Leslie Mogford

Dusseldorf is a mind blowing experience, 17 packed halls of exciting often novel boating stuff to see, no sight of economic downturn and the hot dog sausages are to die for! Excel this year was unusual; as relaxed as a continental exhibition and only went manic at the weekends. However, people were buying and that’s what it is all about.

To send a link to this page to a friend, simply enter their email address below.

The message will include the name and email address you gave us when you signed up.

Email address

  Send link

To send a link to this page to a friend, you must be logged in.

There was much innovation to be found, it was gratifying to see a whole stand selling nothing but fuel cells and the price is slowly reducing. They are becoming common in remote locations to drive telemetry installations and becoming popular in motor homes and caravans. LED lighting seems to improve each month with greater output and reduced consumption. I changed over to LED completely a couple of years ago and it looks in some areas I need to upgrade already.

Engines are getting lighter and certainly considerably more fuel efficient. Some diesels are so efficient at transforming fuel into energy at low speed it makes the claims of many electric propulsion systems a bit eco doubtful. Some engines run so cleanly now I swear the exhaust gas is cleaner than the air going in at the turbo chargers, a bit like my Range Rover but nobody believes me.

We need to closely watch the developments of hemp based alternatives to glass fibres. Plant based (soya) resins which could replace traditional resins. Even softwood timber which may yet find itself re invented for boatbuilding using a process using furfuryl alcohol which is a waste product of sugar cane.

The timber is put in a huge pressure cooker with furfuryl and cooked under pressure to 110 degrees C which magically transforms it into a resin. This alchemy effectively turns a softwood mash into hardwood by making the cell walls thicker and stronger. It should work and last as teak does and as it contains no toxins that can leach out it can be disposed of as untreated wood.

It is being developed by a Norwegian company under the trade name Kebony.

Perhaps before long we might be seeing injection moulded boats made from forest trimmings and waste from the sugar cane that makes my favourite Pussers Rum, this