The Annapolis boat show exhibitors are embracing Green

I feel so blessed to live a stone's throw from Annapolis and to be able to visit the biggest and oldest sail boat show in America, now in its 42nd year. Some may say that sailboats are already green because they are not fuel intensive like motor boats. They are right. But they are not stopping there; the sailboat culture embraces conservation. A tour of the Annapolis Sailboat show on Saturday was not only fun but enlightening.

The emphasis on energy saving and conservation was everywhere. The first thing we noticed was the placement of "eco-stations," trash and recycling bins that had been set up in select locations by WasteStrategies of Annapolis, Md. in partnership with Annapolis Green. They were set up to help event goers separate recyclable trash from non-recyclable waste. It was very effective; we saw person after person look at the graphic instructions and then separate their waste. It was so effective that we found ourselves clapping a couple of times.

"Our containers have received broad acceptance, at Eastport Yacht Club's Boat Show Bash, at the boat show itself and at others locations since we debuted them last month. At the Boat Show Bash we were able to recycle 50% and that was a huge success; with proper planning we will get to 75% next year," said John Nicklin, Managing Member of WasteStrategies.

Beautiful boats abound, lots of them were demonstrating small wind turbines and/or solar panels or had them as an option. We ran into Meghan Mathews of Yacht 2 Be Green, whose entire booth was dedicated to greening your yacht.

They carried LED lighting, wind turbines and all types of energy saving products and "soon will carry a line of Solar Panels," according to Meghan.

Yacht 2 Be Green also has a charitable arm called Sailors Without Borders whose mission is to have cruising sailors transport school supplies and other materials to needy kids in out of the way places.



Oyster Marine 655

 We saw a 65 foot Oyster with one of the best layouts I've seen, with a hundred-foot mast, retractable sail, it was like a big playground that would look great with me as Captain, but I digress...

We met a man who was demonstrating a neat way of recycling waste plastic.

Rod Sato, Vice President of E-N-ergy was standing next to the Blest Be-h desktop unit that can convert plastic into oil that can run generators and other engines. He was converting the plastic into something useful as we watched! The unit uses 1 kilowatt of electricity to convert 1 kilogram of plastic into 1 liter of oil, at a cost of around US $0.25. The oil can then be further refined back through the machine into gasoline, kerosene, and diesel. A small amount of ash is left over, and the off-gasses are turned into CO2 and water with a catalytic converter, or can be used to run a generator." The process is called pyrolysis- or gasification, and is a tried and true method for converting almost any type of material into energy.



BE-H

 Material is super heated in the absence of oxygen- so does not combust, but vaporizes into gas. Since there is no combustion, there are no toxic gasses released, so the process is relatively clean," said Sato.

And there were several other booths featuring eco-friendly products. Another thing we noticed was that boaters embrace non-toxic stainless steel cookware rather than non-stick cookware that was so prevalent just a few years ago.

What a great event this was, with so much promise. The oceans may soon see benefits from all the good people working together to find solutions to the waste problem that we face in the world. Next weekend we get to see the power boaters at the same venue and we will report on their achievements.

Bon Voyage!

by George Lopez