AS Monaco Basketball registered back-to-back wins to continue their winning start to the new season against Nancy (89-76) on Tuesday with another new signing, Jaron Blossomgame, dictating proceedings.
After a tight victory away to Nanterre during Sunday’s curtain-raiser, the Roca Team once again took to the road to face Nancy. Just like in that game, the two sides were evenly matched for large swathes of the encounter, and it was once again one of the summer recruits that finished as the side’s top scorer on the night.
After being left out of the squad for the opening gameweek, Blossomgame was thrown straight into the starting line-up and didn’t take long to mark his arrival felt, scoring 20 points in his first game in Monégasque colours.
However, Monaco didn’t have things all their own way, and in the first-half, in particular, they had to match Nancy’s physicality just to keep the scores level. Neither side could make the break, although an Adrien Moerman three-pointer, followed by a Jordan Loyd hoop from within the key gave the visitors a short-lived five-point lead. Nancy quickly hit back to reduce the deficit before taking a two-point lead (27-25).
Monaco found their rhythm and started to construct what proved to be an unassailable lead following the return from the dressing rooms at half-time. A Blossomgame three-pointer marked the start of a quarter that Monaco would largely dominate. John Brown, Alpha Diallo and Yakuba Ouattara also chipped in to ensure that Monaco went into the fourth-quarter with a comfortable advantage (64-74).
The Roca Team continued to assert themselves in the final 10, maintaining and slightly growing their lead on their way to an 89-76 victory. Ultimately, Nancy couldn’t keep pace with a physically and technically superior Roca Team on the night.
Having registered two victories in their first two Betclic Elite matches, Sasa Obradovic’s side now prepare for their return to the Principality, where their fans, as well as a new stadium, awaits them on Sunday.
Photo above source: AS Monaco Basketball
Interview: Naval Architect and Designer Espen Oeino
As the curtains go up on the The Monaco Yacht Show 2022, the organisers have a new word on their lips: ‘Seducation’.It’s their three-year programme designed to attract a new generation of yachting clients with two core concepts: ‘education’ and ‘seduction’ and thus, ‘seducation’. The idea is to ‘zing up’ what some might call an already blisteringly wow-fuelled event.
So with this backdrop in mind, who better to front the first of a series of Monaco Life forays into MYS 2022 than one of yachting’s most iconic figures of innovation and forward-thinking: Espen Oeino, one of the naval architects and designers of the superyacht industry.
He has been designing yachts since his early 20s; the first, 74.5m MY Eco (now MY Zeus) still ‘bobs’ about in Monaco’s Port Hercules harbour.
Oeino was born and grew up in Oslo, southern Norway, where he skied by moonlight and spent endless summers messing about on boats. He says, “We have a very nice coastline in Oslo and Norway in general and in the summer we had long nights and short working days – it gives rise to an interesting lifestyle. If you include all the perimeters of all the island coastlines in Norway it adds up to 100,915km, which is the second longest coastline after Canada.”
When Espen Oeino was 17-years-old he was packed off to boarding school in Normandy, France. From there it was only a short step across the water to study naval architecture and offshore engineering with a focus on the oil and gas industries at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. “It was ship design basically. I went to university because I wanted to study naval architecture: mechanical engineering and civil engineering.”
The first few years were spent learning about principles and structure then floating structures and stability, hydrographics and hydrodynamics, hull designs.
“I was a passionate sailor so I wanted to design sailing boats,” he reveals.
After an internship with foremost designer Martin Francis, he was offered a full-time job, which is where his involvement with MY Zeus, formerly MY Eco, began. “Martin Francis was invited to tender a design for a motor yacht,” says Oeino. “None of us had ever designed a motor yacht before. We were really the underdogs but we ended up winning the competition and this boat was built, and I ended up being responsible for the project in the office. And that was my accidental entry into motor yacht design”.
Oeino worked with Francis for eight years before starting up on his own in 1994. Nearly 30 years later, the Espen Oeino International studio counts a staff of 30. He’s been designing yachts since he was three or four years old but the first big boat for which he was known was the mighty 126m MY Octopus in 1998. “I think at the time she was the fourth biggest yacht in the world and was certainly the biggest explorer yacht,” he remembers.
Photo credit Guillaume Plisson
For Oeino, the Monaco Yacht Show is an opportunity to catch up with clients and industry friends. Several EO designs also feature in the Show including two new launches built by Amels shipyard: the 60m MY Come Together and MY Energy (78m).
With the introduction of a Sustainability Hub at the MYS this year, is it feasible to talk of sustainable superyachts? Oeino likes to think it is. “Obviously the bigger the yachts, the more energy they require to function, but you need to try to minimise whatever you have to spend to make it all work: use renewable resources and limit the damage in terms of emissions.”
The EO studio is currently working on designs using multi-hulls. The ‘Silver Cat’ is being built in Australia. This 23.9m catamaran has open sides, front and back, to allow for natural air flow and no air-conditioning, limiting that particular energy consumer to the cabins below deck, a bit like a Bali beach house, he suggests. “I experimented a little bit myself with reducing requirements this summer with a small catamaran I built for myself.”
His interest in ‘fast but efficient’ dates back to the early 2000’s and beyond, particularly with the shipyard Silver Yachts. MY Silver Fast (2015), lightweight and slender, was designed to glide through the water with very little power. He is now working with catamarans at the shipyard looking into making the catamaran hull even slenderer than the mono-hulls and addressing the question of transversability.
“I am proud of the Silver Yachts,” he says, “they are very sustainable, and again they were against the mainstream when we built them. The volume is distributed longitudinally when the trend was to go taller or wider. It’s extremely efficient, you can cruise it at 18.5 knots and burn less than 400 litres an hour, which sounds like a lot but it’s not for a boat that size.”
Silverfast, photo credit: Guillaume Plisson
The EO studio is also working on some commercial projects with electric propulsion combined with fuel cells and hydrogen. The life cycle of yachts and their materials are another consideration – the question of the choice of materials and the impact of the life cycle of a yacht. What energy is required to produce the material? How much energy is required to get rid of the material after the life cycle of a boat? “It’s a massive calculation, and we are starting to talk about it, like other industries, but it’s a huge subject,” explains Oeino.
“No-one needs a yacht to live. They do not perform any work like a cargo ship or a ferry – carrying passengers or goods. So, I can always argue, I guess, that it has no purpose and the emissions could be avoided. But there are many things you can say that about. I think that in this industry we realise that sustainability is high up on the agenda and something we have to do our utmost to address. It’s a question of trying to reduce requirements and trying to be as clean as possible with whatever power and power source you are using. The last thing you want is a dirty sea, either the sea around you or the fumes from generators in your face.”
Raising awareness is critical, Oeino says. “If you take a typical displacement yacht of 80m, and bring her from a cruising speed of 14 or 14.5 knots to 17 or 18 knots, you pretty much multiply the power by a factor of 2.5/3 for a speed increase of 3/4 knots – so you’re doubling or tripling the power. This is crazy. So, think about that. Maybe you don’t need to get to St Tropez that bit earlier. That’s a very simple thing to do. The resistance curve is really cubic, it’s not linear; even reducing the speed a tiny bit can save energy and money.”
The man whose finger tips have brought us the world’s most iconic yachts still has ideas tumbling from the drawing board: “What I find interesting,” he says, “is trying to make the most out of whatever you’ve been given.”
As world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly in New York, The Ocean Race hosted a high-level event on 24th September in the same city to boost support for the adoption of a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights by 2030, with Prince Albert II of Monaco and ministers from Cabo Verde and Monaco giving their support to the initiative.
The Ocean Race, an around-the-world sailing event known as the toughest test of a team in sport, and partners – including the Government of Cabo Verde, the Government of Monaco and Earth Law Centre – are redoubling efforts to give the ocean a voice and gathering increasing support from countries around the globe for the adoption of a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights by 2030.
Together, the collaborators hosted an event at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that brought together participants from over 20 countries and international organisations to discuss how to galvanise further support as part of the journey towards the adoption of a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights. Participating countries included Italy, Portugal, France, Sweden, Singapore, Spain, Mexico, Palau, Colombia, Seychelles and Panama, along with key institutions in ocean conservation such as the Pew Charitable Trust.
“The ocean is vital for our climate, for our biodiversity and for life on Earth as we know it. It is time we gave the ocean a voice,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Monaco Isabelle Berro-Amadeï. “Two of the most prominent priorities of the Principality of Monaco are oceans and sport. We are proud of the fact that our Sovereign, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco – who also attended the event – is both an Olympian and one of the most dedicated leaders for a healthy, productive and protected ocean.”
In a video message, Boris Herrmann, one of the world’s best known offshore sailors and Team Malizia skipper, said: “Without the ocean, nothing would be possible. We clearly support The Ocean Race and partners in their work towards a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights because the ocean means everything to us: it is our playground, our workplace and, for me personally, spending more than 100 days a year in the ocean, it is also my home.”
Team Malizia are champions for sustainability and climate action and will participate in the next edition of The Ocean Race, which starts in January 2023 with their newly built race yacht Malizia – Seaexplorer IMOCA.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Monaco Isabelle Berro-Amadeï. Photo source: The Earth Centre
Addressing the round table, Ocean Campaigns Director at the Earth Law Centre Michelle Bender, told the audience: “I would like us to think about Ocean Rights as an opportunity. Not just another regulation, but rather a framework that shows the world how society and life can look like if we live in the right relationship with the Ocean and the entire Earth community.”
Meanwhile, Marine conservation biologist and National Geographic Explorer Callie Veelenturf stressed: “Today we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction and a zoonosis that is a result of an annihilation of nature, and so I think it is clear that our current environmental laws and legal systems aren’t working to allow us to establish harmony with nature as a society. We all need to ask ourselves what role we can play to move forward.”
During the event, the Government of Panama spoke via a video message backing the legal recognition of ocean rights, with the Minister for the Environment, Milciades Concepción stating: “We believe that support for a global initiative to recognise ocean rights must be a priority for all countries in the world, including those without coastal areas that still benefit from ocean resources.”
Cabo Verde’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Regional Integration, Rui Alberto de Figueiredo Soares, said: “Cabo Verde stands ready to advocate for a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights that has to be adopted and implemented on a global scale and with the support of policy makers, private sector, scientists, sailors and other key stakeholders. By 2030 the Declaration should establish a set of rules regarding the protection of the oceans and applicable to all countries in the world. The goal is ambitious but achievable as long as there’s global collaboration at heart.”
The Ocean Race Chairman Richard Brisius and The Ocean Race Policy Director Johan Strid wrapped up the event stressing the need to “move quickly” to bring draft principles on Ocean Rights to the United Nations General Assembly in September next year.
The home of AS Monaco Basketball, Salle Gaston Médecin, has been transformed in just 13 weeks. Sporting a sleek wooden design, an increased capacity court now awaits the returning Roca Team.
Basketball is set to return to the Principality on Sunday when Roanne face AS Monaco Basketball at the Salle Gaston Médecin. Not only will a completely new-look team take to the court, but the surroundings themselves will also be unfamiliar to the Roca Team faithful.
During the 13 weeks that have elapsed since the end of the 2021/22 season, and the beginning of this new campaign, the court has undergone what Monaco’s interior minister Patrice Cellario described as a “significant face-lift”.
Monaco Life on Tuesday attended a press tour of the Roca Team’s almost unrecognisable home court. The first immediately noticeable difference is the seating itself… and how much of it there is. Cellario announced that Monaco will be able to host just under 4,600 fans for their Betclic Elite and Euroleague campaigns this season.
The increased capacity at the Salle Gaston Médecin is not just in recognition of the growing popularity of the sport in the Principality, it is also the consequence of strict Euroleague regulations regarding stadia capacity. The European competition, the biggest outside of the USA, has already given the green light to this new hall.
Without the ability to lift the roof of the hall, the Monégasuqe authorities, along with the club itself, have had to be imaginative in their redevelopment plans. The edges of the previously square stands have been rounded, whilst the seating in the upper tiers has been significantly increased. The result of this, according to AS Monaco Basketball vice-president Paul Masseron, is the creation of a “real cauldron”. He added, “Fans will be particularly surprised and in awe [of the new hall.]” The atmosphere within the hall will also be aided by the creation of a ‘kop’ in the south stand.
The AS Monaco Basketball home stadium has received an important facelift. Photo by Monaco Life
The uniformity of the seats themselves also stands out. The monolithic wooden stands, one of which goes from courtside, all the way up to the roof gives the court what Masseron describes as a “warm” atmosphere. “I think it’s the only stadium in the French championship that is totally wooden. It’s very impressive and it also gives the hall a very warm character.” As well as providing a warm aesthetic, the use of wood is also an environmental measure, with the source material for the seats and stands coming from France.
It’s a good job that the raw materials for the renovation haven’t come far, given the extremely tight schedule that was set. In some ways, the Roca Team are victims of their own success, as work could only begin after the denouément of the 2021/22 season. As a result of reaching the final of the Betclic Elite, and taking it to a fifth and final game, work could only begin at the end of June.
“The time on site has been significantly reduced,” began Cellario. “Obviously we had to allow the Roca Team to finish last season, which finished in mid-June as a result of their incredible sporting results, whilst also giving them back their court for the start of the new season (2nd October). There were only 13 weeks on-site, 13 weeks to completely transform the hall… there is enormous pride and gratitude to the team that have carried out this operation in such a short space of time and worked flat out in order to achieve the results that you see today.”
He continued, “We are now passing our baby on to the Roca Team so that they can take up the challenge on a sporting level, and allow us to dream again this season.”
It’s all change at AS Monaco Basketball; a new-look roster will take to a transformed Salle Gaston Médecin this weekend. Whilst the aesthetics, and some components of the club will be unfamiliar during the meeting against Roanne in the Betclic Elite, the ambition of the club remains unaltered and clearly discernible. Their brand new hall attests once again to that ambition.
A few days before the Monaco Yacht Show, a number of start-ups, marinas, architects and yachting professionals were awarded for their sustainable projects at the Monaco Smart and Sustainable Marina Rendezvous. These are the winners.
The final phase of a six-month project to unite and award start-ups, marinas, architects and yachting professionals culminated in a meeting at the Yacht Club de Monaco on 25th to 26th September.
The two-day event is the second ever Monaco Smart and Sustainable Marina Rendezvous, and it focused on sharing actions and ideas for the yachting industry to meet environmental challenges.
Back in May 2022, 50 start-ups, nine marinas and eight architects were selected from a pool of over 10,000 for consideration.
Nicola Beck, Principal Architect at NBAX, picked up the International Smart and Sustainable Architecture Award for the Sanya Yacht Club project.
Speaking at the conference, Nicola Beck explained: “In China, generally, sustainability is not a big issue yet, so we focus 90% of our project on being standard, while one area we try and introduce some sustainability is in the materials or technology. That is why we are working with Canada Wood, which is a non-profit organisation promoting the use of Canadian wood. In China, the use of timber structures is starting to grow – it’s not used on a big scale yet – but we use it for the marine environment and it really showcases what timber structures can do. Wood has this reputation of being weaker than steel, which is not the case at all.”
Winning the award was a special moment for Beck. Having spent over 10 years in China, including the ‘lockdown’ years, she is happy that the work she had done during the pandemic in China is now being recognised and applauded in Europe. Said Beck on receiving the Award: “I’m really honoured to receive the Monaco Smart and Sustainable Architecture Award 2022. It’s incredible to be selected by such a high-profile international jury for our work in Sanya, Hainan.”
She added, “To realise large landmark projects is always a challenge but especially to accomplish it in a sustainable manner. The support of the conference, the community and the Yacht Club de Monaco will give this project and our future ventures the platform they require to showcase the great environmental potential of timber structures to a wider audience.”
Left to right: Philippe LeBlanc, EU Sales & Business Development Manager, Econcretetech (Winner of Smart & Sustainable Start Up Award), Ben Lesage from the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, and Marc Hervàs, Head of Sustainability, MB92. Photo by Monaco Life
The Marina Award went to Flisvos Marina in Greece for its sustainable approach to the coast and eco-responsibility.
The Start-up Award was collected by Philippe LeBlanc of Econcretetech, a company that makes a type of concrete that promotes the growth of organisms such as oysters, corals or barnacles which act like biological glue and enhance the strength and durability of structures and add to their durability and strength of structures. On receiving the Award LeBlanc commented: “This award is a great recognition of the commitment from the marina industry to apply solutions to preserve and promote the most important asset of any marina worldwide – its biodiversity and water quality”.
The Smart and Sustainable meeting also gave professionals the chance to discuss and share their experiences and innovative ideas.
One such idea came from refit and repair shipyard MB92 based at Barcelona. There, explains Head of Sustainability Marc Hervás, they have built a ‘wall’ of bi-valves (oysters or mussels) that they use to purify the water in the dock. He explains: “The bi-valves filter the water and eat the organic matter, keeping the water clean so the oxygen levels rise again. So, you have a much better quality of water using a natural process without any kind of technology.”
At the end of the bi-valves’ natural life cycle, the shell and meat are separated: the meat is sent to an insect farm and the shells to a local interior design start-up that grinds down the shells to make lamps and vases etc.
MB92 is this week launching its sustainability consultancy service to yacht clients. “We come up with a repair maintenance plan which introduces sustainable measures, such as energy efficiency or water treatment,” explained Hervás. “We already have yachts that are interested, so we are hopeful the service will be well received. At the end of the day, most of the solutions that we offer are not only positive for the environment but also come with economic savings for the client, maybe not in year one, but long-term.
“Being sustainable almost always means being efficient on economics. It’s a long-term project and once we are underway, we will introduce new propulsion systems like hydrogen and bio fuels – there are a lot of innovations coming in the future, starting with basic things, quick wins that can be implemented easily and fast like purification water systems, anti-fouling, LED lighting, and domotic energy efficiency.”
The 2022 International Smart and Sustainable Architecture ‘Special Mention’, or Coup de Coeur Award winner, was Snøhetta (Norway), an underwater restaurant, and Habacoa (Bahamas) picked up the 2022 International Smart and Sustainable Marina Coup de Coeur Award for design excellence of smart sustainable marinas and yacht clubs worldwide.
The Monaco Smart and Sustainable Marina Rendezvous was organised by Monaco Marine Management and Blumorpho, experts in innovation for sustainable business.
Photo above: Maarten van de Voorde, West 8, and Nicola Beck, Principal Architect NBAX Architecture & Design (Winner of Smart & Sustainable Architect Award). Photo by Monaco Life
Public embrace invitation to see inside Prince’s Foundation
For the first time, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation opened its doors to the public on Sunday 25th September as part of the 27th European Heritage Days, which this year fell under the theme of sustainable heritage.
Scientific Director Philippe Mondielli led two sessions presenting the Foundation, welcoming 42 participants. Workshops were organised in collaboration with the Terrae association, and 14 children, accompanied by their parents, discovered the plants and herbs in the vegetable garden. In particular, the children were educated on the role of bees and were able to witness a beehive installed in the garden. They also had the opportunity to sow a strawberry plant to take home.
Photo source: Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation
Villa Girasole, headquarters of the Prince Albert Foundation, attracted more than 60 other visitors who were curious to see inside this beautiful Belle Époque residence, built in 1882. Renovated with full respect for its period architectural details (mouldings, stained glass windows, leather wall decoration, etc.), the villa has also been equipped with high energy efficiency installations (photovoltaic solar panels, heat pump, double glazing and all-LED lighting, etc.), making it part of the Foundation’s commitment to promoting renewable energy.
The garden also offered the opportunity to discover or rediscover some of the prints from the Foundation’s Environmental Photography Award.
The Prince Albert II Foundation said that it was “delighted” with its participation in the European Heritage Days, which attracted nearly 120 visitors, all activities included, who came to talk to the Foundation’s teams throughout the day.
Photo above source: Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation
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