Once a month, Surfrider proposes to discover a project working towards oceans protection. This new Outside format presents external initiatives with values common to the organization. Meeting with these committed project leaders.
Yves Parlier, worldwide French navigator, has accumulated titles and awards throughout his sports career. In 2001, he aroused admiration in fixing his mast, out at sea, to come to the end of Vendée Globe. Nowadays the skipper put his expertise at the service of ocean protection and innovates thanks to a propulsion system of ship by kites.
What is your project about?
Yves Parlier : For thousand years, boat used wind power to go on, before to be invaded by combustion motors. We would like to come back to this resource exploitation thanks to boats traction by kite. The idea is to create a hybridization of propulsion for an economy of 20 % of fuel. The goal, over time, is not to use fossil energy anymore.
First, we have launched our researches, in taking an interest for every boat sizes. We developed some LybertyKite, a simple model, that can low boats of small sizes, between 4 and 12 meters, even more if we accumulate devices. Now, we work on more complicated systems, more sophisticated and performing, equipped with autopilot, for bigger ships. Several partners help us and accompany us in our process such as engineers’ schools, laboratories, industrials like the fabrics society Porcher etc. In our premises at La Teste de Buche, we take care of kites’ conception, of manufacture and auto-piloting, making easier the crew’s work.
For this project, it is important the system is not a break when there is no wind, however it is too weak, to strong or badly oriented. On a sailboat for example, when there is not good conditions, masts and shrouds slow down the boat. Kite has the advantage not to take too much space on the boat, to do dynamic flying, to fly 5 times faster than wind and to exert force 20 times more than a normal sail.
At the moment, we only have 2 demonstrator boats, a fishboat in Québec and a catamaran, the Energy Observer (totally dedicated to renewable energies and hydrogen) that use our technology. At the end, our partner the CMA CGM, 3rd worldwide transporter of containers, hopes to equip a part of its fleet, composed of 450 ships, as soon as the system will be ready.
What was the first motivation of the project? What made you do something?
I stopped my sport career in 2006. During my different competitions, I took a serious interest in renewable energies issue. For that matter, I made a first world tour, Vendée globe in 1996-1997, with no fossil energy on board. I have always been preoccupied by the beforehand aspect of the race: boats conception, weather, machinery… This reorientation of my career has been the result of this reflexion: how to put in favour the knowledge accumulated, linked to environmental issues, to find solutions to carbon emission?
What has been the key point of your experience?
In 2007, people thought I was crazy! The first meeting with CMA CGM almost took a turn for the worse. Today, things evolved a lot: feasibility of machinery does not raise question anymore and legislation is going to move on, especially with the IMO that wants to take action and to serve on merchant navy emissions from now to 2020… Fuel prices are going to increase, which is going to make the ship-owners first spending heavy. More than ever, they are going to be looking for savings… A big step for the planet, and for us.
Now, clients (loaders) must put more pressure on ship-owners to have a cleaner transport. Public opinion must be aware in order that this research movement goes faster and to find solutions with this astounding energy that is wind, free and inexhaustible. In sailing, progress immensity is easily observed. For example, in 1960, it took 40 days for the winner of the first transatlantic… Nowadays, it is the same time for a solo round world voyage. This progress must be now for merchant navy, with financial challenges way much more important than ones invested in the race. But it is obvious that progress is going to happen, and it must be.
A message to spread? Another project in mind?
Today, we are trustful for the traction of container ships and boats of bigger sizes. There are still technological locks to unblock and high researches budgets are needed. We are firmly convinced, and we have all reasons to believe in!
Yves Palier’s project falls within the ecological transition of maritime transports and encourages ship-owners to make a start on their ecological turn. As well as actions led by Surfrider, this project works on change, to a clean and responsible maritime transport. Even if it is only partial nowadays, boat traction by kite is a sustainable solution and it is really encouraging.
