Financed by the Region, ENS Rennes and participating businesses, Eco Sailing Design® is eager for Breton companies designing and building racing yachts to sign up to a research and development project aimed at working on new eco-design tooling.

Eleven companies (Avel Robotics, Gsea Design, Guelt Nautic, Ino Rope, Karver Systems, Lorima, Nautix, North Sails, Pixel sur mer, SMM and VPLP) have already got on board with this project, which is led by a consortium grouping together the ENS Rennes (a French scientific establishment for the training of teachers), the UBS (a university in southern Brittany), and the BDI (Brittany’s regional innovation and economic development agency). Brittany, the cradle of offshore racing, intends to transform it and retain its leading position in this field.
The Eco Sailing Design project makes it possible for companies within Brittany, building competitive sailboats and associated equipment, to come together to present a united front when taking action to benefit ecological transition. By teaming up with companies, the goal is to co-build eco-design tooling tailored to their needs and put in place certain approaches within their companies enabling them to:

Gain a better understanding of the environmental impact in order to better control it, identify their own levers for improvement and make progress in this direction,
Integrate environmental considerations into the design and construction of racing yachts,
Use original tools for characterising environmental performance,
Facilitate the eco-design of high-performance racing yachts with a controlled economic and environmental cost,
Support the ecological transition of Breton companies from the racing yacht network, which are committed to this project.
 

During the Défi Azimut, the on-the-water competitions will be fleshed out by a series of round tables and conferences hosted back on land. In this way, on Friday 16 September, at the Cité de la Voile Eric Tabarly auditorium, from 11:00 to 12:30 hours local time, there will be a discussion and explanation on the topic of the “Ecological transition and the eco-performance of racing yachts’!