"Green" practices for spring boat work?
24/04/09 21:07 Filed in: Environment
| Sailing
Around the region, boaters are beginning the endless work of preparing a boat for the season--work that only seems to end on November 1, when the boat is, sigh, put back to bed for the winter. Some are working on the hard in marinas and shipyards. Others are doing their painting, varnishing, sanding, tarring and so on dockside where the likelihood of unintentional spills and debris ending up in the water is, unfortunately, high.
The materials around the dock and the boat are many and can be an unwelcome addition to our ocean--oil, paint thinner, turpentine, paint, le tonkinois, pine tar, tape, plastic. And it can happen in a variety of ways: The winds pick up and materials blow into the water; you are balanced precariously on a walking rope or aloft in the rigging and the paintbrush you are using falls into the harbor; or a bucket that held paint thinner fills with rain water and you dump it over the side. Even sanding can be problematic. We sanded our spars today, and a thin coat of sawdust surrounded the water around the dock. On the surface this may seem okay--it's wood, an organic substance--but we're sanding to remove a layer of varnish, a chemical that isn't so organic.
We so often don't think about the consequences of our actions; we act on auto pilot intent on getting the work done. But with stories of chemicals found in the systems of fish and the dramatic patch of plastic plaguing the Pacific, we should think about some ways to minimize our impact when doing work dockside, in particular.
Here are some simple ideas as a start:
(1) Periodically check around your work area to make sure anything that might blow away is properly weighted down.
(2) When painting/varnishing/tarring over the water carry a few extra rags to wipe up those pesky drips.
(3) Spend an extra five minutes planning out a project--sometimes the easiest way to complete a task isn't always the greenest. (4) Dispose of all liquids properly--that means the can with paint thinner in which your paint brushes are soaking should not go over the side. Nor should the bucket with rainwater and an unknown substance!
(5) At the end of the day, make sure all lids are sealed tightly and that everything is put away in a place where there is no possibility of it spilling or being knocked over.
I also came across the following:
(1) Eco-friendly paint from Ecological Coatings
(2) "Clean boating practices and good marine stewardship"
(3) From the greenboatblog.com: Encourage your marina to go green
(4) The Clean Marina Initiative from NOAA
I'm looking for more "green" ideas or marinas who are promoting good practices among boaters so send them along!
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