COURTESY 11TH HOUR RACING Guided by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data, technicians work on the complex carbon fiber hull of an IMOCA 60 racing yacht built to the current class rules, which permit hydrofoils and reward reductions in carbon footprint.
[W]hat’s the greenest boat we can build?” The question was casually asked over coffee at the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, Washington. Someone offered a short, glib answer: “None.” But in our consumer society, it’s impossible to stop making stuff, so thinking about making it better with less impact on the environment seems like a good idea. How do we tally the impact of a single new boat? Like any industrial process, boatbuilding requires hydrocarbon-fueled energy. It starts with extracting a raw material like crude oil and then producing foam core, resins, and fibers that are shipped to the boatbuilder, who consumes more energy to form them into a boat. The same calculation can be done for every onboard component: hardware, appliances, fixtures, cables, sailcloth, batteries, water heaters and pumps, electronics, batteries, etc. Also, production waste must be accounted for—cutoffs, unused resin and cloth, consumables, molds to build hulls, decks, and other parts.
“Boatbuilding is a consumptive process,” said veteran designer and builder John Marples. But there are means to help make informed choices about sourcing materials, and choosing lower-impact construction techniques that reduce consumption of energy and other resources and limit waste while delivering a product to meet or exceed customer expectations. Lowering emissions also helps protect clean air and water—important selling points for the business of leisure industries. Let’s begin with a quote attributed to Peter Drucker, an influential thinker, writer, and educator who spent decades researching and lecturing about management theory and practice: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
WWW.RESEARCHGATE.NET General framework and phases for life cycle assessment are according to the ISO 14044 format.
Various life cycle assessment (LCA) tools have been employed for decades to measure and analyze inputs and outputs of industrial processes. They track pollutants and waste and resources consumed during a product’s life, while also examining the impact this process has on the long-term sustainability of renewable and nonrenewable resources, human health, and biodiversity. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) developed ISO 14040, a standard for the principles, terminology, and framework of LCA that distinguishes four stages: 1) Defining the goal and the scope. 2) Conducting an inventory analysis by looking at material consumption and energy flow and interaction with the environment. 3) Assessment of impact and its importance. 4) A critical review and the presentation of results.
Why Use LCA in Boatbuilding?
The choice of materials and construction method for any boat largely depends on a client’s brief and budget. The goal of setting world records or winning the America’s Cup produces a much different craft than the desire for a boat with minimal environmental impact. No matter the brief, it is helpful to know during the design phase what changes can be made within any given framework to create efficiencies and better performance without breaking the bank or increasing the impact on the environment. Given that boatbuilders cannot control how clients use their craft, the only chance for making a difference occurs during the build, whether a boat is used 35 hours per season or 3,500.
Dieter Loibner | Professional BoatBuilder Magazine At Greenboats in Germany, technicians monitor the epoxy infusion of a 27′ (8.23m) hull built from renewable flax fiber.
“It can be quite surprising to see how small changes can impact performance and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Brandon Davis of Turn Point Design in Port Townsend, Washington. The designer, toolmaker, and boatbuilder volunteered his time and expertise to test the full version of MarineShift360 (MS360), a LCA tool specifically developed for the marine industry. “For instance, CFD [computational fluid dynamics] calculations showed that it is necessary to reduce overall weight to lessen drag and achieve the speed a client expects. That suggested switching from recycled PET foam to virgin Divinycell, but when I plugged in the numbers, it became obvious that the difference in carbon footprint actually is negligible.”
A general description of MS360 defines it as a streamlined life cycle assessment tool that has been developed in collaboration with industry stakeholders specifically for non-LCA experts in the boatbuilding industry to measure, understand, and reduce their impact on the environment. More specifically, such a tool can help avoid changes that cancel each other out or even increase the carbon footprint. Flax, for instance, is a natural fiber that absorbs CO2 during growth and has a much smaller energy footprint than carbon fiber or fiberglass. But as a laminate material it is associated with heavier weights than the others, because it tends to soak up more resin during infusion. If infusion is not done with care and precision, it could lead to a heavier boat that needs more power and energy to hit its performance targets. As Friedrich Deimann, the founder of Greenboats in Germany, said, “…parts could also be made from flax laminate, but if weight or emissions don’t pencil out due to higher epoxy resin consumption, what’s the point?” (See “Greenboats Pioneers Flax Boatbuilding,” Professional BoatBuilder No. 197, page 44.)
COURTESY 11TH HOUR RACING This 11th Hour Racing Open 60 went on to win the World Race and was used to develop and refine MS360
High-performance boats like racing yachts, rowing shells, foiling dinghies, and multihulls use little energy in operation, so most of the emissions they create happen before they leave the shop. A sustainability report that compared the build of a new IMOCA 60 for the U.S. team 11th Hour Racing with a vintage 2010 boat of the same class showed that the latest iteration uses much more energy, more than twice the man-hours for hull and deck construction, and consequently produces 40% more greenhouse gas emissions. Why? Because a rule change allowed these boats to become fully foilborne, which introduced more complexity and more stringent structural requirements, which translated into more energy use (see also “Measuring Impact with Life Cycle Assessment,” PBB No. 197, page 46).
Growing Acceptance of LCA
11th Hour Racing also developed MS360, partnering at first (in 2016) with the British America’s Cup Team Ben Ainslie Racing, and later during construction of their own IMOCA 60, Malama, at the CDK yard in Port la Forêt, France. 11th Hour Racing was co-founded by billionaire philanthropist Wendy Schmidt in 2010 “to work with the sailing community and maritime industry to advance solutions and sustainability practices that protect and restore ocean health,” according to the team’s website. In 2016, 11th Hour Racing also supported a project that examined the carbon footprint of two plywood/epoxy runabouts built at The Landing School in Arundel, Maine (see “Green Watching,” PBB No. 169, page 88).
For the MarineShift360, 11th Hour Racing sought input from marine businesses, including Groupe Bénéteau, Arksen, Williams Jet Tenders, Princess Yachts, North Sails, Greenboats, IMOCA, Philippe Briand Group , Outremer, and SU Moth Challenge, which signed up as beta users and shared insights and experience in their respective fields of expertise. Although MS360 was developed in accordance with ISO standards 14040:2006 and 14044:2006, it’s important to note that the published numbers in this article are meant only as a baseline and an aid to identify trends that point toward efficiencies and potential reductions in cost while maintaining or improving vessel performance. To attain ISO certification, the results would need further investigation, refinement, and auditing.
Even though LCA has been around for decades and is widely applied in many industries, including automotive, getting builders of recreational boats to publicly embrace it has been slow. It doesn’t get as much attention as other analytical tools such as CFD or FEA (finite element analysis), in part because of staff and budget shortages, and lack of regulatory pressure and/or financial incentives. Also, its results are often kept behind closed doors and used confidentially by designers and builders.
A screenshot of MS360 shows preconfigured templates and assessments for a specific build project. On the right are the options for data import and export, reports, and comparing different versions.
It appears that LCA is being used “in more of a reactive sense…for customers who want to understand the data that lies behind the decisions,” said Ollie Taylor, an associate director at Anthesis, a U.K. sustainability consulting firm that manages MS360. “I wouldn’t say they are doing it universally across all projects to move to a position where you could put a price on carbon.” Previously, Taylor was the head of commercial development at Williams Jet Tenders, an early adopter of MS360. “We’re still in an entirely reactive space, where LCA is not used to fundamentally change business models.”
LCA also appeared on the edge of the industry’s radar screen last year with a report called “Pathways to Propulsion Decarbonization for the Recreational Marine Industry,” which looked at carbon emissions created by operating certain types of boats. It was commissioned by the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA) and reflects the industry’s prevailing environmental focus on tailpipe emissions of boats but not the environmental impact of boat construction.
LCA in Practice
Davis said it took about 25 hours to familiarize himself with the MS360 software, playing with the various templates, and thinking about structuring the input of real-world production data he knows off the top of his head from running his shop. “It was pretty simple,” he said of learning the MS360 templates for all the individual project stages of boatbuilding, like hull-and-deck construction, interior fit-out, plumbing, power train, etc. “There were boxes [to check] when I was looking for a specific material, but sometimes it was a little sparse, and I had to get something close.”
About 70% of the data offered by MS360 originates from the Ecoinvent database, which is continually developed and updated annually, Taylor explained. “Thirty percent are models we created using primary data from the industry, combined with secondary data from Ecoinvent. This applies mainly to ‘manufacturing’ processes but also to certain materials like flax and carbon fiber.” What about plywood
sourced from various locations in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia? “Plywood is a good example where our database can either have an FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] or non-FSC plywood,” Taylor said. “One is much more sustainable than the other. Then the transport element, let’s say, 6,000 km [3,728 miles] via air, sea, or road freight from the factory. The upstream process of cutting the tree, making planks, bonding it all together is a standardized data point that we take from a global data set, which is an average of all the places in the world that produce plywood, so it’s fairly accurate. It’s not perfect, but it’s within the realms of sensibility.”
Davis used MS360 to assess construction materials, systems, fittings, electronics, consumables, various propulsion systems, tooling for one-offs, and production runs, and to track energy use for his shop. Initially he tried out his process on a 21′ (6.4m) trailerable weekend cruiser called Helios 21, with a gasoline outboard and an electric propulsion option. He started with a baseline design, which was a plywood kit boat. Templates helped him set up the different phases of construction. He said he had quite a bit of the preliminary information, like a detailed weight study of the boat, and lined up his spreadsheet to match what he had to enter in MS360 in as much detail as possible and make estimates from his experience where necessary. His goal was to find general trends and how different design/build decisions affected the carbon footprint of the boat. From the baseline boat he quickly proceeded to other variants by changing the necessary variables, albeit with an eye on simplification.
COURTESY BRANDON DAVIS Rendering of the Helios 21 with a conventional gasoline outboard.
Two LCA Test Cases
The first part of Davis’s project was to familiarize himself with the tool and to work out different variations of his 21-footer to see how it played out in different materials, production runs, and propulsion systems. For comparison, Davis also estimated the carbon footprint of a 21′ production boat of similar design, with a 120-hp gasoline outboard and a displacement of 4,100 lbs (1,860 kg).
• Plywood kit construction (baseline boat): Built from a CNC-cut plywood kit from 3⁄8″ (10mm) okoume plywood, hull sheathed with 6-oz glass and epoxy on both sides and bulkheads coated in epoxy. Paint is two-part LPU over a couple of applications of epoxy fillers and primers. The interior fit-out was kept as simple as possible—campervan not a luxury apartment. For propulsion he chose a four-stroke 40-hp (30-kW) Yamaha outboard, good for 18–20 knots of cruising speed with a fuel consumption of 8 nm per gallon. If well built and taken care of, a plywood boat can last several decades with a high resale value.
• PET foam core and fiberglass: Being familiar with foam kit boats, Davis compared this first. Most of the details are identical to the plywood, but some differences of note are that the PET core is 100% recycled and about half the cost of plywood. However, laminates (still hand laid for this model) need to be thicker, so the boat consumes 2.5 times more epoxy and fiberglass with more fairing needed before finish. Still, Davis thought this boat could be as much as 400 lbs (181 kg) lighter than the plywood version, which likely would translate into operational efficiencies (higher top speed, quicker to get on plane).
• Limited-production fiberglass: Similar to the PET-foam kit boat but this is built with soft tooling and infusion to keep the weight comparable. Davis said soft tooling is a mainstay of his business; it’s made from OSB, MDF, and strip-planked plywood machined and sheathed in fiberglass with a Duratec finish buffed to a high shine. The downside is its limited lifespan (5–20 boats) and a rougher surface finish than production tooling, so hulls need to be painted after curing instead of gelcoated in the mold. “But by using in-mold primer systems, a lot of the fairing and sanding can be greatly reduced,” Davis said, adding that construction would be mostly infused foam and glass with a higher glass-to-resin ratio, which changes some of the inputs in MS360. Overall weight and performance would be similar to the PET-foam kit construction.
• Production fiberglass: Foam-cored boats are infused from full production tooling, which is more durable and yields a higher quality finish. In this method, production molds are pulled from a plug, which increases upfront costs that must be amortized by a long production run of dozens or hundreds of boats. Davis assumed gelcoat would be used, and labor is reduced dramatically. Weight and performance would be similar to the plywood boat.
• Electric propulsion: With construction the same as the PET-foam-core kit boat, this version would have a 20-kW electric motor and 40-kWh lithium-ion battery bank. Weight would be similar to the production or plywood version of the boat, but performance is different. When this boat runs at an estimated top speed of 18 knots, the battery would last 2 hours, while operating in the 8–12 knot range could triple runtime. The lightweight semi-planning hull of his Helios 21 could be a good match for this use case, Davis thought. With 1,400 Wh of solar panels on the cabintop he said it should be possible to recharge the battery while the boat sits at the dock or on the trailer during the week, otherwise using shore power or the domestic 110V outlet for plugging in. In this case, Davis assumed two-thirds of electricity is supplied by solar charging and the rest from the grid.
CREDIT: BRANDON DAVIS CREDIT: BRANDON DAVIS
A note about nonfossil emissions which are included in the analysis and can have a negative value (thus reducing overall CO2 emissions): They are the sum total of biogenic carbons from natural processes like decomposition in landfill, CO2 uptake, the negative CO2e value from natural materials (e.g., flax) sequestering CO2e during the growth phase and storing it in the material structure, and land use and land transformation, which is the difference in emissions that occurs when land is changed from its original state to farmland, e.g., removing oldgrowth rainforest to produce palm oil for biofuels.
COURTESY BRANDON DAVIS CO2-equivalent emissions are shown during production and use of the Helios 21′ (6.4m) powerboat.
MS360 also helps visualize the calculated CO2 equivalent emissions by breaking down the assessment into project phases, which Davis did for the Helios 21 built from fiberglass with recycled PET core and fitted with an electrical propulsion system. Of the 7.12 metric tons of fossil- fuel-based CO2-equivalent emissions, 42.3% fall to the hull and deck construction; nearly a third are attributable to the electric propulsion, including a 40-kWh battery. The fit-out for the regular propulsion gas outboard was shown to contribute 7.4%.
In the second phase of this LCA trial, he applied the lessons from the Helios 21 to the Townsend 34, a solar-electric cruising boat he designed for Alex Borton, a client who camp-cruised a 27′ (8.23m) solar-electric launch from Bellingham, Washington, to Alaska through the Inside Passage and was interested in bigger, more comfortable craft with the same kind of propulsion. “I grew up in a passive solar house that my dad built in the early eighties, so we’ve been aware of energy efficiency for a long time,” Borton said. Also, his father, David, commissioned Solaris, the first 100% solar-powered commercial passenger vessel in the U.S. (see “Under the Sun,” PBB No. 195, page 16). “And family friends built a house that was not only net zero, but they had very little construction waste in the whole thing. So the idea of life cycle cost is something I’ve been paying attention to my whole life. And I think it makes sense to do that with a boat [as] more people are thoughtful about that. We might still be in the minority, but I believe it’s a growing minority. One of the cool things that Brandon pointed out was that if the boat is plugged in when we’re not cruising, it can be feeding the grid, and the whole thing could be carbon neutral within 25 years.”
In breaking down the build of the Helios 21, fiberglass hull construction accounts for nearly half the total CO2, while fitting an electric-propulsion system was tallied with 28.7% due to the carbon footprint of the large lithium-ion battery.
The main difference besides size was the design focus on solar-electric propulsion and the customer’s desire for an interior with cruising amenities including appliances. Length overall of the larger boat is 33’6″ (10.2m), beam is 10′ (3m) with a displacement of only 6,200 lbs (2,812 kg) to achieve a cruising speed of 7–8 knots and a top speed of 12–14 knots from a 50-kWh LiFePo battery and 3,900 Wh of solar panels. Range at cruising speed varies from 40 nm to 132 nm, according to Davis, depending on how much electricity is available to use: solar only, battery only, or battery with simultaneous solar charging. Davis worked with Impact Naval Architects LLC on CFD to refine performance expectations but was under no illusion that the key for this project would be weight discipline. To establish a base line, he searched for a production trawler of similar size and performance characteristics, settling on a conventional 32′ (9.8m) diesel trawler that would cruise at 7–8 knots and top out at 12–14 knots. Here he made some educated guesses for CO2 emissions in construction and operation by extrapolating material use from boat weight and standard production building practices and using published fuel-burn numbers.
Next, Davis conducted another weight study and changed parameters for the LCA software. When he plugged in numbers, he used the standard values provided by MS360 or numbers derived from his own experience, which sometimes diverged from the database—like estimating work hours for specific tasks, material use, and waste. “On average we get maybe 70% use from nested plywood parts, but we do not waste as much epoxy as the program assumes, as we are mixing it in small batches,” Davis explained. “I also know the energy use in my shop, especially of the CNC machine, and I use a 10-hp [7.5-kW] vacuum pump, not a 40-hp [30-kW] pump as suggested, which adds up.” The local utility supplies customers in Port Townsend with electricity derived largely from hydropower, which Davis noted is common in the Pacific Northwest. But he did not see a chance to alter the value in MS360, so he used the assigned U.S. average power mix.
COURTESY BRANDON DAVIS An early version of the Townsend 34 solar-electric cruiser nods to Lake Union Dreamboats.
Compared to the Helios 21, the Townsend 34 uses more material due to size and complexity. But the battery is only 10 kWh bigger, because performance demands are modest, and the boat can be optimized for displacement and semi-displacement. Also the 34-footer will be used more hours to make longer passages. While the “factory emissions” for the different production methods did not vary as much (from 20.6 t to 24.1 t), they were appreciably lower than the estimate for a similar-sized production trawler (see Table 3 Townsend 34 Production). The solar-electric propulsion of the Townsend 34 added approximately 3 t of carbon emissions for the 50-kWh battery and 2.8 t for the solar panels, according to MS360.
CREDIT: BRANDON DAVIS 
CREDIT: BRANDON DAVIS The picture changes with the combined carbon footprint from production and use (see Table 4 Life Cycle Use, which looks at an assumed lifespan of 20 years with 250 hrs of annual use). Predictably, a fossil-fuel-powered boat accumulates a lot of emissions (63 t) over that period, while solar-electric propulsion adds only 1.4 t, which Davis estimates would accumulate if the boat were charged from the grid in addition to the solar panels. The numbers also show that a solar-electric vessel wired to return surplus electricity to the grid when not in use could potentially offset all the CO2 (or more) from production and operation in 20 years (see the sidebar on page 33). However, because of inherent complexities and the number of variables in such applications, Anthesis pointed out the speculative nature of this example, suggesting that idle solar-electric boats should be matched to a suitable electrical load on the same circuit to displace high-carbon grid electricity.
Different Demands, New Rules
There are other arguments in favor of LCA use. The FAQ page on MarineShift360’s website lists a “robust dataset” tailored to the marine industry, increasing efficiencies, and potential cost reduction across phases of a product’s life cycle without compromising performance, avoiding mitigating one impact at the expense of another, and using the tool to improve corporate image and brand value. Another aspect is the change in consumer attitudes, as Davis noted. Future generations of boaters are growing up with social media and the consequences of climate change as evidenced by more frequent violent weather phenomena and the $billions of damage they cause (NOAA has issued a warning for a very active hurricane season in 2024). It stands to reason that these customers will ask for products proven to have less impact on the environment. And lastly, rules and regulatory changes being introduced by governments recognize environmental degradation and climate change as existential threats. For instance, the European Green Deal is the European Union’s strategy for a climate-neutral and circular economy by 2050 with climate, energy, transport, and taxation policies to reduce net greenhouse gas
emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
It’s a tall order by any standard, and to achieve this goal the EU publishes a variety of fact sheets and strategy documents to help consumers make better-informed and environment-friendly choices when shopping. Also driving relevance is a ban on greenwashing— the spreading of misleading product information and unsubstantiated claims about environmental benefits; and replacing toxic chemicals that threaten the health of humans and the environment with sustainable alternatives.
Such policies are more difficult to enact in the U.S., which leaves it to market-driven innovation to solve a gargantuan global challenge like climate change. At the same time, examples for legislation that introduced positive change include the Clean Air Act, which mandated catalytic converters to clean up automotive exhaust. Most likely it will take a mix of legislative frameworks and innovation to lower carbon emissions across the entire industrial value chain. That will include not only LCA and forward-thinking entrepreneurs familiar with boatbuilding but also the management theory and thinking of Peter Drucker, who is credited with another catchy aphorism: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
End Notes
“MarineShift360 has been successfully running as a joint venture between 11th Hour Racing and Anthesis Consulting Group for the last two years. In that period, the project has grown to encompass over 700 users across all segments of the marine industry from academia, power and sailboat builders to supply chain partners,” Taylor said. “We have also seen active engagement from a select group of class and governing bodies who have realized the prominent role LCA-based decision making will have in shaping the future of the industry, and these parties have started to develop rules and legislation that directly target impact reduction.”
So the groundwork has been laid, but work must be done to incentivize more of the industry to analyze environmental impact and reduce emissions. “We are actively working on the next phase of the MS360 project, [which is] designed to take direct action within the industry to prove what’s possible when you properly utilize an LCAdriven design philosophy,” Taylor said.
To access a free version of MS360, users can sign up at www.marineshift360.org.
“It is a good tool to have in my box, it was easy to learn and implement, [and] I plan to use it for future projects in my shop,” Davis said. “I am concerned with the carbon footprint of my work, and I am finding more of my customers are actively seeking green solutions, too. With an LCA program such as MS360, I can quickly run scenarios on build materials and strategies to get tangible numbers to make informed professional decisions which can steer the project in a sensible direction. I would not consider building a boat without a detailed weight study. Similarly, I would not want to make a ‘green’ boat for a customer without using an LCA program.”
Asked what he’d like to see in future versions of MS360, Davis thought that more options for components—fit-out and electronics packages—and different choices for the sources of grid electricity (to gauge shop emissions) would be useful. He also suggested a simplified “quick-look” version for consumers who want to look up a ballpark number for carbon emissions of specific boat types with choices for size, propulsion system, and construction material, similar to the European Green NCap initiative that compares and rates different car models for their environmental impact. “I guess the more builders use [MS360], the more options and refinements will become available,” Davis added.
Turn Point Design, 2320 S Park Ave., Port Townsend, WA 98368, USA, tel. 360–385–9637, www.turnpointdesign.com.
Anthesis, The Wheelhouse Loft, 134 Tynedale House, Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JH.
About the Author: Dieter Loibner is editor-at-large of Professional BoatBuilder.
Running the Numbers
[B]randon Davis shows his calculations for a theoretical use case of a
Townsend 34 that supplies electricity to the grid when not in use:
With 3,624 watts of solar panels mounted on the roof and using Seattle’s
average insolation for a flat-mounted roof solar system of this size, the yearly
output of gross solar production is 3,738 kW.
At 7.5 kt cruising speed, the calculations show a use of 4.7 kW of power,
which over 250 hours of assumed use per year would total 1,175 kWh.
The assumed house loads when under way use 0.9kW on average, or 225
kw over 250 hours annually.
The sum of the energy use for propulsion and house loads is 1,400 kWh
per year.
When that is subtracted from the total annual solar gain of 3,738 kW in
the Seattle area, Davis is left with a surplus of 2,338 kWh per year, or a savings
of roughly 1,217 kg (2,683 lbs) of CO2.
Spread over 20 years, this theoretical example shows 24,340 kg (53,660
lbs) of CO2 reduction, which would be enough to offset all the CO2 emissions
across the life cycle.
— Dieter Loibner
