Living on the Helford River and sailing in and around the Falmouth Estuary and Cornwall, we have become increasingly aware of the many boats which are clearly abandoned, and actively degrading, releasing pollution into waters, sediments and the food chain.

 Interactive Map of Wrecks on the Helford River and beyond

Unfortunately, this seems to attract more boats in poor condition with risk of abandonment in the future. As these wrecks sit exposed to the elements and tides, small pieces of plastic are released into the environment. This includes paints, sealants, and toxic compounds leached from plastics and resins.

With the help of our wonderful volunteers and a few dedicated fundraisers and donations, we were able to successfully raise the funds and action the salvage over 30 of these boats, since 2017. Using the VW Cecil's crane, we located, floated and craned or hauled them in one piece onto a trailer.

There are many more wrecks that need collecting, and we would love to continue this essential environmental work.

If this crowdfunder is sucessfull it would enable us to recover and responsibly dispose of at least another 20 wrecked boats.

It costs £500 per ton for disposal of fibreglass, with a discounted fee kindly offered by Truro recycling. We would love to raise at least £9000, to help cover disposal as well as transportation and the clean-up operation itself. This would go a long way in helping us achieve our goal and stop these wrecks leaching the dangerous chemicals and microplastics that are currently contaminating our waters.

Our priority is also to research ecologically sound options of improving the current situation of lack of suitable infrastructure for dealing with end of life GRP Glass Reinforced Plastic materials. This research and video from Brighton University explains the problematic of abandoned boats in depth please have a look.

Clean Ocean Sailing is a not-for-profit organisation, run by a group of volunteers, with no mainstream funding. All our clean-up activities are only possible thanks to the generosity of individuals through crowdfunding. We have the people power, the equipment, and the drive in abundance to make our Helford River and beyond free, not just of plastic wrecks, but also their toxic and far-reaching legacy if they are left to continue to degrade in the river.

Thank you for reading, please share with your friends and family and support us on this journey.

Clean Ocean Sailing crew

Clean Ocean Sailing

is an award winning Cornish voluntary organisation dedicated to cleaning our coasts and oceans sustainably under sail, and raising awareness about ocean plastics. With the help of The Annette 117-year old wooden sailing vessel and smaller crafts, we sail and paddle and row to remote, inaccessible places to clean up our coast by collecting plastic from the shores and sorting, recording, reusing and recycling it.

In doing so, COS contributes to the creation of a circular economy around marine plastics, striving to raise awareness about the Ocean Crisis and its consequences for local, national and global communities. Our central message is to Rethink, Recover, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle the marine plastic devastating our marine environments. Whilst also championing research and promotion of less consumption and consumerism and finding suitable alternatives for plastics across many industries.

We work with volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. So far together, we have recovered over 70 tons of marine waste. COS activities are achievable by all, encouraging people from every walk of life to join in and empowering us to make a positive difference to marine environment and our own mental health.