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Yacht Class N°33 (june-july-august 2023)
Two years after its first Smart Yachting & Marina Rendezvous, the Monegasque company Monaco Marina Management has launched this year another event dedicated, this time, to the yachts of tomorrow.
Written by Aurore Teodoro -Photos : Mesi & Simone Spada / YcM.
Two editions of the Smart Yachting & Marina Rendezvous were enough for Monaco Marina Management (M3) to establish the success of their format. And to bring a new axis of reflection out. In addition to providing a platform for exchanges on the marinas of tomorrow, M3 has decided to focus on their occupants, with a brand new event, the Smart Yacht Rendezvous. “We wanted to create an event dedicated to shipyards, with those innovators that are start-ups and scale-ups that offer products, solutions or innovations that can be used in the yachting of the future, always with an eye on the environment”, underlined José Marco Casellini, the CEO of M3, a Monegasque company specialised in the management of marinas. And the Monaco Ocean Week was the event chosen for its inauguration, a highly symbolic date, since the Principality multiplies the events in favour of environmental protection during this week of March. “We must not forget that we have partners, such as the Prince Albert II Foundation, and sponsors who are very interested in sustainable development. We are looking to walk together, to use very important events to get our message across,” José Marco Casellini emphasised. Actually, the exhibition was visited by Prince Albert II on its opening day. A long visit, during which “the Sovereign spoked to almost everyone about their innovations. He was very interested,” explained the organiser. “This is giving us a great deal of support, as well as dynamism for the future, because it shows the interest and the will to do better. Monaco is a laboratory for all these future environmentally friendly technologies.”
A unique platform for exchanges
For this new event, M3 kept its proven formula. And offered a real platform for exchanges to the yachting industry (vessels over 24 metres) and to innovative companies that want to provide a collective response to the climate challenges. During two days, the 5th floor of the Yacht Club de Monaco (YCM) had been turned into a large exhibition area. In addition to start-ups and scale-ups, famous yachting companies – Feadship, Sanlorenzo, Oceanco, Lurssen… … or propulsion specialists, such as Rolls Royce – responded to the call of M3. “Shipyards already have extensive knowledge of the market and the industry, but it is important to present them with some solutions that they may not have had time to explore. For some companies in the early stages of their evolution, it is not easy to meet such big players. Here we bring them together, we try to build relationships. This is also the aim of the YCM, which aims to bring together all those involved in yachting, but also in the protection of the environment, because without the sea there is no yacht club”, said José Marco Casellini, who proudly mentioned the positive results of the first two Smart Yachting & Marina Rendezvous: “It is great to see marinas working with the companies they met during our event. This is the result of our work, of this network, and we see that it works.” The two-day programme also included a number of panels and roundtables on topics such as “the decarbonisation objective and future regulations” or the presentation by the MB92 Group of its third environmental report entitled “A collective effort for the oceans”.
More than 150 applications to review
Just like the Monaco Smart Yachting & Marina Rendezvous, the event took several months of preparation. Once again assisted by Blumorpho, a specialist in innovation for the sustainable economy headed by Géraldine Andrieux Gustin, M3 examined the applications of more than 150 start-ups and scale-ups. 181 individual interviews were then organized between the 44 members of the international jury and 50 start-ups, scale-ups and corporates, representing 24 countries from all over the world. This jury, composed of yachting (technicians, engineers, designers…) and finance experts, selected the companies present during this event. The result of a “research work that lasted 3 months”, said José Marco Casellini, and which also gave birth to a public catalogue of the innovations and solutions for the entire life cycle of yachts, from R&D to refit and disassembly. It was through the same process that they selected the winners of the Awards of this very first edition. The Smart Innovative Yacht Awards in the start-up category went to the Italian company Northern Light Composites (Nlcomp), which has developed a recyclable composite called “R-Composite” for a recyclable composite that solves fibreglass end-of-life issues. In the scale-ups category, Lineat Composites won the jury’s favor with their process to turn carbon fibre waste into carbon fibre tape, reintroducing it into the supply chain as a technical product. Finally, the “corporate” winner is an inflatable, retractable and automated wing for merchant ships and pleasure boats, developed by the French company Wisamo, that would allow a fuel saving of 20%. So there will be plenty of solutions to explore before, no doubt, a second event next year. Meanwhile, get ready for the 3rd Smart Yachting & Marina Rendezvous, which will take place at the YCM on September 24th and 25th, prior to the Monaco Yacht Show!
