Sustainable Composite Boats? It's an interesting question. Accepting the
argument that traditional GRP material requires less energy than steel or
aluminium to produce and reduces the amount of waste toxic gases, we still
need to consider the adoption of 'Eco Composites'. Great improvements have
been made in this area, however the most important thing we need to push as
an industry is making this technology a commercially viable option,
otherwise it will never be utilised widely enough to make a difference.

Thankfully the approval by class societies of PET cores, Bio resins and
hopefully soon more wide spread use of organic fibres will turn this dream
into a reality.  Add into the mix, hybrid, electric, hydrogen and sail power
to highly efficient hull forms alongside strides being made in composite
recycling and we are really getting somewhere.     

FISH are passionate about this topic and understand our role in it.  We
need to push to evolve technologies until they are considered industry
standard.  Utilising sophisticated and highly detailed 3D modelling, we
build a fully fitted out virtual boat and analyse both the vessel and the
build process before any materials or workshop hours are committed. Finding
and solving problems within the software is cheaper, quicker and better than
exhausting raw materials.  

Consideration of build methods, materials selection and propulsion
alternatives early in the design process is imperative to the optimisation
of our designs. With projects and studies utilising hybrid and electric
drive trains on our books we are proud of the steps we are taking and our
continuing evolution.  

So, sustainable composite boats, we have some way to go, but at FISH we
plan to do our bit and things are changing fast.