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HOW TO DISCOVER THE NEW WORLD: ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS YACHTS
Electric sailing offers many advantages. You can hear the nature around you clearly, and you leave no emissions behind. LXRY List 2021 presents a selection of environmentally conscious yachts.
Electric sailing has many advantages. For example, you can hear the nature around you clearly and you are also very environmentally conscious. Enough reasons to look at an electric boat. In the LXRY List 2021, MASTERS lists a few environmentally conscious yachts that will make your heart beat faster. Online editor: Natasha Hendriks
Project Ocean
The boat industry is catching up sustainably: electric boating is becoming increasingly popular and the production process is also keeping up with the times. For example, high-speed boat manufacturer Arksen is building one spectacular yacht, made from recycled aluminum and plastic bottles. This 25 meter long, environmentally conscious and at the same time luxurious ship bears the name Project Ocean and is expected to hit the market in 2022.
Flax 27
Master yacht builder Friedrich Deimann learned how beautiful yachts are made from wood. He constructed breathtaking classics with the time-honored material, pleasant to work with and - in the hands of a craftsman like him - the basis for a stunning result. The enthusiastic sailor in him saw that almost all modern boats are built in composite, with fiberglass or carbon providing strength and synthetic resin as a binding agent. These boats are lighter and therefore sail faster. Deimann did not want to work with those fibers that cause itching and resins that emit toxic fumes. His desire to build an equally light and strong boat using modern methods but natural materials led to years of research. But it worked: the German boat builder managed to make a vegetable epoxy from linseed oil. He chose cork as the core material between the layers of flax mats, reinforced with processed linseed resin. This natural material is light, strong, flexible and does not absorb moisture. He managed to create a modern, excellent sailing yacht from purely plant-based materials. Where large manufacturers experiment with small steps towards sustainable production, the founder of Green Boats is completely overtaking them. His Flax 27 is a beautiful yacht, and one of the most beautiful environmentally conscious yachts, with natural materials visible in the construction.
Sea Explorer
Sink comfortably into the cushions while the stylishly designed dinghy takes you from the superyacht to the quay of a fashionable seaside resort. The hull glides smoothly over the swell and the sharp bow prevents bouncing on the waves. Silence is the big bonus on this boat trip. In the 40 feet (12 meters) long Hynova, the silence is broken by nothing other than the sound of the water along the bow. That silence in combination with the speed of the motor yacht is the merit of the REXH2. This is the range extender hydrogen that Toyota developed. The fuel cell converts hydrogen into electricity. The yacht from the French start-up Hynova Yachts is the first hydrogen-powered, series-built, environmentally conscious yachts. The road to the use of clean fuel (emissions are water, oxygen and heat, no vibrations or noise) was paved by the experimental yacht SeaExplorer, a radical trimaran that sailed around the world with only electric propulsion. Solar and wind energy were also used on that boat to generate electricity, but the researchers from Energy Observer Development also developed a fuel cell for the world trip that is suitable for use in boats. Car manufacturer Toyota participated in the research and development. The design by Hynova Yachts founder Chloé Zaied now brings the automotive technology of the next decade into a boat.
Eco Explorer
Wings on a motor yacht do not make the luxurious sailing residence a sailing ship, argue the designers of the French studio Merveille Yachting, but one of the most beautiful environmentally conscious yachts. The Dutch yacht building conglomerate Feadship, known for the most prestigious motor yachts in the world, embraces that idea. The concept that the designers and the shipyard chain present together is the first in a completely new category of pleasure craft. The concept yacht, called Eco-Explorer, is designed to reduce energy requirements on board, use renewable energy and generate energy itself. Thanks to a sharp bow that cuts through the waves, the boat moves much less in bumpy seas. The extremely wide transom makes the boat very stable and will hardly heel if the wings on the deck provide propulsion by the wind. The type of wings, as seen on the catamarans of the previous America's Cup, is twice as efficient as conventional sails. This means that less surface area is needed to still sail quite fast: with average wind strength, 18 knots (34 km/h) is easily feasible. Underwater turbines generate electricity when the boat is propelled by the wind, as do windmills in the tops of the masts. The operation of the wings is fully automated.
