IIMS CEO, Mike Schwarz, has been alarmed at what seems to be a growing number of destructive yacht and boat fires incidents reaching his desk since the start of 2025. Mike has been motivated to write this article so he can set out and catalogue some of the higher profile fire incidents, as well as some of the less well publicised ones.
This is an expanded article following the introduction I wrote for the IIMS June News Bulletin on this subject. It may have passed you by, but there seems to have been a string of eye-catching large yacht and boat fires erupting around the world since the start of 2025 with devastating consequences. So, what is behind this surge in yacht and boat fires? Is there a common thread? Not sure yet, is the simple answer. Continue reading “What’s behind the latest spate of boat fires?”
Marine surveyors and boat owners are regularly heard to say there is a minimum 4.0mm of hull thickness required at time of survey of a steel narrowboat. Some brokers even publish videos of such information, with some surveyors enforcing it (Whilton Marina, 2012 and 2016). Boaters are subject to it and repair often follows. In a recent article, Geoff Waddington (2021) explains there is confusion in the industry about wastage limits, and consequently acceptable residual hull plate thicknesses, and opinions among surveyors ‘vary wildly’, with some quoting 3mm acceptable minimum plate thickness, others using percentage loss. This short paper explores what a standardised acceptable limit for diminution, and therefore residual steel plate thickness for narrowboats, could be. It describes a variety of methods of calculating the design plate thicknesses (scantlings) and the minimum acceptable residual plate thickness. In doing so, this paper aims to serve as a guide for inland waterways marine surveyors, boat owners, repairers, and insurers alike. 
It seems we have gone full circle. Cargo ships powered by sail were lost to us a century or more ago, and to the current generation such vessels are regarded as outmoded transportation from a bygone era. But now they are back, more sophisticated and sustainable than ever. Recently I read about the Anemos, which has claimed the title of the world’s largest sailing cargo ship as she made her inaugural voyage from Concarneau, South Brittany, France. 