Like medical students working on cadavers, Bristol Marine techs are collecting data as they dismantle boats

Dying boats are part of an environmental research project

By Scott Pickering
Posted 10/20/17

Forgotten, abandoned and never again to feel the gentle lap of waves, or the cool lift of ocean breezes, a collection of once-proud boats lie strewn about a Franklin Street lot.

To the passerby, …

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Like medical students working on cadavers, Bristol Marine techs are collecting data as they dismantle boats

Dying boats are part of an environmental research project

Posted

Forgotten, abandoned and never again to feel the gentle lap of waves, or the cool lift of ocean breezes, a collection of once-proud boats lie strewn about a Franklin Street lot.

To the passerby, it may appear the work of vandals run amuck, the wreckage of a mini-tornado, or total neglect of duties from the Bristol Marine caretakers. It is none of the above.

The overturned, broken boats are part of an ongoing research project to help boats die a better death.

When older boats reach a certain stage of life, their owners face difficult choices — pay to repair or update them, pay to store them, pay to haul and launch them — where the required investment may exceed the value of the boat itself. So they are sometimes abandoned.

“These boats have exhausted their useful life,” said Bristol Marine president Andy Tyska. “The owners can’t sell them, they can’t give them away, and they can’t afford to keep them any longer … Similar to boatyards all around the bay, these boats get left with us. The owners abandon them.”

Once things of beauty, the abandoned boats are elaborate piles of environmentally sensitive materials: fiberglass, metals, hoses, plastics, electronics. Often, they end up getting hauled to the landfill.

“Every time I see one of these boats break up, it bothers me. I’ve seen it so many times that I’ve gotten over the ‘the dream is dead’ feeling, but I haven’t gotten past the realization that these things are going to sit in a landfill.”

According to Mr. Tyska, the remains of dying boats is a problem other countries have addressed, such as France and Germany. They’ve come up with plans to recycle and reuse the boat parts. That has not been done in the U.S. yet.

Dismantling and documenting

Bristol Marine is doing what it normally does, breaking apart the boats to dispose of the parts, but they’re collecting data along the way. How long does it take to dismantle them? Which parts can be sold, and for how much? What materials can be recycled?

“We’re separating them into piles of stainless steel, aluminum, galvanized steel … for a typical 24- to 30-foot boat, what are the piles of materials?” Mr. Tyska said.

Fiberglass is a special case — “If you grind it up, can it be useful?” he asked.

At the moment, Bristol Marine is funding this project on its own. “We’re stuck with these things anyway. These boats are abandoned with us … So this is a long-term investment in a better solution,” Mr. Tyska said.

Their data, however, is being shared with several key partners. First and foremost is the University of Rhode Island Sea Grant program, under the leadership of Professor Dennis Nixon. He and URI students are working to write a grant, using federal funds, that would create a permanent boat recycling and storage program in Rhode Island.

“We’re hoping it can become a model for other states to follow,” Mr. Tyska said.

Mt. Hope students joining effort

Other partners include the Rhode Island Marine Trades Association and Mt. Hope High School. Beginning next week, students in the PASS (Personalized Academic Student Success) program at the high school will start working on the boats as well.

“If you want to know how to put boats together, you can learn a lot by taking boats apart,” Mr. Tyska said. “The students will be working with some of our technicians to remove cleats, remove winches, remove stanchions, using basic hand tools … It becomes a great training opportunity for students who have an interest in learning trade skills.”

If the data leads to a grant, and the grant leads to federal funding, Bristol Marine and other boatyards could have a better solution to dying boats than hauling them to rot in a landfill. They’re hoping the sum of the parts is worth more than the whole.

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.