The second day of the World Yachting Summit in Monaco was focused on innovation and sustainability. Speaking on this topic was Giovanna Vitelli, Chair for Azimut Benetti, who spoke about the fundamental elements identified by the company to revolutionise the industry. Alongside her, many other international guests spoke about the fundamental topics focussed on achieving zero emissions, analysing possible solutions for a cleaner future in the boating industry.

Giovanna Vitelli at the World Yachting Summit

“Change – says Giovanna Vitelli – can become a reality, only if it is shared.” Research is necessary and must continue in this direction, but we can’t forget to communicate.” For this reason the key idea of her talk was about transparency.

The Group Chair highlighted the need to provide certified data about fuel consumption. For this reason, Azimut has adopted the SEA Index,  but not only in its “traditional” version – evaluating emissions for yachts over 24m – but collaborating together to develop it for use  for boats under 24m, providing accurate and verified data. This provides owners with the option to evaluate their consumption, but means it is also applied to new yachts in the design phase.

In addition, she presented some of the Group’s achievements, like the Seadeck series. In a year of use, the Seadeck produces 40% less greenhouse gasses compared to lineshaft vessels. The Chair of Azimut Benetti also explained that these results have been achieved through a number of different factors.

The comany has been working on a number of new innovations to improve sustainability. The first is using hydrotreated vegetable oil as fuel. This is a high quality biofuel sourced from renewable materials, leading to a reduction in emission of between 60% and 90% compared to the fossil fuel mix referenced. “It is an easy and implementable solution, although there are some problems with transport,” she notes. “But in this case, the increase in demand can fix that.”

Another innovation adopted by the company is in regards to materials and a more sustainable architecture, through the use of carbon fibre and highly efficient hulls. One of the fields in which Azimut is working heavily in is innovative and hybrid propulsion.

“We have invested – says Giovanna Vitelli – all the knowledge we have available in this field, thanks to our partnership with Volvo Penta. Our efforts, in this case, is to try and use a custom approach for yachts of different sizes.” Azimut is continuing to work in this direction, with exceptional achievements, like having built the largest hybrid yacht in the world, Luminosity.

A green future for boating

After Vitelli’s introduction, the debate continued with a panel who discussed the question of how to continue developing sustainably in an intelligent manner. Along with  Patrick Coote from MarineMax, Michael Breman from Lürssen  and other important speakers, they discussed how to make this change attractive, joyful and accessible to all. Also speaking on the second day of the event were Nicola Pomi from Volvo Penta, Tobias Kohl from Rolls Royce and Dan Lenard from Nuvolari Lenard, who contributed to the debat on how to make the future of boating more sustainable and clean.

by Arianna Gurreri