RESINS & GLUES
Processes are changing too. Resins and vacuum infusion is notoriously wasteful, as excess resin cannot be reused, and the plastic sheeting for the infusion bagging is also single-use. While this is hard to get around, Spirit Yachts has switched vacuum bagging material to DTC’S carbon-neutral vacuum bag/bleed film and breather cloth. ‘This is actually cheaper than the product we were using before and buying it in bulk helps too,’ added Gooderham. Even the pots in which the resin is mixed, which used to be used once and thrown away, are saved and the epoxy removed once set and then reused multiple times.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
‘Our boats do contain synthetic resins – we exclusively use the West System with their 105 epoxy, and they are always working hard on meeting the latest standards and finding ways of reducing the product’s environmental impact. We use epoxy to create laminated shapes, to glue veneers in place, and when sheathing the hulls. While these resins are not bio products, there is very little of them in our boats compared to a moulded GRP boat. In theory, at the end of the boat’s life, it wouldn’t be difficult to remove this outer skin and to recycle the rest of the boat. In 30 years of Spirit Yachts, however, none of our boats have ever been scrapped. Being predominantly made of wood, they are infinitely repairable, which GRP boats are not, and they would also be easier to break down and dispose of.’
Swallow Yachts in Wales has also been experimenting with bio-resins, and has adopted them fairly widely on board already. Matt Newland explained, ‘We build our wood epoxy Whisper 300 with bio resins, which give a slightly more favourable life cycle assessment measure. We use West Pro-set on the inside of the boat where we find it sets perfectly well in areas not exposed to UV, though we still use standard post-cured West System epoxy on the outside of the boat where a UV resistant and stable base is needed.’
Rather than specifically organic materials, RM Yachts is focusing on recyclable resins. ‘The next industrial development in wooden boat building in the future will most certainly be the use of thermoplastic resins in order to recycle boats in a more responsible manner. That will certainly reduce the impact of the raw materials, the recycling process, and therefore our company operations,’ said Dohy.
These are resins that can be heated to effectively ‘melt’ the resin out of the reinforcing fibres, leaving both undamaged and in their original state. Beneteau Group has trialled this technology, building the new Beneteau First 44 and the Jeanneau Sun Fast 30 One Design in recyclable Elium resin, made by Arkea.