After spending three days at the Cannes Yachting Festival in France last September and meeting with the leaders of the major boat building companies, including Group Beneteau, Hanse Groupe, Fountain Pajot and other, I saw that things on the far side of the pond are a little different than they are at home.
In Europe, the pressure to create new products –boats, cars, planes and more—that are eco-friendly and without a carbon footprint through the whole lifecycle of the product has a wide and energized following. This concept involves the design, engineering, build, lifetime of use and end-of-life recycling.
To practical American’s, this might seem to verge on the edges of faddishness. But the new 33-foot weekender from Grand Soleil does embrace some intriguing ideas and may be a look at what we may all choose to embrace in the future, not just for the sake of the planet but also for a stab at modern, non-throw-away product development.
It’s called the Grand Soleil Blue Zero Impact. And, it may be the pointy end of a design direction for the builder and perhaps others.
To my eye, it has attractive, modern lines with a plumb bow and long sprit, a low topside profile, a sleek cabin and a wide racing-style transom. Under the water it has a T-bulb keel and a single rudder. Up top in the rig, they’ve gone with a large self-taking jib and a fairly powerful mainsail.
This is not a pure race boat but, because the central idea is to be eco-friendly, the boat is designed to sail whenever possible, beginning in winds of 10 knots or less. Most cruisers motor most of the time. But, if you could easily sail fast? Well, that is an option the Blue provides.
The Blue has a large, day-sailing cockpit and simple, bit nice-looking accommodations for four adults. For non-cruising sailors, this style of day-boat, weekender, short-haul cruiser seems to fit just how many sailors use their boats. Rosie and I could easily cruise this boat for a week or more.
But, the key element of the Blue concept is that the boat has been created to be completely recycled at the end of its useful life, more or less like modern cars. The hull is molded from material that can easily be repurposed. The interior and systems are easily taken apart and reused. The sails are made of a thermo-polymer that is easy to recycle.
The boat has a propulsion system from E-Propulsion that combines quick shore-power charging and built-in solar panels with a large lithium battery bank and a E-electric, regenerative motor. With the basic battery bank, the boat will motor for 30 miles at 5 knots. An upgrade to the battery bank will push the range to 60 miles.
The E-propulsion motors run as generators when the boat is sailing, and sailing is what the Blue is all about. You could motor out of your marina, sail for four hours, and then motor into your5 anchorage with full batteries. And, while lying at anchor, the solar panels will offer enough charge to keep on-board electronics’ running all night.
A Zero or low impact sailboat has a lot of appeal in Europe. It may one day be a nod to where we all will want to go. In the meantime, the new Blue is a really attractive coastal cruiser that will sail like the wind and not cost you a nickel in fuel. Read more here.
