An international jury of 20 yachting professionals and investors have awarded two Smart Innovative Yacht Awards at the Monaco Smart Yacht Rendezvous.
Forty startups and scaleups were selected out of 350 applicants with the Startup award presented to Composite-Recycling and the Scaleup award to Greenboats.
“We recycle composite materials used to build boats and wind turbines and enable them to become new boats in a way that closes the loop of the constituent materials,” explained Guillaume Perben, CEO and co-founder of Composite-Recycling. “We are very pleased to have won this award for the work we’re doing on recycling boats, helping make boating sustainable and something that no longer harms the environment.”
“Over the last few years, we’ve been working flat-out on R&D to try and develop fibres that can compete with glass fibres and, even better, be lighter,” said Loris Schimanski – business developer of Greenboats.
“It’s a solution based on panels that can be more easily assembled in the big shipyards to reduce the carbon footprint.”
Sustainable solutions
The key objective of the Monaco Smart Yacht Rendezvous was to promote sustainable solutions and new technologies for the yachting industry, particularly yachts over 24m.
It was held as part of the ‘Yachting’ day at the seventh Monaco Ocean Week, under the aegis of the collective ‘Monaco, Capital of Advanced Yachting’ approach.
“All stakeholders in our sector need to be driving technological progress if we are to make the maritime world more sustainable. And it has to be a collective effort,” stressed Bernard d’Alessandri, General Secretary of Yacht Club de Monaco which hosted the event.
The event also included topic-sector workshops, round tables environmental, economic and functional factors determining yachting’s energy transition.
Discussions included solutions offered by new engine technologies, propulsion and alternative fuels, with hydrogen often a focus of the debate.
There were also discussions focusing on the synergy between newbuild and refit shipyards with a collaborative approach and regulations and incentives for the yachting industry given the challenges ahead.
The Monaco Smart Yacht Rendezvous was supported by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation alongside major partners UBS, Sindalah, the shipyard MB92 Group and Wider Yachts.
