In 2018, BoatUS Foundation began working with North Carolina Coast Reserves - Rachel Carson Reserve, TowBoatUS Beaufort, Town of Beaufort, NC and NOAA Marine Debris Program to document the impact of a large scale marine debris removal project in Beaufort Harbor. The project is funded in part by a grant from the NOAA Marine Debris Program. The project will be wrapping up in 2019 with educational and outreach videos.

The Grassroots Grants program has provided over a million dollars in funding over the last 25 years. This year, the Foundation awarded a grant to Rhode Island Marine Trade Association Foundation and Rhode Island Sea Grant to pilot fiberglass recycling in a zero waste process. This pilot will be completed in 2019 with program feasibility and Best Management Practices to tackle the disposal issues of the aging fiberglass boats.

In July 2018, the BoatU.S. Foundation published findings that concentration, does in fact make a difference.

Our baseline was to measure participant brainwaves pre-training, and then introduce them to a method called SCAN, an acronym for Search, Concentrate, Analyze, and Negotiate. We also introduced some obstacles along the way to see if concentration coincided with events, post training.

To help us with the interpretation of data, we enlisted a neurosurgeon to confirm what we were seeing on the water in terms of participant behavior, and the corresponding brain waves recorded by the headset. Simply, maintaining proper lookout procedures, as specified through SCAN training, is effective in decreasing distraction and increasing vigilance in small-boat operators. There’s more promotion to be done, so look for more on S.C.A.N. in 2019.

Link: Distracted Boating Article

In 2009, we first tested “green” cleaners that made claims such as they were biodegradable and are environmentally safe. Since then, many new products have come to market so we decided it was time to test again in 2018 to see if they stand up to clean and green claims using a recently donated bowrider which was a candidate for a good cleaning.

This time, we tested nine products and used them as directed and also mixed up two home-made recipes found on the internet. We used the products as directed. Some required mixing and others you used straight out of the bottle. We used the products on both smooth and non-skid surfaces to see how they performed. To test the green claims, we sent our products to a lab to learn a bit about their chemical make-up to help purchasers make informed decisions.

A full write up and results will be available in the summer 2019 issue of BoatU.S. Magazine.

Link: Green Cleaner Article