Dr. Christopher Pham and Dr. Roman Lehner, two eminent scientists who study the very topic of microplastics, to help us better understand the plastic soup upon which we sail, soup we can’t see so well from above the waterline. Focusing on our recent sailing expedition mid-Atlantic, around the plastic-rich waters of the Azores, we look at how microplastics are created, just how far they have got, and Dr. Lehner’s pioneering research on how they may be interacting with our very cell structures…

For thousands of years, we've been building boats. We began, and indeed continued for centuries, with wood, but since the mass-commercialisation of plastic since the late 1940's, we've been making boats from glass or fibre-reinforced plastics.

Building new boats this way is carbon-intensive plus there is little, if any, formal process in the world for these huge plastic hulls when they come to the end of their lives.

In this episode, we speak with Friedrich Deimann and his Co-Managing Director, Jan Paul Schirmer, of Greenboats - a German-based team with big ambitions, building boats in a cleaner and more efficient way.

Our emission of greenhouse gases, namely significant amounts of Co2 over several hundred years, is altering our climate. We often turn to trees and replanting vegetation, Green Carbon, as the opportunity to recapture carbon from our atmosphere, but coastal ecosystems are exceptionally apt at carbon capture and storage, too - almost more effective than the Green Carbon counterpart.

In this episode we speak with Lucy McMahon, Marine and Coastal Scientist and ocean optimist, about Blue Carbon; what it means, how effective our Blue ecosystems are at moderating our planetary climate, and why we need to protect them.

With studies showing that traditional antifoul paint on the bottom of our boats is contributing extraordinary amounts of chemicals and microplastics to our waters, the case for biocide-free and paint-free solutions is high. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Rik Breur, winner of the European Inventor Award 2019, material scientist and founder of revolutionary antifoul product, Finsulate, about why we should care about our bottoms and how nature inspired his solution to this ocean pollution problem.

Being on our boats we are living directly in one of THE MOST important ecosystems on our planet, alongside an array of habitats and hosts of species and marine fauna. It makes sense, then, that what we do on and around the water has a pretty immediate impact on the health of our oceans.

In this episode we speak with Angus Johnston, Co-founder of Ecoworks, about ‘greywater’ and what it means when most drains lead to the sea...

There are few things more spectacular when out on the water than sighting dolphins and whales. These awesome creatures aren't just profoundly intelligent, they keep the balance of many of our global ecosystems in check.

In this episode, host Holly is joined by Liz Sandeman of Marine Connection and Katie Dyke of WDC, to discuss the important of whales and dolphins - from their personalities to the alarming impacts we are having on these ancient species, and how us sailors, seafarers, mariners and water-appreciators can help safeguard their future.

For more about Clean Sailors, Marine Connection and WDC, see the links below:

Clean Sailors: https://cleansailors.com

Marine Connection: https://marineconnection.org

Whales and Dolphins Conservation: https://uk.whales.org