RYA SPRING 2021
Your letters Email
the.editor@rya.org.uk
64 Star letter Plastic problems
I was interested in the feature in the Winter issue of RYA Magazine entitled ‘Sustainable Boating – the next decade’. It strikes me that while there are several issues that can be improved by us watercraft users, there is a big elephant in the room: our boats. Most of us, from paddleboarders to cruisers, use or own craft made from plastic. Whether it be roto-moulded polypropylene, GRP or epoxy sandwich, the basic material is derived from oil turned into some kind of resin and then reinforced. Apart from the question about fossil fuels running out, this raises a much more important and immediate one: what to do with our boats when they are no longer useful. I live on the east coast and it’s a common sight to see an old Thames barge or a smack gently fading away to nothing on the marshes. Some of these vessels haven’t sailed for almost a hundred years but Mother Nature is gradually reclaiming them. Meanwhile, take a stroll around any marina and you’ll find plenty of GRP boats long abandoned. They are beyond restoring but someone is paying for their storage because they don’t know what to do with them. What will happen to the many thousands of these boats in the future? In the Caribbean, during a hurricane sometimes hundreds of GRP boats sink, the owners are paid out by the insurance companies and the boats remain on the seabed to disintegrate into particles of glass-reinforced plastic. Lloyd Walker
Lloyd wins an HX210E from Standard Horizon – a great piece of kit when you’re out on the water. Not only is it a handheld VHF radio, it also includes an FM radio, which means you can listen to your favourite stations too. It’s waterproof, floats, and has a strobe light that immediately activates if dropped overboard, and provides you with the reassurance you expect from a VHF
radio.www.standardhorizon.co.uk
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
As well as your comments about RYA Magazine and the topics covered, we’d like to hear about your time on the water. If you’ve had a good, bad or funny experience, want to thank someone, or maybe have a tale of a good deed, we’d like to hear from you.
Apart from the ‘fair deal on fuel’ campaign, what do I get as a motor boater for my RYA membership? The Winter edition of RYA Magazine has two thirds of a page on the diesel discussion and a page on how to be safe using PWCs, and nothing else relevant on what we use our motor boats for, which begs the question: is the motor boat RYA membership such a small percentage that it does not warrant representation? All of your members get older, and once in their 60s and 70s, as I am, a motor boat is way of continuing boating when we cannot actively climb onto a boat or easily move around when under way. Your thoughts would be appreciated. Mick Puleston
Please be assured we value all our members, of all ages, and will represent all areas of the boating they enjoy. The majority of the RYA’s work – lobbying, training, safety and improving accessibility – is relevant to all members, regardless of how they take to the water. While RYA Magazine might not always show a picture of a motor boat with a story, the majority of our articles are written with all members in mind. Much of the magazine, such as this issue’s Brexit feature, should be of interest to all. Thank you for your support of the RYA. Ed
Where in the World?
Mevagissey holds lots of fond memories, and some readers spotted their own boats!
Mevagissey, Cornwall Love weathered the storm Thank you for the winter issue of RYA Magazine, with what must surely be a photo of the outer harbour of the fishing village of Mevagissey on the south Cornish coast.
I remember being storm-bound in the inner harbour for several days in that rather wild summer of 1965 on my clinker-built 16ft camping cruiser, Puffin, with my new girlfriend, Nettie. As we huddled under a canvas tarpaulin together in the pouring rain I feared that I’d put her off sailing and me for life! We had already sailed from our mooring at Durgan in the Helford River
Photo: Ian Knowles / Getty Images
Photo: Gareth McCormack/Alamy Stock Photo
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