Are ocean-friendly recyclable bow numbers a thing?
Championship Regatta Graphics expert Ann Siegle talks about what ocean friendly and recyclable mean when we talk about bow numbers for sailboats in sailing regattas.
There are two issues at play here, one is “is this ocean-safe?” and the answer is, YES, there are bow numbers that WILL NOT COME OFF in the water. But so few companies know anything about the proper materials (including, cough cough, those sailmakers providing you with free ones) that they are producing numbers that DO fall off in the water, thus adding to plastic in the ocean.
We have NEVER had a bow number, sponsor sticker or hull decal come off in the water. Ever.
The second issue is are they recyclable, and that’s a lot harder to answer. YES, they do make vinyl film that is “recyclable” – that is, it doesn’t contain two of the chemicals that are part of vinyl that are not recyclable (or able to convert from one form to another.) Vinyl is a combination of the material itself and the adhesive applied to it. In combination, this is not recyclable. But if you change the chemical make up of these two, it CAN be.
That’s where it gets tricky. The recyclable material is about 4X the cost of regular vinyl material (which is all made basically of the same stuff in different proportions) That alone turns a lot of customers off. But even if you are all in, you have to know that there are two issues with it – first off, once you peel the graphics off, they have been immersed in salt water for some days so they may not be recyclable, and also, your municipality where your event is being held needs to be able to recycle this (most are not set up to do this). But what you may not know is that FAR MORE of the materials are left at MY municipality, and they don’t currently do this. In fact, yours likely doesn’t either.
So, with these two issues, what’s ahead for bow numbers and sponsor stickers for sailing regattas?
Yes, materials will be available that will be recyclable. Yes, in the future we will recycle all of these materials because the technology to melt them down and start over into something new will be there. This will likely happen within 5 or less years (my prediction.)
You can choose options for making your bow numbers sustainable:
Go with a permanent bow number system like Melges, Viper and other manufacturer classes use. Use a sponsor sticker that can be peeled and saved by the competitors as a souvenir (our sticker system for the Thistle NACs in 2021 is an example of this.)
Why bow numbers at all? Simply put, it’s impossible to see sail numbers jostling on a line.
What the future holds? We’re definitely going to see vinyl that is recyclable become affordable, and likely replace our current offerings! There might be some tech that can identify and sync the boats over (early) with tech on board RC boats, but that right now is not precise enough. Yes, there are cameras that do this. Used by F1 and cycling and other races. Hard to do on sailboats, and a wave could make the difference between a 1 and a 2 to a sighted system (with cameras).