Day: 9 July 2023

“My message to young people is this: I invite you to be very curious, to question the status quo and also the social norms. The way we’re doing things today is not right regarding climate change.” This was German skipper Boris Herrmann’s message to the youth gathered at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge.

After just completing the Ocean Race, during which Boris Herrmann and his crew won the final stage, Herrmann was at the Yacht Club de Monaco, ‘home’ of his Malizia team – designed and founded together with Pierre Casiraghi – for the 10th edition of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge.

“We need to make a breakthrough and we will see the greatest changes in the history of our civilization in the next century,” said Herrmann to the young students participating in the competition. “This will be a very challenging time for engineers and technicians to work on solutions to drive change, so be ambitious and don’t stop at no.”

The event, dedicated to alternative propulsion, gathered together 31 universities and around 50 teams for a total of 500 international students, who competed in various competitions at sea with their boats powered by alternative propulsion.

Boris Herrmann has long been committed to the environment, including, for example, a laboratory onboard his boat during the last Vendée Globe.

“Here at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, we see students with boats with solar technologies but also with hydrogen fuel cells. They are technologies that are not common. They will drive innovation and some startups will emerge from here. They will certainly learn a lot, and more and more talent will spread among the people who work in the sector.”

The German sportsman now has his eyes set on the Transat Jacques Vabre in October 2023 and the Vendée Globe 2024-2025.

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Photo source: Yacht Club de Monaco

The US-based Plum philanthropic foundation, a champion of rewilding and restorative projects around the world, has donated $100,000 to the World Coral Conservatory being spearheaded by Monaco institutions. 

The founder of Plum, Sally Dufour Berte, was in Monaco to hand over the generous cheque on 27th June. The funds will go towards financially supporting the World Coral Conservatory, an initiative that is the result of close collaboration between the Centre Scientifique de Monaco (CSM), the Institut Océanographique-Fondation Prince Albert I de Monaco (IO) and the Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco (FPA2). 

Together, the three establishments are working to preserve living corals through an international network of aquariums and research institutes.  

The official website for the Conservatory, known in French as the Conservatoire Mondial du Corail, describes the project as being “a consortium of scientists, aquarium curators and NGOs working on the ground for reef restoration [that] are committing to a proposal to build a ‘Noah’s Ark’ for reef-building corals that will serve as a reservoir for coral reef conservation, research and restoration purposes”.  

Also present at the event were: Olivier Wenden, Vice-President and Managing Director of the FPA2; Cyril Gomez, Deputy Director General of the IO; Doctor Denis Allemand of the CSM, and several other members of the scientific centre, which is based on Quai Antoine 1er in the Principality.

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Photo credit: CSM