THE BOLD NEW WORLD FOR SUPERYACHTS
When Greta Thunberg travelled to New York on Boris Hermann and Pierre Casiraghi’s IMOCA 60 Malizia II to address the United Nations, she was criticised for setting an example that few others could follow. While the 2,900-mile passage may have been accomplished without burning fossil fuels, there are not many of us in the world who can pick up the phone to cadge a lift with a Prince on a state-of-the-art carbon fibre race boat. But for all that, she threw a spotlight on the sustainability of sailing boats, if only for a brief moment.
And it is something the industry’s biggest names hope will reverse a long-term decline. “The recent trend has been for fewer sailing yachts being built compared to motor yachts,” says Thys Nikkels, MD of legendary yacht designer Dykstra. “That trend has maybe stopped, but it’s not back where it was. Everyone knows that we have to change the sustainability of yachting. My answer is to go sailing.”
Henry Hawkins, executive vice-president of Finnish builder Baltic Yachts agrees that the tide hasn’t yet turned in favour of the sailing sector. “I would love to say yes, but at this stage it’s a stretch too far! There’s a general optimism, and a feeling that it’s coming. Interests are changing.”
Not everyone is so upbeat. Veteran yacht designer German Frers told me that his clients were not yet thinking green. “They’re interested in pleasure and fun,” he said. “Sustainability is in the brief of every project, but it’s a bit too early to talk about change.”
Nonetheless, it won’t be long, as the new wave of younger owners has grown up with warnings about the environment ringing in their ears. “We believe that if sustainability is not top. “It is our responsibility to educate the uninitiated.”
