Sustainable Wooden Boats

When you are building wooden boats on the Sarteneja coast in Belize, sustainability takes on a whole new meaning. Without a marine supply store around the corner, you use the tools and materials that the area provides...and of course some Super Sap that found its way to Belize!

Ed's labor of love, the Natty Dread. Originally left for dead, this 16' boat was started 2 years ago and then abandoned with four planks on the hull and no deck. The wood already gray and in some places eaten by worms. Ed resurrected this project with local and sustainably harvested hardwoods, hemp towing, and Super Sap resins to glue it all together. Using Super Sap 100/1000 to "epoxify" the hull (epoxy between and on the planks), Ed was able to replace conventional caulking materials. His thickening agent for this application, his waste wood saw dust, what else!

About Edward Rouvier and Backpackers Paradise:
Ed is a son of the sea and Nath a jungle girl. We build our love in Sarteneja, between the green of the tropical forest and the blue of the Caribbean sea. We live a simple life, trying to be apart of the western over-consumption system, closer to mother earth.

We are developing projects like reforestation, hardwood tree nursery, organic farming, and sustainable wooden boats.
We wish it would make this world a little bit better. We are very involved and integrated in our community, try to help people to have a better relation with the nature.

Respect of the community and its simplicity, that’s really what is important for us.