Plastiki Sets Sail with Harken Aboard

Plastiki Sets Sail

With Harken Aboard

Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran engineered from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles, set sail on March 20, 2010 from San Francisco, on a mission to draw attention to the massive amount of plastic trash floating in our oceans and the tremendous waste it represents. Waste stems from inefficient design, and the Plastiki’s innovative design demonstrates how discarded materials can be transformed into a valuable resource. Along with the plastic bottles that provide 68 percent of the boat’s buoyancy, the superstructure is made from srPET, a unique recycled material. The mast is reclaimed aluminum irrigation pipe, and the sail is recycled PET cloth. Secondary bonding is reinforced with an organic glue made from cashew nuts and sugar cane. Plastiki relies primarily on off-the-grid energy sources, including wind turbines, bicycle generators and a hydroponic rotating cylinder garden.

Ecologist and Plastiki project head David de Rothschild had been increasingly concerned about the deteriorating health of our oceans, especially the rapidly growing “Eastern Garbage Patch” in the northern Pacific. Four years ago he decided that something had to be done to draw attention to this behemoth, which is larger than Texas and composed of 90- to 95-percent plastic waste. Inspired in part by Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 expedition Kon-Tiki (Heyerdahl’s grandson Olav is one of six on board Plastiki), de Rothschild decided to build a boat from reclaimed material and lead an expedition that would spur a worldwide movement to reuse, recycle, and rethink our natural resources. Plastiki will tour the infamous garbage patch on a journey of more than 11,000 miles to Sydney, Australia.

Harken became involved in the project when Plastiki Skipper Jo Royle contacted Harken, and Harken West’s Don Whelan visited the California construction site to begin specifying parts and sizes. “The design work and deck layout were done by talented Australian designer Andy Duvall. We had a very complete design.” Particularly intriguing to Don was the way the plastic bottles were used. “It certainly has raised eyebrows. There are bulkheads every three feet or so and bottles are packed and strapped in place. Except for the bow section, there is no siding on the hulls because of all the extra weight. There are twin headstays which go from the mast to the bow on each catamaran hull and each has a Unit 2 Cruising Furler. This eliminates a lot of structure out on the bow where a headstay is normally located on a cat, and gives them an option of which sail to use in various conditions.

“Due to its design and rigs, the boat is very different. All the living accommodations are on deck in a kind of cabin house that is very wide and fairly high, so there are running backstays and mainsheets, lines that had to be run aft, around the cabin, and into the cockpit,” says Don. “Costs were an issue, so we’ve used good-quality hardware and sized everything correctly, but tried to maximize the equipment, like using one winch for several functions. Being an environmental group, their goal is to use less. They were very positive about aluminum, which can be reused.” Harken supplied Plastiki with the winches, jib furling systems, Battcar systems, and blocks. “It took some extra thought about how things would work, but it was a fun, interesting exercise and I think it will work very well for them,” says Don. “When I met David De Rothschild and Jo Royle I realized how passionate they are about this mission.”

Follow the Plastiki adventure at the Plastiki Expedition website.