An unprecedented level of support has been given to Plastech's call for assistance to help the fishermen of India and Sri Lanka following their recent catastrophic loss.

In just four days Plastech contacted a group of composite suppliers who have pledged materials to produce an initial 50 new fishing boats for the artisanal fishermen of India and Sri Lanka .

These initial pledges are sufficient to produce over 100,000 Euros of fishing boat value!

The group is currently consulting with key leaders of the fishing communities on the exact design required to replace the older wooden Catamarans. Once this has been finalised, operations will begin very rapidly.

The group believes that there is now a unique opportunity for the poorer fisherman to have a boat delivered to them that has been specifically designed to meet their requirements and built to last for more than 20 years. Using the very latest glass fibre closed mould manufacturing technique called Light RTM, one set of production moulds and masters for the production of further moulds on site will be commissioned and then air freighted, along with four of the company's injection machines direct to the coastal disaster zones.

As a group, we bring a unique blend of technology and skills that we believe will have a dramatic effect on the speed and quality of production of potentially thousands of boats in the region. We are not intending to replace the whole of the devastated fishing fleet, says Alan Harper, Plastech's owner, but we are, as a group in the composites industry offering practical help which will in turn empower the survivors to help themselves. The moulds, machines and materials combined with the latest technology and training will enable them to begin the immediate production on the ground of 100 fishing craft per month. This figure will rise rapidly to 400 per month once further duplicate mould sets are produced locally from the master patterns.

By offering the industry's latest closed mould production technology a rapid response to the unprecedented number of fishing craft required can begin to be met. The skills to make such high numbers by the traditional hand lay moulding technique are simply not available. The more modern LRTM technique is well proven and delivers high quality boats with environmentally friendly, clean manufacturing methods with low wastage. Charitable funds are therefore maximized in their effectiveness

Each of the four boat production mould systems require only a small air compressor to achieve the production output and thus local power requirements can easily be met.

The composite group of companies forming this consortium comprise

• AOC - Resin supplier based in USA
• Scott Bader -Gel coat supplier in UK
• Saertex -Reinforced Glass fibre, Germany / South Africa
• Nord Composites - Mould building resins, France
• Axel - Mould release agents. USA
• Norac/Andos - Catalyst supplier, USA/Sweden.
• Structiso/Nidacore - Composite Core manufacturers, France/USA
• Plastech TT – Machine and mould Manufactures, UK .