11th Hour Racing Sustainability Award – spotlight on Greenboats

Over the past 10 years the company has built and demonstrated a viable and sustainable alternative to conventional composite materials, and their FLAX27 Daysailor concept boat has been tested in the harshest of marine environments to prove that their creation has the potential to completely change the global footprint of sailing.

Described as a ‘masterpiece of craftsmanship’, the FLAX27 Daysailor combines a timeless design with the most modern and sustainable boat building technologies. It is made from 80% natural and/or recycled materials and weighs 10% less than a comparable GRP construction at just 1,200kg.

Greenboats was awarded the World Sailing 11th Hour Racing Sustainability Award at the 2022 World Sailing Awards in recognition of this achievement and to raise awareness of the efforts within the sport to become more sustainable.

Friedrich J. Deimann, Founder, Greenboats, said, “When I was 10 years old, I started sailing and I was so impressed with boats, I decided very quickly to become a boatbuilder but what I didn’t like at all was the material itself because the glass and carbon fibre was very itchy.

“I did a lot of research to find ways to combine the best of the two worlds: wooden boatbuilding and composite world. I found this material, flax fibre and bio-based resin systems which you can process in the same way from the composite industry. In 2013, I founded Greenboats.”

By using natural and recycled materials, the team at Greenboats has reduced the CO2 emissions of composites by up to 80% over the product life cycle, with the same or better mechanical properties. The next step is to simplify adoption and increase usage.

Friedrich added, “We developed technologies that enabled us to build boats from natural fibres without losing performance and with the possibility to lower the footprint of the product. Starting with the FLAX27, where we showcased that it is possible to replace glass fibre reinforced composites using 100% natural fibre. The FLAX27 is 10% lighter and has a beautiful aesthetic.”

Jan Paul Schirmer, Managing Director, Greenboats, commented, “The ethos of the company is built on craftsmanship, and I believe a lot of the innovation and ideas are coming from very talented craftsmen who can create these beautiful products.”

Every element of design is powered by innovation and the need to meet customer demand in terms of cost, performance and sustainability. This is best illustrated with their work on Team Malizia’s new IMOCA 60 boat, which focused on performance and sustainability while accepting the cost may be slightly higher than carbon fibre components.

The Malizia ‘Sea Explorer’, skippered by Boris Herrmann, is designed for both racing and raising awareness of climate protection by collecting ocean data such as sea surface CO2 levels during races and deliveries. This valuable data, which is scarce in remote places like the Southern Ocean, will assist marine scientists in understanding and monitoring the health of the oceans. Hermann first skippered the craft in the Route du Rhum in November 2022 and is currently taking part in The Ocean Race 2022-23.

Hendrick Plate, Head of Product Development, Greenboats, said, “Boris (Herrmann) was really, really interested in the material and the boat, and we talked more about what we can do on the new IMOCA out of these materials. On top of this, the IMOCA changed their class rules to allow 100kg of sustainable material onboard. Then it became really important to showcase what our material can do in one of the harshest environments sailing can offer.

“We worked with the team to develop different hatches, brackets for instruments, floorboards, and reduce the carbon footprint of the boat itself.”

It was at the conclusion of Leg 2, in Cape Town, South Africa, where Greenboats and Team Malizia met up again and Greenboats received their 11th Hour Racing Sustainability Award trophy from 2021 winners Sail Africa.

Greenboats is continuously investing in its workshop and especially in the Panel Press which allows the company to further reduce the processing costs and offer Natural Fibre Composites at a more affordable price – thus lowering the entry barriers for other shipyards.

Greenboats hopes to make even more progress with its science-based approach to understanding impact and identifying solutions by developing materials, investing in new testing equipment, direct comparison testing with current standard boatbuilding materials, and sharing their findings with the wider sailing community to present what is possible and identify solutions for diverse, class-specific applications and challenges.