Hi, I’m Paul Germaine and welcome to another session of smart boating. As you know, if you watched the show before we cover a wide variety of topics from hurricane protection to man overboard. And the general idea is to provide you with some information that will help you make smarter decisions

and have more fun in the water. Today’s show is going to be right up that alley where we’re going to talk about going boating green and joining me is a very knowledgeable guy in that area. His name is Steve Lauber. Welcome, Steve. Hi, Paul. Good to see you, Steve. We got a really cool show here

this morning, this whole uh area being environmentally sensitive, going green. Uh Now, before we get into the show, can you share with people a little bit about your background and the environmental area and in the boating area? Sure, Paul uh in my day job as a module of building contractor, I’ve been involved in making buildings green environmental

design for quite some time. In fact, 15 years ago, I achieved lead A P status and lead A P is an accreditation program by the US Green Building Council that promotes the safe practices and efficient practices of modular building construction and certifies buildings as being green. A lot of those principles for building buildings also apply

to boating. And so basically, they focus on reducing waste, environmentally, responsible practices and reducing our carbon footprint of our environment on the and on the water. Ok. All right. So you’ve been involved in that for quite a long time and you’re a boater as well. right. I am, I’ve been

boating since I was in diapers. And, uh, in that perspective, I’ve seen a lot of changes in the marine environment and it adds to the importance of providing, um, providing environmentally responsible practices. Yeah. Good point. Good point. All right. Well, you’ve got just the right background for the show today. So, why don’t we get right into

it? Sounds great. Well, Steve, you know, this whole area of, uh, environmentally being environmentally sensitive and alert to that is a global effort right now as you know, you know, and it comes, it comes home to me because I look to, in my neighborhood to the right of me, neighbors use electric lawn

mower across the street, electric vehicle. Ah, I, I talk to people that were clothings made or recycle fiber. So it’s, it’s just, it’s in everyone’s world right now and I think it’s gradually making itself into the marine world. Now, when we think about boats, the first thing would be, um, people

making the boats out of certain materials and we’ve got some materials here that people are familiar with. Right. This is a aluminum, so aluminum is a very popular material in terms of being environmentally sensitive when you’re manufacturing boats. Doesn’t it? Very much? So? In fact, uh, we’re all familiar with recycling steel and aluminum. Uh, in fact, about

80% of the materials uh that are metal in boats are from recycled material. Uh It’s very common. So um it’s certainly uh something that the effects of recycling these materials reduces the effect on the environment, right? Most boats are made of fiberglass, but there’s certainly some uh resins that are more ecologically uh appropriate. And uh some of

the matting material is also being made out of recycled material. And I read that and using these flax fibers, uh in addition to different types of resin, there’s another alternative materials, they’re really pushing that envelope a lot in terms of what materials can we recycle with minimum uh with maximum efficiency, I guess is what I’m saying.

Absolutely. And the manufacturing process is also embracing uh green sustainable design with the use of low voc paints and adhesives uh by controlling waste. Uh and certainly just reducing the the general footprint of uh manufacturing of boats used to be able to smell manufacturing facilities for boats miles away. And they’re

really improving in that respect. And they use this process called vacuum bagging now, right, where they basically uh insert the part and then they wrap basically plastic around, they suck the air out. Right. That’s exactly one of the techniques that’s been a big advancement because as they’re

laying up the hull, they suck the air out of the, of the, uh, and all that. Right. And it has a twofold effect. One, it makes better product and impres the wrapping a little bit better. But also you draw that, um, those vapors out and you can filter them before expelling them into the

environment. Right. Right. Ok. So manufactures a thing about materials. They’re thinking about improving their current techniques. How about in the area of like uh boat design? You know, some people feel like a uh tri tri home may be more efficient than a mono hall. Uh foils. Different people around the world are fooling around with foils, let’s cook

in that area. Well, there’s been huge advancements in Holden design, the stepped hall and, and drive systems just to reduce the friction, the drag of pushing a boat through the water. So these high efficiency monohull designs, multi hulls have been recognized really for a long period of time to

improve speed in racing, uh seamanship and also uh just being more efficient to push the boat through the water with less horsepower. But you mentioned the foiling and that’s a relatively new development and it started out with just small boats. But now actually larger and commercial boats are embracing this foiling type in fact, in Europe there’s

a whole fleet of taxis, water taxis that are large foiling boats that move these people efficiently from port to port for very little fuel and very comfortably. Yeah. Yeah, I think foiling is a part of the future, quite frankly. Well, Steve, you know, there’s some exciting things going on in boat

manufacturing and design, that sort of thing and that’s equally true in the propulsion side of things. We’re in a little inflatable here with a, I guess, a four stroke on it, right. Yamaha four stroke. But there’s a quite a variety here at the dock of two strokes and four strokes. But there’s a general

migration to four strokes and that’s because they share some similarities with car engines. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Gone are the days of the smoky loud two stroke engines. They were inefficient and the cloud of blue smoke that would follow you was just a sign of bad environmental practices. So, manufacturers like Yamaha Mercury Suzuki, they’ve all

come out with highly efficient four stroke engines and like car engines, we’ve become more fuel efficient and better for the environment every single day. So we really have seen some tremendous advancements and um even more efficient than an internal combustion engine. Are these new electric motors?

That’s the latest. So, uh why don’t we go take a look at those? That sounds good. Ok. Well, Steve, ah, electric motors are becoming more and more popular with the smaller boats in particular and we’ve got one on the, on the back of this inflatable. Can you tell us a little bit about it? Sure.

Paul, ah, this one happens to be made by e propulsion. There’s other ones out there. Torquato Mercury has one. and there are extremely, um, uh, bo boating friendly. I mean, they’re, they’re certainly quiet. This one happens to be a one kilowatt kilowatt. How many horse power is that? It equates to about

three horse power, but they’re very torque. And so in a boat like this, it moves it along quite well. Yeah, that’s the thing with an electric motor, right? An electric motor has a very flat torque curve in contrast to a gasoline engine which peaks, this went to hit it. It’s going to be that solid

pushing power all the way through the, the, uh, a band if you will, the power was immediate. It’s very lightweight. It only weighs about 40 pounds altogether, but actually the battery does disengage from the drive unit which makes it even easier to have and it’s just simple enough

to take it off and you can carry it to your station, um, and carry it separately from the propulsion unit itself. Makes it very easy at hand. That’s pretty cool. Now, now, how far will it go on a charge in general? Well, it really depends on the speed. Um, this is a 1300 watt hour battery.

Oh, Yeah. Yeah, we’ll recharge in about four hours when it’s plugged in current. So you bring it home if you want. Right? Or dockside, if you have an out do four hours, you said about about four hours from dead to full charge or a nice alternative is solar power. That is a good alternative.

Especially when we’re on that theme today. Right. Well, when you’re, uh, if you have it at the dock for an exterior, an extended period of time or you’re cruising, you hook one of these power panels up to it and it would take about 10 or 12 hours to recharge. It’s like a trickle charge.

Yeah, like a trickle charge. And the nice thing about it is that power is free. That is a nice thing about it. Now, I just asked you a question in the range. That’s a very popular subject in people’s minds. They look at car, they say, well,

how far can I go in it? You know, it seems to be like 300 miles, seems to be a general figure for cars. Once we either trickle charge this to the solar adapter here, solar panel or take it home. Um, what’s sort of range is that a reflection

of, ah, the speed at which you’re operating at? It really is very much related to the pace at which you’re going. And what’s nice about a boat is you have the option of going slow, uh, where you may not on a, on a car on a highway. So the range of uh this particular unit uh is about

uh 50 miles. If you’re going very slow, uh say at just over idle speed, uh if you want to go faster, the range dramatically decreases. So if you run at say 80% power, which we’re used to running our marine engines at your range drops to about 10 miles, ok? And maybe about an hour and a half of

full charge. But that’s still plenty of juice to get from the dock to your boat or from your boat to the beach or even small excursions right now. Is it start? All right now. Yeah, it’s, it can be started right up. They do it for us. All right. If you just plug in the battery and then with

one power on button and then it’ll beep and that’s, it’s on. Although you can’t tell. And it’s just a simple, uh, forward or reverse. Does it have a lock or something? Oh, I see. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s, uh, one way is reverse like that. Yeah. And the other way is forward. Very simple.

Couldn’t be quiet as a mouse. Well, which is nice. Um, not only for enjoying the, the, the ride as you go, but if you’re fishing it’s perfectly quiet. You don’t have to start and stop it. And, uh, it’s really a nice power. Very select what I like about it. Is too. When you go to store it, you

can put it in the bulge of your boat in the cabinet at any angle. Ah, you don’t have to worry about leaking oil and gas. It starts right up every time. Even when it’s been sitting a long period of time, your battery may drain a little bit over time. When you top it off, it’ll start right up.

Uh, so I, I really like the operational aspects of it as well as the environmental aspects of it. Uh, you know, the other thing too, um, about these is they are, um, they’re very much this, the wind and the waves is all you hear. You know, you’re not hearing an engine. And so, uh, you’re,

you’re going at a modest pace and, uh, it’s a, it’s a very nice way to travel. I can see that. Very cool. Well, you know, um, there’s a small intrusion of ecologically friendly products coming on the market for boaters. You know, I was in the marine store the other day and, you know, for each category

there might have been six items and maybe one was eco friendly, but it’s a start. Right. So I thought would just show a couple that people may not be aware of. Here’s a bilge cleaner. Yeah, these are, these are low impact, um, environmentally responsible products. They contain less

of the organic solvents than in the past. The VO CS, which is the stuff that’s really harmful for the marine environment, particularly something with the bilge cleaning. Yeah, because likely the residue from this is gonna end up pumped overboard into the ocean, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s one again, I wanna make a note that we’re showing

products. These are just samples, but it’s the concept behind them. There’s not the specific manufacturer that we’re talking about. Right. Right. And both boat washes and waxes are again, something that you’re gonna be applying to the hull, likely washing it down, washing it off and you know where that

goes. So low impact, uh, solvents and materials are very important. Yeah. Yeah. How about this one? This is a head treatment. It’s another aspect to where a boat gets used. Yeah, head treatment. Absolutely. We’ll talk about that in a little bit. But, you know, certainly these are things that

you’re going to be, not only putting in your bills but you’re going to be smelling. So, you know, the human interaction with chemical, like this is important to keep the, uh, the impact low. Ok. All right. This is one that I’m not very familiar with called barnacle Buster and as opposed to, I guess,

bust the barnacles in the internal systems, uh, mechanicals, the engine, that sort of thing. Yeah. And, and these are replacing some particularly nasty chemicals they used to use these acid washes which were effective. But boy, were they harsh on the environment? So, an environmentally responsible one is a huge advancement in

the green, uh, boating community. Ok. All right. So that’s a good thing for people to look for. This one here is for mildew. And, you know, again, if you wrap a boat all winter season, there’s bound to be mildew. And, and so a lot of people are cleaning mildew in their boats and this

can make them in tune with environmental movement. Right. Absolutely. So, uh, chlorine or chlorinated products were typically used for mildew removal. Uh, they’re harsh. Um, they’re hazardous to breathe in and they can interact with other chemicals. So, something that is uh, sort of chlorine free, such as this one is a huge advancement. Big advancement.

Yeah. Yeah. So, so there’s a lot of different opportunities there and then, you know, another thing that most people are going to think of sooner or later is paint and, and paint historically has used copper bottom paint has used copper to kill organisms. It’s very effective. But the problem is,

it’s got some drawbacks. Right. Absolutely. And, and copper is very effective as a bio sign. It, it kills all kinds of, uh, marine animals and plants, which is why it works so well that deoul in your home. However, that is leaching off during the course of the season and ending up collecting on the

seed bed. So, something like these copper free paints, although there is a bit of a premium to pay for them. They are just as effective and much safer for the environment. Right. Right. Right. And there’s a lot of different manufacturers that make them not just this one, but the, the, the concept

is getting the copper out of there to coexist with the local ecosystem. Right. That’s right. Because it, believe me, the, the fish or the marine life. Ah, well, thank you as well as the oysters that we’re trying to introduce into the Manchester Harbor. Good point. Well, Steve, you know, there’s a lot of

interesting ways these days, ah, a boater can participate in making things, ah, ecologically safe. And, ah, well, there may be some ideas they’re not even aware of and one of them is that you’re holding an led light set up there. Can you tell us a little bit about that and how that

might fit into this whole picture? Sure. Uh, led lighting is really state of the art in terms of illumination on the water. Uh, whether you’re adding accessory lights or you’re retrofitting your existing lighting package on your boat. Led. S are the way to go. Yeah, they draw 1/10 of the power.

They are, ah, very bright. They burn for thousands of hours before you have to replace them. And best of all, I think is the safety factor. They are very cool. Whereas Halogen’s incandescents, throw off a lot of heat and they’re fire hazards. Le D’s burn very cool. So, it’s much safer as far as

as far as uh operation and ecologically sound. Well, here’s one that a lot of people might not have thought about flares, some kind of shock to me. Quite frankly, I was in the marines draw the other day and it says here that uh they’re made of a

e eco friendly uh formula for easy disposal. So it’s one of those aspects of boating. You may not automatically think of flare ecologically conscious, but the new flares are designed to have less impact on the environment, right? That’s quite an advancement because flares typically use phosphorus, which is quite bright, it’s also quite toxic. And these are advertised

as being actually brighter and better for the environment. So that’s neat. That’s something that’s another corner of the marine store. A boater can look in to find something that would help him be environmentally sensitive. It’s a great idea. Well, Steve, once you get the, some of the preliminaries squared away in the spring CCC commissioning process, you know,

whether that’s uh we’re using Tarps year to year or uh putting on the right bottom paint or whatever it might be. Um There’s some things to remember when you’re operating during the season. Uh And one of them seems to me that uh you have to recognize the fact that the, the newer motors are set up

differently. No more carburetors, fuel injection. So you don’t need to start them up and run them for any time, do you? No That’s exactly right. Uh, the boat engines that you have on your boat are very similar, in some cases identical to the boats, uh, edges you have in your car. So there

really is no start up. Right. You start them up and you drive otherwise you’re just waiting fuel and you’re having emissions. That’s right. So, it’s also important to keep them tuned up. So, not every season, but certainly, um, keep an eye on things, make sure they’re up to specification

and do regular tune ups every other year. In some cases they keep them in tune. Another thing that the people might be able to bear in mind is if they look at a boating report, they show the efficiency of the engine at different speeds. For example,

if an engine Rx is out at 6000 R PM, it’s going to be a whole lot more economical, but uh exponential figure at 2,806,000. So, so people could make a conscious choice to, to cruise at something less than wider if they want to have a good environmental impact. Yeah, absolutely. There’s a lot of

data available on specific models and engine cap movement packages where they’re the most efficient and like you say, they’re usually just above idle speed or just up on a plane so that your selection of speed drastically affects the efficiency of your boat and the gas mileage. So, in fact,

you can get about three times the MPG if you idle back a little bit and at the same time it’s more comfortable. Yeah, you see more and you’re just saving fuel in the environment. Right. Right. Right. So, that’s a good practice. Easy to do. Um, another thing of course is if you give a little

forethought to where you’re going that afternoon, you can make a route. Uh, that doesn’t crisscross. Uh, so that is an easy thing to do. How about, uh, you know, we’ve still got some engines in the bilge and some engines that lead into the bilge, whether through the hydraulic steering, whatever

it might be. Ah, what’s your thought there in terms of, are there ways to protect the environment in that area? Yeah, absolutely. And something on your checklist before you start your engine and after you come back from your trip is to look in the bulge. You know, it’s just good practices mechanically

and ecologically look for leaks, you know, oils, coolants, other things and collect in the bulge will be obvious when you look down in there. If you have an inboard engine, I recommend putting an absorbent pad under the, under the oil pan. Ok. So that you can see any leaks and also, uh, contain any leaks

before your b bump kicks on and discharges all that overboard? Right. Well, Steve, you know, an aspect of environmental protection, of course, would be associated with the plumbing in the head of the boat, ah, we’re actually on a pump out boat right now, right. Yeah. How does that whole thing work?

And how can people integrate into their boating to, to be safe in that area? Well, the head is an obvious source of discharge. Ah, and so, uh, the coast guard allows you to discharge when you’re three miles offshore. But instead of going three miles offshore and pumping out your, uh, waste

tank, best practices are to take advantage of the pump out services by marinas and by pump out boats, the service is completely free. In fact, the pump out boat will come to your boarding and pump out the boat for you. It’s all subsidized by the US fish and wildlife service. And so it’s free to

boaters. Nice, nice, nice. So that’s an important aspect, easy, easy to take advantage, but make a big difference in the environment. Uh, we’ve got a couple of things here, a couple of plastic bottles here. These are what the people often times refer to them as a single use. You know, they crack the

cap and then, and a big source of, uh, potion could be people, one using them and throwing away at home or one using them two, using them and throwing them overboard. Right. Yeah. And as hard as that is to understand why people would just throw something overboard. It happens more than you think.

In fact, there’s a lot of footage of these massive floating waste islands out in the middle of the ocean even. And this stuff takes a long time to degrade decades to degrade. And so it’s very irresponsible and it’s just as easy to be conscientious voters and dispose of them

properly. Right. Right. Good point. In fact, there’s a lot of manufacturers that are collecting that waste out in the ocean and turning it into consumer products like this bathing suit is made from a company that collects plastics from the ocean and turns it into fabric. Yeah, and I’ve got some shorts here too. The same thing, recycled uh

clothing. So that’s a great way to save and have some clothing at the same time. Here’s another thing that uh someone could use if they ever want to be ecologically friendly. Um It’s a, it’s a chiller pack. So the contrast to this uh is a big plastic bag with a lot of ice cubes

in it. And when all the ice cubes melt again, you get a big plastic bag to do with something. Here, you use it, you put in your cooler, you bring it home, you, you chill it again, you can use it again, right? So you’re not dumping that either in the water or on land, right? You’re, you’re

saving water, you’re saving the single use plastics that you would have with associated with ice cubes. Right? Here’s another example. Again, things people may not have thought about. That’s a multi use piece of plastic. So in contrast to a single use like this, this is designed feature wise and durability wise to be used multiple times. Right.

Right. And the adage from hiking and camping, you pack it in, you pack it out, so you take this with you, you bring it home and use it. Right. Right. It’s a good way to go. Well, Steve, you know, there’s a lot of things an individual boater can do to have a positive impact on the local aquatic

environment. Um How about those that surround them in this uh general boating scene th and people like that work for retailers or boat yards and that sort of thing. Yeah, that’s a good point. And boaters um you know, have control over what they do individually, but there’s also an influential

uh aspect to it where marinas and, and retailers are a consumer driven organization. So if you make a practice of requesting the types of products that we violated today and the type of practices they will start carrying those things just in the last few years, I’ve seen some major retailers

stocking the shelves with these products that used to be hard to find and they’re bringing the Delta, the premium paid for these products more in line with the conventional products. Um in boatyards and marinas, they’re able to achieve this green um clean Marina certification which reduces their insurance rates and it’s really the practices of them

reducing the waste using better products and other environmentally sound practices. So individual voters shouldn’t be shy about and lending their voice to their local infrastructure to help promote the whole movement if you will, for sure. Yes. Well, Steve, it’s hard to believe but, uh, it’s time to wrap up the show today and it’s really covered

a lot of ground, you know, from uh what different materials both can be made of the different designs, the different ah, operating speed can have on the performance of the boat. Uh things you can do pump out 11 use of plastics. A lot of, a lot of stuff that people can do to brighten the environmental

outlook. Um Is there anything you’d like to add before we close out the show today? Well, Paul, I just wanted to thank you for bringing some visibility to this very important topic. It’s in the news every day about global warming, sea level rise and people always think what is it I can do about that? Can

I be proactive in helping out in that regard? And I think we’ve covered a lot of that today um with the products that are coming on the market with the type of practices that we can employ as voters, we can really collectively make a significant impact on the environment around us.

Absolutely. Well, thanks for joining me today. It’s been my pleasure and thank you Smart Boating viewers for joining us. If you have comments or questions or want to provide some input. Visit us at our website, www smart boating us.com. Thank you.