Boatbuilder Advocates for Building Code and Inspection Program in Fishing Industry Post-Hurricane Beryl

A leading boatbuilder has called on the government to use the current downtime in the fishing industry to establish a boat building code and implement an inspection programme, following widespread damage to vessels during Hurricane Beryl.

Clinton Boy Boy Wiltshire, a veteran shipwright, told Barbados TODAY that 65 per cent of the fleet at the Bridgetown Fisheries Complex was “not made up to standard”, which he believes was a key factor in the extensive damage caused by storm surges on July 1. The government estimates that as much as 70 per cent of the fishing boats berthed at Bridgetown to ride out the hurricane were damaged or destroyed.

“We have to put a system in place where we stop building ‘sandwich boats’”, Wiltshire said. “They are made with Nida- Core or a clay sheet. When a boat is made of half of an inch, solid fibreglass it is stronger and can resist anything compared to an eighth of an inch or a quarter of an inch of fibreglass on the inside, just a quarter on the outside, a foam sheet or plastic called Nida-Core in the centre.”

He added: “On impact, it cannot bear nothing over 40 pounds. Forty pounds and up will bore a hole in it because it can only bear three or four pounds per square inch. A lot of these boats are sandwich boats, almost 65 per cent are sandwich boats.”

Wiltshire criticised some tradesmen for “cutting back on material to save money for themselves”, stating they “just give you something that looks good”. He urged the implementation of a building standard: “That is why we need a building standard, not now, ever since.”

The shipwright also called for regular inspections, suggesting: “Every year Fisheries [Division] should also look at these boats and carry out inspections and now that they are hauled up, fisheries can come and check them. Just before everybody gets back the boats to sea they should be inspected. Nobody should be able to build whatever they want to or just patch over the parts that are damaged and don’t do it right”.

Blue Economy Minister Adrian Forde announced on Monday that 220 of the 312-strong fleet were damaged or destroyed from Hurricane Beryl’s passage. The government has set up two temporary boatyards – one behind Kensington Mall along Fontabelle and another near the BICO cold storage facility on the Harbour Road – to facilitate repairs.

Boat owners are struggling with the financial impact of the damage.

Charles Inniss, awaiting an assessment of his boat, said: “There is something in the pipeline to help us. We were told that (the government) would help us with 25 per cent of the cost of repairs but when will that happen? I don’t know.”

Emerald Holder, who owns three boats, faces repair costs of nearly $100 000.

“The loss for me is tremendous and it has me hitting on the bottom line that I have”, he told Barbados TODAY. “I have workmen to pay, I have staff who are not working and I am helping them to meet their family needs but I am also trying tohelp myself.”

Keith Jones, whose small wooden boat requires repairs estimated at $10 000, said he was “not in a rush” to resume operations due to predictions of an active hurricane season.

The impact on the local fish supply is already being felt.

While frozen fish remains available, boat owners report that consumers are “reeling” from the shortage of fresh fish. sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb