World Yachting Summit highlights sustainability options

The first World Yachting Summit (WYS) took place April 15 – 17 in Monaco and I had the honour and pleasure of participating as Moderator for a number of sessions on improving sustainability in yachting.

---

Listen to this article as a podcast

---

The Summit, organized by Monaco Marina Management (M3), covered a variety of aspects of the yachting business, not just sustainability. There were sessions on the effects of global trade disruption, regulation changes, the effects of advanced technology and AI, tourism, chartering, changing markets, customers and business models.

The panellists, speakers and attendees covered a wide swath of the yacht and superyacht market, with deeply experienced experts in propulsion, design, construction, registry, chartering, brokering and more.

The panels and keynote speeches were all fascinating and extremely well thought out by the Summit’s Development and Content Manager, Laurent Perignon. I was obviously most focussed on the sustainability issues, and while I could attend all of the keynote presentations, I missed some other sessions because I was moderating panels at the same time.

World Yachting Summit focuses on above 12m (40ft)

The Summit focussed on yachts above 12 metres (40 feet), including superyachts of 48 meters (160 ft) and beyond. Those are challenging lengths and weight of boats for pure electric propulsion, so panel discussions covered the broader topics of reducing emissions and options for ways that these large vessels can use hybrid systems (some including electric, some not), as a way to work towards net zero emissions.

L- R: Nicolas Boulet, WISAMO; Tobias Kohl, mtu Rolls Royce; Nicola Pomi, Volvo Penta; Jeremie Lagarrigue, EODev

It was impressive how reducing emissions and adopting more sustainable practices in general is a topic that everyone realizes is important and immediate. As many pointed out, the people who own yachts purchase them largely because they enjoy everything that the water has to offer and so they want it to be protected as much as possible.

Two of the panels I moderated focussed on sustainability, one looking at materials and operations, the other looking at alternative fuels and propulsion energies. (The two others were on sailing and foiling yachts and the impact of the digital age and AI on yachting.)

The panel themed ‘What an alternative clean future may look like’ had the most participants and was the roundtable most focussed on direct ways that large yachts can reduce their carbon emissions and environmental impact.

Two sessions of panel

The session was split into two ‘sub-panels.’. One featured four energy and propulsion providers and the second was made up of the people and companies, such as yacht designers and naval architects, that apply those solutions.

Panel 1:

• Jérémie Lagarrigue, CEO of EODev
• Nicolas Boulet, CEO of WISAMO Michelin
• Nicola Pomi Vice President Yacht & Superyacht –  Volvo Penta
• Tobias Kohl, Director Application Engineering Marine and Offshore – mtu Rolls Royce.

Panel 2:

• Rodi Basso, CEO and Co-Funder – E1 Championship Racing Series
• Patrick Ferri, Technology Project Manager – SBM Offshore
• Raymond Fagerli, Naval Architect and Hydrodynamicist, MacFarlane ShipDesign
• Espen Øino,  Yacht Designer –  Espen Øino International 
• Dan Lenard, Designer, Stylist, Partner – Nuvolardi Lenard

There is a lot to cover here, so I will be writing two Plugboa