The opening day of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge’s 10th edition came off without a hitch, with Prince Albert II on hand and a brand new event to be enjoyed in the form of the inaugural e-Boat Rally.
The Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, which kicked off on Wednesday 5th July, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
Since its inception, the eco and tech-focused event has been gathering steam to become the leading occasion for the ecologically-minded yachting world to discover what innovative new ideas are in the works from teams of top engineers and designers from all over the planet.
As President of the Yacht Club de Monaco, Prince Albert II was of course there in person to launch this year’s four-day event, alongside the establishments vice-presidents, Pierre and Andrea Casiraghi. The trio spent a good deal of time on site examining and admiring the entries and talking to competitors.
A BRAND NEW EVENT
The first day was marked by the first-ever Yacht Club de Monaco e-Boat Rally, organised in partnership with Aqua superPower. The gathering was a 21-nautical mile endeavour from Monaco to Ventimiglia and back.
“Monaco was the first to recognise the potential of electric propulsion and [its] capacity to transform the yachting industry,” said Luisa Bonello, the co-founder of Aqua superPower. “Aqua supports the Yacht Club de Monaco in its efforts to progress this vision by working with all electric boat brands to create the infrastructure that will make electric boat navigation immediately possible.”
To accommodate the boats, an e-Dock, a specially designed bamboo pontoon equipped with AC and DC chargers able to supply fast power to more than 20 boats at the same time, was unveiled on the waters off the Yacht Club de Monaco. It will act as a fast-charging floating platform for DC compatible boats.
FANTASTIC TURNOUT
The event has attracted 46 teams representing 21 countries and 31 universities, who all used a variety of different forms of sustainable power to propel their boats.
“We have 46 teams from prestigious universities, but also companies,” said the chairman of the international jury and the director of EODev, Jérémie Lagarrigue. “This year, we have noticed how involved the yachting industry is and that there’s a close relationship between the two worlds. The students are passionate about what they’re doing and [are as] keen to come up with new solutions as the sector is to meet owners needs for something affordable and reliable. Here you will find a whole range of innovations, particularly relating to hydrogen propulsion, battery storage and solar panels across the three categories: Energy Class, Solar Class and Open Sea Class.”
RACES, CONFERENCES AND MORE
Further races will continue throughout the course of the event, the complete programme for which can be found here.
There are also numerous round tables and conferences, with hot topics such as sustainability and the future of hydrogen power on the schedule. Additionally, the teams themselves will be presenting their projects in a series of “Tech Talks” to the public and any interested parties, where they will discuss their innovations and the technology being used.
A jobs forum and corporate mentoring programme giving students and industry leaders a chance to meet will run alongside the main activities.
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Photos credit: YCM / Studio Borlenghi