Choosing Your Mothership

June-July 2004

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Sarah Verstegen

One thing leads to another. You’ve been enjoying paddling but keep regretting the limited range available in a day trip. Camping by kayak seems like too much work with all the extra gear to lug. Those boats that pass with kayaks on board look more appealing with each trip.

So you’ve decided to take the plunge and become the owner of a boat big enough to carry your kayak and be your home base in a wider range of exploration. Congratulations! May you enjoy your voyages. In the meantime, here are some suggestions for keeping your bigger boat voyages lower in impact.

PROPULSION

Before going into the choices of engines and their impact, take some time to decide whether a sailboat or powerboat makes better sense. One friend who lived on her sloop for years found herself cruising by auxiliary motor after a few years rather than raising sails very often. So before automatically deciding that you would like to keep your impact lower by buying a sailboat, take an honest look at your needs. If you love to sail and are as happy sailing as kayaking, it makes sense to have a sailboat. But if you end up using an old two stroke outboard engine instead of your sails to push your heavy, keeled boat most of the time, the environment would be better off if you had chosen a well tuned, maintained powerboat.

What engines are lower impact? There are a variety of choices. In general, diesel engines powering either a stern drive (inboard/outboard) or propeller (inboard) are more fuel efficient than their gasoline counterparts. If you intend to have your boat for many years, bio-diesel fuel may become more available for marine use. Bio-diesel fuel comes from vegetable oil rather than fossil fuels. You still put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but the carbon comes from recently harvested plants rather the ancient form released when fossil fuels are burned. That means you are not tipping the balance on the proportion of carbon dioxide in the air by flooding the current atmosphere with ancient carbon.

If you end up with an outboard motor, avoid older two stroke engines. These require the motor lubricating oil to be mixed with the gas. That means that the exhaust puts the left-over oil straight into the water. In fact, the exhaust may be as much as 25% of the fuel/oil mixture!

Many outboards use fuel tanks filled to 23 liters. Imagine five one-liter containers of gas and oil deposited in the water with each 23 liter tank of fuel burned. Then, decommission that engine and replace it with a four stroke motor or an oil-injected two stroke. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has created a rating system regarding engine emissions from one to four stars. One star engines have 75% lower emissions than conventional two stroke engines. Four star engines have 90% lower emissions than one star engines, and you can find them on inboards and stern drives as well.

Regardless of which sort of motor you run, be sure that it’s properly maintained. The more fuel consumed, the more exhaust goes into the water or air. And keep oil absorbing pads handy. Most bilge pumps turn on automatically. An oil absorbing pad kept in the bilge will absorb the oil and fuel that settles there. This way, when the pump turns on, the water goes overboard while the hydrocarbons stay in the pad. Pads are handy for wiping up hydrocarbon spills before they settle in the bilge too, so keep them ready whenever you fill your fuel tanks.

BASE CAMP

Having the comforts of home without having to camp may be what enticed you into having a mothership. Your on-board toilet (‘head’) is one of those comforts, but it you’re visiting sensitive spots, those ‘direct deposits’ have direct impacts.

You will eventually need either a holding tank or a treatment system called a marine sanitation device (MSD) on board. Holding tanks or MSDs are required in US waters. An increasing number of areas in the US are designated ‘No Discharge Zones’ where you can’t pump even treated sewage overboard. Laws in Canada are changing to require holding tanks here in a few years as well. Meanwhile, if the boat has a head that discharges straight overboard, use a portable toilet in lieu of that sort of loo when you’re in low current areas, shallow areas or most marinas. Holding tanks and portable toilets should be pumped out at a pump-out station. If you’re too far from a station, they should be discharged into a heavy current area. Before you pump overboard into a sweet little cove thinking it won’t matter since you’re the only one there, remember that yours is not the first or last vessel to visit. Anybody who swims or eats shellfish is trusting other boaters to be responsible regarding sewage discharge.

The grey water that comes out of your galley and shower can also be a problem depending on what you add to it. Pay attention to the soaps and cleansers you use. Fresh water fish die in chlorinated tap water. Chlorine hurts salt water species too and is found in many cleaning products, in even greater concentrations than in chlorinated tap water. Marine life is sensitive to many compounds that we routinely use such as dish soap and laundry detergent. Avoid use of any products containing chlorine or phosphates and substitute lemon juice, vinegar, salt or baking soda. Even with a no-phosphate dish soap, keep your use to a minimum, because the surfactants that create suds cause damage to the gills of fish.

GARBAGE SERVICE

This is where a backpacker or paddler can carry over their waste ethic to the mothership. If you bring it in, expect to bring it back out. If it came out of the sea, you can return the remnants to the sea. Otherwise, it should go back to shore for proper recycling, composting or disposal. Since you’ll probably travel further and longer in your mothership than in your kayak, you’ll accumulate more garbage and recyclables. Fortunately, you’ll also have more room to carry them home with you—many remote communities are unable to take boaters’ trash. Rinse, compact and bag what you can. Set aside a place in your lazarette or a locker to store it until you return to ‘civilization’.

That should get you started. There is much more to learn as you go, like what to do about bottom paint. Our Guide to Green Boating provides much more information for reducing your impact on the water. You can get a hard copy to keep on board so you can look up the closest pump-out station location or what to use to clean your chrome. You can also find the Guide on the web at www.georgiastrait.org. Meanwhile, bon voyage and may your wake be green.

She can be reached at sarah@georgiastrait.org.`

For GSA’s Guide to Green Boating, click on the link at www.georgiastrait.org.