Innovation in Yachting

On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail” wrote Alexander Pope. In our increasingly diverse but seemingly shrinking world we’re having to sail faster through life than ever. 

The Tech Adventurer took the opportune moment to visit the Southampton International Boat Show last week to see who’s innovating in the oldest form of vehicular transport.

We’d hoped for more but the two fully electric boat manufacturers deserve special mention with the X-Shore Open demonstrating stats of 30 knots top speed and a 50NM range at lower speeds. Optima are a different class of boat but aesthetically at least they are beautiful. Fully electric propulsion systems in yachting is still a long way behind their fossil fuelled counterparts and this shows in their numbers. There’s a lot of work still to be done but it’s encouraging to see the year on year progress. 

There are more out there such as the:

• ARC One
• Alfastreet 28 Cabin
• Boesch 750 Portofino which is simply breathtaking
• Candela C-7 which pushes the limits of innovation with it's active foils

...but it was a shame not to see them exhibiting.

Electric outboard motors are making it into the mainstream though, especially for smaller tenders where the user case is more obvious with the likes of Torqeedo seemingly leading the pack amongst many others.

One very impressive company is Arksen who are now championing all things adventure including experiences and apparel are building on their heritage as explorer yacht manufactures with new models that we had the pleasure of viewing in both their Discovery and Adventure series in the flesh. They're massive champions of combining adventure, technology with a circular economy which is very much aligned to The Tech Adventurer's ethos.

Considering the prevalence of foiling in pretty much every top sailing racing class now it was a slight shame to not see more examples of this at the show but we may have missed some.

What we did visit was the fabulous Gentoo Skippered by James Harayda. It’s an IMOCA 60 which some of you may know as the single handed Vendee Globe yachts. The Vendee is one of the toughest races in the world and involves circumnavigating the globe single handed, non stop for 70-80 days. James’ yacht uses part of Alex Thompson’s old Hugo Boss hull with retro fitted foils and is easily capable of 30-40kts in . 

The Americas Cup

It was a particularly timely visit this year as the show coincides with the oldest competition on our planet - The America’s Cup which some of us have been glued to. It’s a demonstration of some of the most advanced tech in the world and like Formula 1 and Formula e are the testing ground for what starts to filter into our everyday lives like regenerative breaking this is the leading edge of sailing. 

Watch team Britannia beating Alinghi to reach the LV finals here.

The Louis Vuitton Cup boats are sailing at 50+ knots which means the boats are often sailing at 3/4 times the actual wind speed. This is due to the foiling, technology, reduction in drag and most importantly the umpteenth wonder of the world - apparent wind which essentially means you make your own wind.

What does this teach us about innovation?

Container shipping is essential for global commerce but causes ~3% of global CO2 output* 

Why can’t we have wind powered container ships. Some clever people are trying like BAR Technologies.

Why can’t we have foiling container ships? This one seems a bit more obvious on the surface but I’d like to explore the hypothesis. We assume they have to be big but why couldn't we reduce the size, have more modules and have a train of contiguous sailing foiling containers snaking over our seas?

If you don’t ask the big questions one won’t find the big solutions. 

...and one final thought; as Augustus John Cuthbert Hare said “thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel”

But could mankind be the navigator with tech and AI being our new vessel? If so we all need to ensure it’s in the right direction. 

*source: Transport Environment