What we discovered exploring green boating for one month. part 4

In this 4th article we extended the green boating conversation to a wide range of actors.

We asked for their opinion 11 professionals specialized in various fields: from fiberglass recycling, new materials and new tecnology R&D, to superyacht designers, sailboat shipyards, brand new motoryacht yards, artists and, last but not the least, dealers.

Do you remember? We ended the third article on green boating raising the end-life issue.

End-life and disposal

We found 3 European companies, one based in the UK, one in Italy and the last one in Spain, that are tackling this problem with different approaches.

First solution: to scrape it

Boatbreakers are the UK's only dedicated boat disposal company, they bring boats from all over Europe, detach the items that are suitable for resale, remove all recyclable materials and then dispose of the hulls.

They are contributing in making some order in this gray area of the "end life" and their intention is to raise awareness of the need for solution.

As the ageing crafts are breaking up, toxins and microplastics are released into the ocean.

Ofter those againg vessel are boat that you can't sell and you are still paying huge moring fees for it: in this case, Boatbreakers give you the perfect solution.

Their goal is to create a network of breakers across the UK and help to develop an appetite for the reuse of fiberglass material.

Second solution: recycled fiber

Northern Lights composites was born, as a sailing team, 8 years ago in Italy.

During this sporting activity, the team began to modify the boats and nurtured the dream of building one sailbot suited to their needs.

In collaboration with the University of Padua, they competed in the bio-based skiff class at the 1001Vela Cup (which required the use of sustainable materials for at least 60% of the boat, and restricted the use of the traditional material to only 40% )

From there, the following step was obvious: they raised the bar for a 100% sustainable boat. The 3 founders, joining their efforts with a team of engineers coming from all over Italy, gave birth to the 7.69 m Ecoracer.

This sustainable sportboat will be built with nlcomp sustainable technology with 100% natural fibers and rCore.

To showcase and proof this new technology, nl composite decided to build a small dinghy using the mold of an existing boat.

For this project they started a collaboration with the Hungarian Primusclass, who designed the 2,42m Primus.With the application of the nlcomp sustainable technology, Primus has been renamed Ecoprimus.

Here lies one of the biggest advantage of the nlcomp technology: is possible to make use of this sustainable material using the same moulds previously created for the fiberglass hull production.

- ecoracer 7.69 -

We reached at the phone Fabio Bignolini, Chief Operating Officier of Northernlight composites (nlcomp)

How are the customers reacting to this new technology?

"This is a huge disruption compared to what is currently available on the market.That's why we've decided to build the Ecoprimus. Customers, journalists and sailing professionals can test it and appreciate first hand what it means to sail on a eco-sustainable boat.

The novelty is the use of thermoplastic resins that can be melted.

It is not an epoxy resin with a bio-component, but the whole boat can be restored to the raw material condition.

This is the nlcomp vision of a Circular economy: resin and fiber can be easily separated and then re-used.The team has recently released a video explaining how this is possible.

Check out their youtube channel (Northern Light Composites) where new interesting videos on boat building and material testing are constantly uploaded.

- nl composites sustainable technology with 100% natural fibers and rCore -

“We decide to replace the composite materials commonly used for yacht building, in favour of new eco-sustainable technologies. In place of glass fibers, that aren’t reusable or recyclable once in the resin, we decided to use bio-based fibers to reduce our carbon footprint. Furthermore, in order to obtain a recyclable composite we tested a new resin that allows to separate itself from the fibers and reuse the polymer with normal industrial processes.”

Andrea Paduano, PhD Sustainable Materials

Third solution: recycle the entire boat

The team of La Bella Verde, which has been active since 2014, is a pioneer of the green boating movement.

They compromise to build with recyclable materials and buy the boat back from the customers, avoiding them the burden of the disposal phase. An interesting fact that demonstrates their commitment: even the moulds of their boats have been built with fully recyclable materials.

They are based in Ibiza, where you can easily spot their highly recognizable green catamarans. Maarten Bernhart, founder and sales director, correctly points out that "The words eco and green nowadays are used by everybody"

Clearly this leads to a misuse (or abuse) of these two words.

"Most of the time this word only indicates natural fiber mixed with plastic, but this doesn't make the boat sustainable."

He explained us that La Bella Verde uses solvent-free epoxy to avoid the toxic emissions. For example, the new catamaran LBV 35 uses high-grade, sustainable materials like: fully recyclable Volcanic fiber and Epoxy Matrix, FSC-certified Balsa Wood sandwich cores and PET-foam sandwich cores.

As we said they commit to recycling 100% of the boat, giving it a second life. The team has already incorporated some recycled components into the catamarans that are now sailing.

- Plastic Clean up system by La Bella Verde -

Their latest boat, named LBV35, is a Solar-Electric catamaran which can be equipped with the Plastic Clean up System. This system, developed in collaboration with the IBI foundation, contributes to the cleaning up of the massive amounts of plastic floating in our oceans.

The team has set sail towards a more sustainable nautical industry.

Now that we explored the disposal issue, we can go back to the subject that has inaugurated this series of articles.

Is it possible to make the electric motors even more eco-friendly?

Harold Guillemin, CEO of FinX, says yes!

He aims at making electric motors more efficient by 30%, taking inspiration from the nature. To do so, his French start-up has engineered a breakthrough motor that works without propellers.

How is this possible?

The swordfish is able to reach 110km/h with just a few fin movements. The blue whale, despite its 140 000 kg, moves very efficiently in water.

Why not taking inspiration from them ?

This is FinX's ambition: to revolutionize the way we sail, by replacing the propeller with compact, high-performance membranes.

- FinX team and Prince Albert II -

The project started when Harold considered the possibility of adapting the Wavera membrane pump, where he worked for five years after his engineering degree, to convert it into a marine propulsion device.

The name chosen seeks to convey the root ideas of this new technology: "Fin" underlines where the inspiration came from and the absence of the propellers, while the "X" gives the name a modern and sporty touch.

The company's first motor is a 100% electric, 2 Kw (equivalent to 5 HP) motor that will soon be unveiled in Paris during a special event.

In addition to the electric motor, the company will launch the Base X book , a collection of interviews with some French personalities on energy transition and green mobility. Fin X has setted up a small think tank to raise awaraness on those environmental issue.

Harold has agreed to unveil the company's next goal: the challenge is to develop a more powerful engine in 2021, reaching100 KW - 130 HP.

Last year, the team took part in the Solar Boat Challenge in Monaco, where they had the opportunity to meet Prince Albert II. The French company now "hope to see him again soon to show him that the small scale model he saw, is now a working reality"

A glance into 2 different domains: how sailing yachts and superyachts make use of cleaner energy?

If you are not familiar with t Slyder Catamarans, please visit now their company website, and have a look at their tagline.

You will understand immediately why we decided to feature them on this article.

Slyder catamarans is driven by e-power, anything else is fossil thinking!

We spoke with Markus Kuhner, CEO of Slyder Catamarans.

Did you noticed that the customer are taking the environmental issue more into consideration during the last years?

"A sailor is already an environmentalist per se, as he has to follow nature in this mode of movement. Environmental awareness can be shown in different ways.

Just because a boat is powered by electricity does not mean that it is environmentally friendly - the problem of resources used for electric propulsion is well known.

Since Slyder customers are more likely to be sailors who want to go on long distance trips, there are those who reject electric propulsion, for example, while others are open to new technologies. I can understand the sceptics very well, as sailing has a lot to do with tradition, experience and the tried and tested. You have to be able to rely 100% on the technology in difficult situations and that's why some people just entrust their lives to "familiar" technology"

What are the feature your customers are looking for in order to sail in a eco-friendly way?

"There is clearly the electric propulsion in 1st place in combination with the possibility to charge the batteries in an environmentally friendly way. When I was the launch customer of the then Slyder 47 at the end of 2014, I had already insisted on electric motors when I ordered it. For me it is a natural combination to equip a sailing yacht with a quiet propulsion.

After the acquisition of the Slyder brand, the first step was to develop the new Slyder 49, with the focus on sailing characteristics and operating concept. At that time there was no solution for my special requirements for an electric propulsion for my Slyder catamarans.

Last year, my engineering team and I reviewed all available systems and suppliers on the market and configured a propulsion system for Slyder catamarans with one supplier. We now have a system that can provide the same range as conventional diesel engines when needed (using the generator), but under "normal" circumstances we can cover almost the entire energy requirement through hydrogeneration and solar energy.

Electric motors are quiet, vibration-free and almost maintenance-free - advantages for the environment and the owner.

Hydrogen powered Superyacht

Coquine design, the firm owned by Christian Leyk, has recently took part at the Boat International Design Competition presenting a hydrogen powered superyacht concept.

The German designer, who recently moved to the Spanish coastal city of Valencia, has explained us how Code Green was born.

The brief was: Mission Impossible inspired, 60m, plumb bow, hydrogen powered.

Leyk said: "But there’s more to this concept that I call ‘Code Green'.

I believe any yacht that wants to leave the beaten path and venture into the wide open needs to be cleaner than the rest. So hydrogen and fuel cells is a good idea.

The next step is of course to consume as little fuel as possible, because even the greenest fuel needs to be produced somehow, somewhere.

So adding solar power to the mix is the next logical step. The latest generation of solar panels is even see through, so adding panels to all external glass really is the way to go, and it will not make the boat looks weird like those usual black shiny panels usually do.

Then, we need to look at the ‘hotel loads’. A true explorer yacht that wants to go into the polar regions will definitely have good thermal insulation. It’s really important to not use the air condition more than absolutely necessary. This proposal has a super structure that is rather tall for it’s length, so it’s ideally suited for natural vertical air flow.

And here we go, truly green doesn’t just mean cutting edge technology but also being clever about the simple things…

Saying thank you to Christian for his insights, we move to another superyacht designer.

Isaac Burrough, the New Zealander designer, asked the very imaginative Norwegian team Kvant-1 to illustrate his latest concept, and they came up with a striking idea.

They immediately got our attention, and we contacted them to widen our perspective. Are artists raising awareness on the ecological issuee?

To find the answer we must take a deep breath and cross the bridge: we are leaving the yacht designers land to enter into the ..

Artistic World

- Sand Waves, Kvant-1 -

We interviewed Nicholas O'Leary and the Kvant-1 crew.

Can you describe how those two projects (‘Sand Wave’ & ‘Syrup’) were born and how you came up with the idea to imagine a superyacht in a desert?

The goal behind the 2 projects is very different but we can start with ‘Syrup’.

Syrup was made for a norwegian organisation called Natur og ungdom, to emphasize the vulnerability of life in the Arctic. And the goal is of course to impact as wide an audience as possible.

We felt that the approach with many of these types of campaigns has been to overemphasize the destruction and make the image as shocking as possible.

However, for us personally, we realized we were all too aware of this strategy and had built an immunity to it. So we decided to do the opposite.

What if the oil spill, instead of looking awful, looked beautiful? We have all marvelled over the colours of light dispersing when oil mixes with water and we decided to play on that idea. Maybe this way the audience would be caught off guard and stop to look, only afterwards realizing what they were really looking at - the devastation that industry can bring to ocean life.

‘Sand Waves’ on the other hand, is made for a friend of ours, Isaac Burrough, who is a yacht designer.

He is making an effort to make high class boats more environmentally friendly and our job here is really to show off his designs to the world and thus encourage this kind of thinking.

If you look at how super yachts are presented it is always in a very similar fashion. So what we really were trying to do, again, is to get people to stop and look.

We had just been working on some architectural projects in the desert and had been discussing the way sand formed itself into dunes and ‘swells’. Why should we always show boats in water? Everybody already knows that boats go in water. Why not again go for the opposite?

- Syrup , Kvant-1 -

Many of the works of the studio explore the relationship between the environment and the human construction. (‘The Temple’ and ‘Growth’) What is the underlying message that you are trying to communicate?

Are we heading toward an era where human beings are forced to be more respectful of the environment?

We all come from an architectural background and contemporary architecture is constantly forced to be more respectful and work together with the environment on a number of levels. The importance of the site to an architectural project can’t be emphasized enough.

We also live in the Norwegian city of Bergen, which is simply put, surrounded by nature. All of us in the studio spend a good deal of our spare time exploring the fjords and mountains within which Bergen is nestled.

So nature is without doubt something we hold dear and wish to preserve.

- Temple, Frame 1 . Kvant-1 -

How artistic movements can raise awareness regarding the environmental issue?

Artistic movements can be described as a reflection of culture at the time.

By seeing more and more art with nature as a theme it is a sign that nature is something that is on society’s mind, which it definitely is at the moment.

Alongside Kvant-1 members of the team engage in their own projects and it seems that this is the ideal opportunity to name-drop them.

Vegard Aarseth has been making illustrations highlighting the issues surrounding the dumping of mining waste in the norwegian fjords in his own time over the years. He has also been working on a personal art project (which seems never ending) showing Norwegian Troll-like creatures in their natural habitats. This involves a lot of time spent in different terrains researching and collecting material.

Nicholas O’Leary is also a painter, alongside Kvant-1, and is constantly in the mountains around Bergen painting on site. He has a particular fondness for trees. Last year he had painted a tree within a forest of trees and six months later he realised his specific tree had been chopped down, presumably because it was too close to a stream leading into the city’s water reservoir. He came to the realisation that he was perhaps the only person, apart from the one cutting it down, that had really appreciated this particular tree. He now says that he does his best to give them as much of his attention and respect as he can. A bit of a tree hugger.

In the last section of the article, we will try to find the answer to a more "down to earth" question:

Is the market ready for an eco-friendly boating?

To find out more about this, we contacted the first Spanish dealer specialized in electric and hybrid boats and 3 brand new shipyards.

Selling electric yachts

- X Shore, one of the company Volta Yachts distributes -

Artem Loginov explains how Volta Yachts became the first nautical company in Spain to specialize in hybrid, electric and solar motor boats. It all started thanks to a collaboration with the Slovenian company Greenline, which, at the time, has introduced its first hybrid boat.

Artem liked this idea and noted that the yachting industry was not exploting the hybrid and electric technology available in the automotive field. He decided to collaborate with other yachting brands that believe in innovation and hybrid and electric propulsion.

"Hundreds of shipyards are competing mainly design, sometimes they introduce some small improvement in the materials used, but traditionally no significant investment in innovation has been made in our field. Luckily, the trend has changed in recent years.

In 2016, only fours years ago, half of the brands that we are working with, were not born yet."

Volta yacht's goal is to offer a wide range of electric and hybrid boats and promote the sustainable mobility.

- Narke, the Electrojet. Volta is working with this 100% electric jet ski company -

The company works with lots of shipyards, some of which are well known in the industry, while others are promising and fast growing, but few people are aware of them.

How do you choose the brand that you work with?

"My goal is to be able to offer our customers a wide range of electric boats. The boat shows are the right place to discover new products, if we find a new interesting concept, we test it, see how the production is organized and how the boat is built.

We choose to collaborate with shipyards that have already gone through the trial and error phase of the first prototype and are able to present a final product. Many shipyards have only prototypes or renderings, and it is not clear whether or not they are going to commercialize and put the product on the market. In this way, we can choose a brand that our customer can trust."

Green Energy, blue seas

This is the mantra of the scandinavian ELECTRIC YACHTS - PORTO CERVO , who is realeasing soon their first model named Electric Elegance 38.

- Electric Elegance 38 -

The technical solutions choosed for this 38-foot yacht are riding the new wave of innovations: Carbon Fiber hull, 100% electric propulsion and an eco friendly teak.

The material choose for the deck is the Synthetic teak from recycled plastic. What's the best way to give the plastic found in the ocean a second life?

The in house design team of ELECTRIC YACHTS - PORTO CERVO has collaborated with Jean-Jacques Coste. The French naval architect and designer signed few year ago the iconic trimaran Galaxy of Happiness.

• credit to: thierry-ameller - pic from boat international

The EE38 is the espression of a mediterranean inspired scandinavian minimalism.

Forbes has described it as a "mix between the glamorous style of the french riviera and the scandinavia aestetic minimalism"

We spoke with Roger Ericson, the creative director of ELECTRIC YACHTS - PORTO CERVO , and asked him how his relationship with Italy has been influential in giving this mediterranean touch to the EE38. He explained us that is well familiar with the enchanting island of Sardinia and the design capital Milan. The relationship with those two italian destination is reinforced by two collaboration strongly advocated by ELECTRIC YACHTS - PORTO CERVO .

Aldo Parisotto of Parisotto+Formenton, has been chosed as a design partner. The Milan based architectural and design firm will sign the interiors of the "milanese " version of the EE38

The second collaboration is with the One Ocean Fundation, founded by the yacht club costa smeralda, and denotes clearly the eco- responsibility of the brand.

We already said that the EE38 will feature an electric propulsion, and the team has assured that also all the futures models will be 100% electric.

This cross-cultural yacht is ready to be welcomed in different areas: Med, Asia, Middle East and north America. Before the end of the year the project will be officially presented in a special event.

The English team of Rush Yachts is about to release their first boat and they stated clarly that it's going to be a eco-friendly yacht.

We asked Matt Angove, CTO of Rush Yachts, how the idea was born.

"It has become more clear that the requirement from owners is to make use of green materials and technologies within the construction and specification of their boats.

"We have spent some time at yacht shows and researching into the industry and felt there was no boat that made a strong statement with the use of green technologies and materials.

The Rush 39 was developed around being practically green which means that we haven't compromised the performance and day-to-day use of the boat, in fact we feel as though using green materials and technolgies we have only improved it.

"We have made the most of the latest in green materials and technologies where practical. The decking is manufactured from Lignia (a modifed timber that has all the performance levels that you get from teak but from a far more sustainable source), upholstery and foams will be made from all natural materials and the propulsion method is a new techology.

What about the hull and deck?

"The hull and deck construction is an area we are still developing. There are many green materials such as flax and bio resins as well as production methods (DTM, infusion etc.) that we plan to further reseach and test over the coming months to establish exactly how these materials work within a marine enviroment and how we can implement them within our vessel.

There are an incredibly large list of factors to review when choosing green hull and deck construction materials and processes, such as product life cycle, weight (this will have an effect on propulsion efficency), performance (warm water/cold water) as well as the carbon footprint so we want to make sure what material combination and process we use is practical over a wide range of factors.

When it comes to the propulsion, the team have spent a large amount of time researching into various methods: from conventional diesel all the way through to full electric.

"There are many options available, all of which we think have specific vessel types that each set up works best with. The Rush 39 needs a high speed, high performance propulsion method. With the current propulsion methods available on the market, none are as developed and better suited for what we are trying to achieve as the convention diesel propulsion.

We looked further into applying new green technologies with the diesel propulsion method which is when we discovered the integral system.

This system is retrofitted to the diesel propulsion method and works as a super alternator allowing the main engines to work as generators also. With the integral software the engine is run at higher power output and a more efficent fuel burning rate then is needed just for propulsion, with the exesses power used to charge the service batteries. Through the development stages of this system there are clear implications that fuel efficency can be up to 25%.

The other clear benefit from a practical use for this sort of boat is the period of “silent mode” where the vessel can sit at anchor with no requirement for a generator to be run. We have created a very detailed load analysis for the boat and have specified a 20kW battery bank which will allow us to run full systems onboard (including Air Conditioning, Oven, Microwave etc.) for 10 hours without the need for additional assistance from the engines.

The Rush 39 is designed to give the end user multiple options from a propulsion side.

Which is, in your opinion, the first major step that the boating industry should do to help the environment?

We need to support companies who develop green materials and technogies to ensure that their work is continually developed.

It is clear that over the last 5 years the automotive industry has developed both electric motors and batteries that are becoming more and more practical for the day to day use within the industry. They have also focused clearly on items such as product life cycle, materials etc.

For the boating industry we are far behind the automotive industry in this respect.

By supporting the companies who develop these technologies we allow them to further invest and refine their products.

We would love to be one of those companies who can push the boating industry along to eventually become in line with the developments within the automotive industry.

Last but not the least, we had a chat with Rory Trahair, CEO of Vita Yachts.

Supercharging the cote d'azur

How the first Vita yacht was born?

"The first boat was built for the personal use of the founder of the company. He has been one of the first to own a Tesla in France, so for him electric mobility was happening and he wanted to be a part of it.

In building a boat he saw an opportunity to start a company and change the way the people use the water, reducing the impact on the environment, fish life and sea life. The benefit of electric propulsion are not limited to a fuel & cost prospective.

When considering the environmental impact, Vita Yachts has considered it from an end-to-end prospective, includint the entire supply chain, and the manufacturing process.

The company is operating with his supercharing network in the south of French.

We asked Rory his opinion about the differences between the Med and the Scandinavian contries.

"There's no doubt the Scandinavian countries are advanced. The financial benefits and contribution granted from this countries are only going to increase the demand and interest in the sector.

The Med is a market that has not been addressed yet, and we are keen to show that electric is not only for lake, but has an application also on the sea.

That's why we developed the supercharger infrastructure, to enable our boats to go further.

On the basis that there is a limit on the amount of power you can carry on an electric boat, the network was critical to support the use of electric boat. We felt that the network needs to be there before the electric boat market would grow.

People need reassurance that thay can get access to a charging network.

We noticed that most of the boats are not travelling long distances, so for consumers, what really matters is to have a changing network in the area where they are operating. Vita Yachts has developed a Fully integrated powertrain solution, supported by the charging network and then developed their own boat.

Customers can have a Vita boat or install Vita powertrain on other boat and still have access to the charging network. Is the way Vita aims to really increase the speed of which people can adopt the system and start use electric boats.

Can you tell us something more regarding this charging network?

"A lot of people question wheter Tesla should invest in their network, but for us is what makes Tesla compelling.

We don't want the lack of range prevent people from buying an electric boat. We see superchargers as the solution.

What is the first step that our industry must undertake to help the environment?

From our perspective the biggest environmental impact of boating are the noise and fuel pollution. Electric motors can get rid of both. Even if going full electric at the moment is not feasible for the whole ship industry, like shipping, for the recreational boating there's no reason to not go electric.

Its just going to be a matter of time, economy of scale and making the technology more accessible to more people. We are already witnessing to a massive shift in the automotive industry and same will happen in the boating industry

The technology is there, it is relatively affordable and this can only improve.

What about the regulations?

"Electric boating regulations will be influenced by the automotive ones. It would be silly not to look at what's going on in the automotive and adopt similar approaches to battery integration, safety of charging, battery management, fire regulation, ventilation, fire suppression system, separation of key components parts and hardware,..

At the moment, with regards to the current state of regulation around the electric boat a lot is still undefined. Even if right now very little is written down, it would definitely came soon.

As more electric boat are being available in the market, and more people is boating on electric boats, it would be crucial to ensure that they are safe and manufactured in a proper way.

Some project are quite homemade and high voltage system are not to be taken lightly. It is really really important for consumers to choose a boat they can trust because it has been engineered to the high stardard.

article originally published at bswan.studio

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