How do they do ?(Ep. 4): Imoca and sustainable development

They revolve around the globe pushed by the only force of the wind, but on carbon sailboats which cost the environment very dear.How do teams reconcile their worship of the sea, of nature with a not so clean sport?

A question that is controversial

Is it really serious to question skippers or their preparer entirely turned towards the performance a few months before the departure of a major race on the way in which they reduce the environmental impact of their sports project?Apart from the very theme of this issue, the question is however on all lips-sailors as non-marine-from the transatlantic media of Greta Thunberg aboard the 60 feet of Boris Herrmann.A crossing to the only force of the wind which had the merit of giving a spotlight on the Imoca while creating the controversy around their conception.A 100 % carbon, or almost, IMOCA is far from exemplary.

As on our pleasure sailboats, absolutely nothing on the edge, from the chest bulb to the mast head is eco -responsible: their soul is synthetic as much as their carbon skin, their sails are impossible to recycle as well as the kilometersBits that allow skippers to animate them on the water.Let us still retain a few stainless steel pieces and the fact that these racing animals that revolve around the globe pushed by the wind are fueled in energy by the sun or the wind by carrying in their journey that a negligible quantity of fossil fuels(None within the framework of the Greta T. deckchair).

Si la polémique est récente, l’intérêt de la classe et de certains coureurs pour le sujet est ancien. Car tout en étant focalisé à tout prix (y compris environnemental) sur la performance mécanique de leurs voiliers, cette classe tournée vers l’innovation a permis la mise au point d’au moins un équipement écoresponsable : l’hydrogénérateur Watt&Sea développé par Yannick Bestaven. Un produit qui s’est depuis largement diffusé chez tous les coureurs et chez les plaisanciers.

Like any high -level mechanical sport, offshore racing has its beneficial repercussions on pleasure.This is why a lot of her expects, especially with regard to the use of bio -based resin, or even natural fibers for construction.If the eco -friendly seed is planted in the minds of runners (a certain number of whom is found in the collective La Vague, see box), the offshore race is a crafts that do not have a research and development capacity eitherUnlimited.

A little tour in the Macsf hangar

To judge ins and outs, I went to Lorient, within the MACSF team then in the middle of the Imoca optimization site of Isabelle Joschke.It was Marine Viau, general coordinator of the project, who welcomed me for a guided tour of the site and a frank discussion on the environmental impact of a Vendée Globe project.We quickly feel that the subject touches the heart of Marine, but also of the whole team formed around the navigator.How to combine the environmental convictions of each with the technical and sporting imperatives of the team?And again, we are here in a preparation team and not a site.

We produce less waste proportionally, but respect for good manners (recycling, staff protection, environment) depends only on the level of requirement set with the skipper and the project manager (Alain Gautier), at thedifference from a site that will be inspected and fined by the authorities.However, the list of harmful and/or single use products is here long as a foil!“As soon as the boat enters into work, we fully protect the bridge and its decor which has itself generated a lot of waste.In question: the quantity of masking tapes necessary to paint it in the colors of the sponsor."The bridge is painted, but on the shell we use stickers that produce less waste, but how are they produced?»»

In short, at the slightest small site on board, the bridge and the interior are covered with plastic or cardboard protections quickly soiled by resin and carbon dust that will in fact join the brushes and containers in a specific trash can.Because on the site, the sorting of waste is scrupulously put in place: on the one hand the recyclable packaging, on the other the all-year and, well apart, the batteries, the sprays, the unclassifiable (carbon residues,of soul nomex, which no one wants) and the soiled products.

A final category that MACSF will entrust to a specialized company (Clikeco).A free choice, which has a cost (approx. € 7,000), at the initiative of each team.MacCsf seeks in this sense exemplarity to the extent of its means which are those of a professional team which employs five permanents whose skipper, but whose budget is after all modest and where each investment which does not tend towards the objectivesportsman must be weighed.Obviously, Macsf invents nothing: this basic tri, which seems to be obvious, is already an obligation for all construction sites, for ports.Just go behind the base of the base to view the various containers of more or less toxic waste.The harbor master's office of Lorient is on this exemplary point by taking care of the waste from small teams while the largest as Banque Populaire and Gitana mutualize the removal and treatment of their waste.

Sorting is an obvious first step and Marie - without a tongue of wood -, gives me a more complex problem to solve: waste."During the preparation of an Imoca, we are in the race!A race to optimize, reliable and reach a required level of performance.As this is a mechanical sport necessarily subject to breakage, we must make a preventive renewal of the equipment.You can't take the risk of waiting for wear, breakage.This is how we get to change a functional lust (winch, blocker, halyard, etc.).Inevitably, we would like it to go to a second -hand market, but who to sell this oversized equipment that has lost reliability?It is on this type of subject that we expect a boost from the class without talking about the sails that even the recycling centers refuse.»»

Pour la seconde main les voiles d’IMOCA raides, aux coupes compliquées sont difficiles à retailler même pour un sac ! En poursuivant notre discussion avec Marie, un besoin ressort clairement : l’envie d’appartenir à un réseau avec un effet de groupe, un partage des connaissances pour mieux valoriser matériel d’occasion et déchets. « Nous venons d’enlever un peu plus de 2 m² de peau en carbone dont personne ne veut, car la quantité est trop faible. Une mise en commun de ce type de déchet entre tous les teams de la Classe pourrait sans doute débloquerles choses. » C’est un sujet à creuser, car la filière existe notamment à Toulouse où les déchets carbone d’Airbus sont valorisés.

The Imoca class wants to reduce its carbon impact

The Imoca class, however, is not inactive and already makes it possible to reduce the impact of the teams by pooling certain material and human means such as the sharing of semi-rigid at the start of the races, the distribution of stainless steel gourdes from skippersand their teams.A not so symbolic awareness action which hides a fundamental reflection which could lead to the integration of bio-composites into the Imoca 2021 gauge and to 100% clean energy sailboats for the next edition of the Vendée Globe (2024).

In 2012, there were two Vendée Globe we left with 200 liters of diesel.Today, skippers keep about 100 liters on board.The hydrogenerator reported on the backboard of Yannick Bestaven is what remains the top and we see a return to the wind turbine match.Macsf has a deportee back on a starboard, because it always presents a great risk on a monohull during maneuvers (listening to GV little to take it in it).But sailors still need fossil fuels in particular to meet the requirements of the telecommunications race.Send photos, sound and videos at a huge energy cost.Suddenly an IMOCA in the race needs one to two charges a day.

But in degraded mode, with less communication, less electronics, you can do without fossil energy.We touch there at the assessment of the races which are intrinsically very energy -consuming for organizations of organizations.For teams, it all depends on the necessary projection."Mascf moves at the start and arrival of each race with a palette of equipment and three people: the project manager, the Boat Captain and a technician.On the Vendée Globe, it's different: we play at home and there is no stopover.Each team puts a highly motorized tire in the water (250 hp) to ensure safety around the boat.

There remains a very positive point, not negligible when we speak of an environmental impact that the IMOCA of Isabelle Joschke illustrates perfectly: the sustainability of these high -tech sailboats.MACSF came out of the Laros site in 2007 and it is far from an exception in the Imoca fleet.This monohull designed by Vincent Lauriot-Prévost and Guillaume Verdier (ex-Safran, Quéguiner-Leukemia Espoir, Sensations I, Generali and Monin) has already aligned itself at the start of three Vendée Globe, three Route du Rhum and six Transat Jacques Vabres!

In mechanical sports this sustainability is unique and directly linked to the management of the IMOCA class which allows the boats of old generation to remain competitive and their intrinsically structural conceptions which makes it possible to modify these monocoques to infinity so that they remainin the race.A world thus separates the saffron from Marc Guillemot from 2007 and the MACSF of Isabelle Joschke today who abandoned her straight drifts implanted on the deck with the profile of two long foils piercing the edge, but also changed his riggingarrow for a mast held by outriggers and modified his ballasts, his cap, etc.

Essential developments which always involve deconstructing and then rebuilding part of the hull and its structure, but with an economic and ecological assessment ever more positive than a construction site that would leave a white sheet.This is there, one of the forces of the Imoca, the offshore race and the sailing in the broad sense: all these sailboats which still display a catastrophic carbon assessment in the construction phase today can have a neutral ecological impactDuring their use and succeed thanks to their sustainability (10 to 20 years) to smooth over time their impact on the environment.

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