Passengers: sailing is back in the race for the ships of tomorrow

Code name: Solid Sail, for solid sail or rigid sail.

This technology, developed since 2009 at Chantiers de l'Atlantique, in Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), with a myriad of industrial partners from Brittany and Pays de la Loire, is entering its final phase of experimentation before being put on the market. .

Solid Sail is a large sail made up of composite panels assembled together by a fiber 15 times stronger than steel.

Each rectangular panel will bend under the pressure of the wind which allows this yet rigid sail to behave like a classic sail.

This assembly makes it possible to produce sails in dimensions that cannot be reached by fabric sails.

Greenhouse gas emissions reduced by almost 50%

Within a year, Chantiers de l'Atlantique will install the first series (validated prototype) on their site.

It will consist of an 80 m high composite mast, one of the highest in the world, and a 1200m² sail offering amazing performance, as explained by Jean Le Cam, the skipper who has just returned from the Vendée Globe, which tested the system on Hubert, his racing sailboat.

“With Solid Sail, we were at 85% of the boat's speed capacity, people were quite surprised by this result!

We discovered the world with sailing boats.

People have forgotten it, underlines the sailor.

Now, we say to ourselves that finally, sailing boats are not bad.

I think it's great that we are coming back to these fundamental values.

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Eighteen million euros of investment, half financed by aid, were necessary for the production of this first unit.

With this new generation sail, Chantiers de l'Atlantique hope to sell liners 200 to 250 m long which would see their greenhouse gas emissions reduced by nearly 50%.

Shipowners, including MSC, a long-standing client of the Shipyards, are already interested.

The first unit would be available in 2022.