Explorer is very environmentally friendly

Explorer creates low CO₂ emissions during both production and use.

Why is CO₂ so important?

How does Explorer create low CO₂ emissions in use?

There are many recreational activities to pursue at weekends and holidays. Many of these involve motorised activities which emit CO₂. Explorer provides a means of recreation and travel which is completely zero-emission. She can be used to explore the coasts of the Britain and Ireland, and by coastal hopping, even the continent.

What about an outboard motor?

Explorer is designed to be seaworthy enough to ?go where big boats go?, yet small and light enough to row. Thanks to the Swing Bulb Keel, Explorer is very seaworthy for her size and weight, and is designed to go to windward effectively, for beating off a lee shore. Being light, she sails well in light airs. She is as manoeuvrable as a dinghy, so coming along-side can be done under sail. If there is no wind at all she is easily powered by oar. However if one should desire to fit an outboard motor, the necessary size and fuel economy of this will be optimal, and it will be used minimally, so the CO₂ emitted will still be very little.

How does Explorer create low CO₂ in production?

Quantity of manufacturing

Quantity of manufacturing is made up of size of items multiplied by frequency of rebuilding. Explorer is a micro-yacht, so requires much less manufacturing than a larger yacht. She is designed to last 25 years, but with careful maintenance wood can last beyond 100 years. Certainly wood-epoxy is proving very durable, but it has not been around long enough to really test its long-term potential.

Materials used

There are various materials available for boatbuilding, including metals, glass (fibres), concretes, plastics, Carbon, Kevlar and wood. Producing metals uses much more energy than producing wood, and the other materials range roughly in between.

Why is this?

Activities which emit most CO₂ are high energy processes using fossil fuels, involving melting, burning, heating, transporting and machining, roughly in that order. This includes making materials such as metals, glass, concrete and plastic, and difficult excavation. The least energy intensive material to obtain is wood, which also has the highest tensile strength-to-weight ratio of all materials except Carbon and Kevlar.

Why is wood so good?

Trees make wood, which is basically carbon, by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and emitting oxygen (the dioxide bit) - rather conveniently for us! Therefore wood is ‘locked up’ CO₂, absorbed from the atmosphere. If it is ‘sustainably grown’, then when one tree is chopped down, another is planted in its place, which continues to absorb CO₂.

What about Epoxy resin?

Epoxy resin is non-biodegradable. However, if the use of 5 litres of Epoxy causes the vessel to last two or three times longer than it would otherwise, there is a huge energy saving in manufacture of replacement vessels. This is deemed to reduce the craft?s overall impact on the environment.

Manufacturing techniques

Explorer is built by hand, using a minimum of power tools, so the emissions associated with her construction are very low.