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Monaco Energy Boat Challenge

MONACO ENERGY BOAT CHALLENGE WHERE INNOVATION MEETS TRANSITION

Under the aegis of the collective ‘Monaco, Capital of Advanced Yachting’ umbrella takes place the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge. This event, which was launched in 2014, gathers the industry and young engineers in partnership with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.The goal is to develop alternative propulsion systems, using only clean energy sources to power the yachting of tomorrow. “It is very important for us – says the Yacht Club de Monaco General Secretary Bernard d’Alessandri – to have this type of meeting because we host young engineers from different countries in the world, like Peru, India, Dubai and it is an occasion to meet the new generation. It is key to share the knowledge and see the progress every year.

It will be important in a few years to have new-generation yachts with less enviromental impact”. Nearly 40 teams (21 nationalities) are set to take part in an event which combines numerous on-water challenges (sea trials, speed records, endurance and manoeuvrability trials) to test and demonstrate new technology’s potential with technical discussions in open source (a conference, daily Tech Talks, a round table) to share knowledge on progress in propulsion. “At the beginning of the event – says the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge jury president, Jeremie Lagarrigue,- we only had solar boats but, as Monaco is the capital of the yachting, we wanted to showcase all the other kind of propulsion that we can have on a boat.

So we created two other categorie: the first one was ‘Energy Class’ to promote any kind of energy like hydrogen and electric storage but we can also have new ideas like storing the energy of the air compressed and kinetic energy. We have also the class that represents the zero emission boat of the future that you can already afford which is the Open Sea Class”. An exhibitors’ village open to the public hosts startups and new projects in the innovation and new energy fields in yachting. In total a record 50+ eco-boats will be showing what they can do in the YCM Marina, powered by alternative energy sources.