One of the challenges facing the marine industry as it moves towards sustainable environmental practices is the risk of ‘greenwashing’. How are consumers to unpick the various claims made about manufacturing, products and distribution to check what they’re buying is actually what they think it is?

In the case of Leah Tennant, founder of Washdown, it’s simple. Buy her multi-purpose exterior/interior cleaning products, and all the heavy intellectual lifting is already done — as she’s been there. Tennant has seen the problem, worked out a solution and is now selling it, to be as sustainable as possible.

After a five-year stint on superyachts — starting with a UKSA cadetship — she says she was worried about the chemicals she and her fellow crew were ingesting as they worked. The side effects listed for cleaning products were terrifying. When she returned to shore she decided to do something about it and Washdown was born.

“After being a superyacht deck hand,” she says, “I wanted to find a solution. I looked at loads of different industries and how they cleaned from plant-based to chemicals, and I came across biotech. I’ve taken cleaning biotech, and I’ve changed the formulas so that it fits the purpose of what I am doing, and that it works for what you are going to need on yachts for getting rid of salt or for example, being perfect for use on marble (not being too hard).”

Biotech makes use of living organisms to develop or create different products (like bread and beer). When cold water hits Washdown’s concentrates, the magic happens.

And when this is unpicked? It means a formula that is pollutant free, harmless to aquatic life, VOC-free and vegan. (VOCs are volatile organic compounds, gases that are emitted into the air from products or processes.)

Initially Tennant concentrated on her biotech concentrate for superyachts. The company was officially launched in May 2022, and she says that the “order book is getting there. The commercial orders took a little while to come in as they’re bigger orders, but they’re all coming now.”

While swathes of marble onboard might be a challenge reserved for the super-rich, Tennant decided to also launch her products into a recreational range, at SIBS 2022. She says she wants to “bring the superyacht standard of clean to your everyday.”

She’s taken her eight core superyacht products and repackaged them into bio-shots. This means she’s offering ‘normal’ size bottles, for ‘normal’ size boaters, in concentrated formulas — saving plastic packaging.

“The bottles are made from Prevented Ocean Plastic,” Tennant says. “We partnered with them. The bottles are from Malaysia and POP pay high-poverty communities to collect plastic which has washed up on the beaches. That’s then turned into pellets for other uses.”

Her range, which is all manufactured in Yorkshire, includes a Spotless Spray (no smears for stainless steel/ceramics/glass), Body Wash (a boat wash also for use on wetsuits and other fabrics), Detailing Spray (for all paint types including gel coats), Grease Lightning (getting into galley grease), Deck Hand (floor cleaner, bilges), and Purified (the anti-bacterial version).

“I just want to change the industry,” she says. “A lot of the products that everybody uses are the same standard products that everyone has used for the last 20/30 years. But, if I hadn’t worked on superyachts I wouldn’t have understood the knock-on effect it has on the environment. It’s really important as the industry moves on that it moves on to bring sustainability into it. I think these products prove how easy it is to make small decisions everyday to help the planet.

“A lot of the products we were using had a lot of chemicals in them that were toxic to the environment and to the person. If you use them daily, the knock-on effect is it could lead to respiratory issues in later life.”

Currently Washdown is available online from Yachtneeds and Global Services and valet company Boat Buoys.

“We’re getting into a lot of marinas now, and valet teams are using us. We’re becoming big in Italy, and we’re now focusing on the UK and getting in with shipyards. Because our products don’t have toxic chemicals in them, you don’t need ‘coshh’ chemical safety data sheets, which appeals to marinas, valet companies and shipyards.”

Tennant says there aren’t any other biotech products currently available on the market. “Some are eco-active,” she says, “but our products are different. We’re going up against some big companies, but when you look at what’s in the products check out what’s there to harm the end user or the environment – unnecessary ingredients with harmful side effects. For us, Washdown is about educating people on what they’re using and how it’s affecting them and giving people better options to look after themselves. It’s not much to ask, is it? To not get cancer.”

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