most environmental conscious construction?

[nemier]

Please forgive me if this has been discussed previously.
What type of boat construction is the most environmentally friendly?
grp, wood, composite, cold molded, steel, aluminum, carbon fibre, etc, etc
Your thoughts??

[sailingdog]

Define environmentally friendly? Do you mean which boat causes the least in carbon emissions? Do you mean which boat is most easily recyclable? Do you mean which boat is biodegradeable and will not leave long-lasting remnants behind when it is disposed of?

Your question is so broad as to be basically unanswerable IMHO.

[danjarch]

You can add in whether the boat is produced by a big production boat company, is a one off design built by a professional or is built by an ameture.

[Allanbc]

Maybe it was that boat built our of plastic bottles, AKA the Junk Raft, that sailed from California to Hawaii. On the other hand, they lost a bunch of the bottles on the way so it might not count.

[nemier]

Dog & Danjarch,
I mean all of what you say. Encompass all of it.
I want to know which sailboat construction will leave the least "environmental" impact on our wonderful world, all factors combined.
For some reason which I can't expalin, this is suddenly important to me.
I will be purchasing a sailboat in the very near future and would like to consider God's creation - our world (better late than never)
What say you Dude?

[sailingdog]

Nemier—

As I said in my reply above... your question is so vague as to be unanswerable. The variables between the different construction methods and materials required for building a sailboat using them makes defining which is the most environmentally friendly very difficult. For instance, building a steel sailboat requires that you mine, refine and manufacture steel plates to make the hull. Can you really say that this is more or less environmentally friendly than cutting down trees and shaving them into the thin strips that would be required for making a cold-molded wooden boat or the manufacturing processes for making the fiberglass and resin used in a GRP boat?

Assuming all the boats are roughly the same size and use the same common components—winches, spars, line, etc...so that the only difference in them is the hull and the construction methods and materials used to build the hull... you'd still have far too many variables to say which is the least environmentally damaging. For instance... is the steel virgin steel or recycled? Recycled steel is far less damaging to the environment, but often less useful since it can have contaminants, like copper, in the alloy that make it less suitable for specific uses.

[bljones]

papier mache using recycled newspaper and biodegradable paste, construct frames, knees, stringers and decking from reclaimed lumber from dead chris-crafts and trojans.

[Architeuthis]

The one not built.

Otherwise it is the one built with the least amount of energy, likely wood if new. If you want to use trash use sheets of Aluminum, left over from larger construction jobs. Call it recycling or reusing and then you can feel good about it.

[mdbee]

How many people really care? Sorry, although I believe in keeping the environment clean, I'm not going to put my money in some POS just because some left wing wacko in LA or SF thinks it's the "environmental" thing to buy.

Maybe sticking a mast on a stinkpot and removing the twin engines would be the best answer to your question.

Originally Posted by nemier

Please forgive me if this has been discussed previously.
What type of boat construction is the most environmentally friendly?
grp, wood, composite, cold molded, steel, aluminum, carbon fibre, etc, etc
Your thoughts??

[mdbee]

I should go out and watch "Avatar" and then go hug one of the trees in my backyard. I'm not sure what came over me.

Really need to get out of the house....

Originally Posted by mdbee

How many people really care? Sorry, although I believe in keeping the environment clean, I'm not going to put my money in some POS just because some left wing wacko in LA or SF thinks it's the "environmental" thing to buy.

Maybe sticking a mast on a stinkpot and removing the twin engines would be the best answer to your question.