80 SUNREEF Power ECO Full INTERVIEW: Sustainable SUPERYACHT #miami #boating #sustainability #luxury

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Look at this folks. I'm sat here on a super yacht. It's amazing. It's a fantastic experience. Normally I should be saying, turn my nose up. Think about all the diesel that this thing is wasting every weekend. But no, this is completely sustainable. This boat is like a sailing solar [00:00:15] Arthur Polichensky: farm. The insulation of the hull is made of PET foam and the foam that we use here is the equivalent of 600,000 recycled plastic bottles. The whole purpose of this podcast is to prove [00:00:30] Speaker 1: that sustainability can make a better product and a better customer experience. Arthur Polichensky, thank you so much for finding the time today here on your Sunreef yacht. Could you please tell us a [00:00:41] Arthur Polichensky: little bit about the vessel that we're sat on here? Yeah, this is a Sunreef catamaran. So the model is the 80 Sunreef Power Eco and it has electric propulsion, electric engines and a system that we call the solar skin. That means you have solar panels integrated with the composite bodywork of the yacht and you can see them everywhere. They're in the side of the hulls, the roof, the superstructure. So a lot of clean energy generated on board and basically like a motor yacht that doesn't make [00:01:12] Speaker 1: any noise. Before we go into all the technology and I want to hear all about this solar skin because I know this is something where you have an absolute unique world first. But before we do that, let's maybe take a few steps back and talk about the company Sunreef. Where do you come from? I know where you build, but where do you come from in terms of a company? Where were you founded? Who founded you? And how long have you been in operation? So the company was founded by a French businessman, [00:01:35] Arthur Polichensky: Francis Lapp who moved to Poland in the 90s. And at first, you know, he started in a completely different business. He's an electrician and his first business was in electrical gear and then real estate building. But at some point, you know, when he made his fortune, he thought, okay, he, he started to, to, to do these competitions on hobby cats and small racing catamarans. And that's what he thought, okay, I like boating. I may want to do something with it. And yeah, fast forward, you know, he, at some point he started a, a charter business. He bought a couple of catamarans. And at the time, he's put them in Madagascar for, to establish a small charter business. And the longer he, he charted those, the more he felt like he needed the luxury edition of the catamaran. He, he liked all the advantages that catamarans have, but he thought, okay, I need something nicer. And the advantages are so many because catamarans are stable, they're large, they have shallow draft. So you can go to all the places that monohalls can go to. Obviously there's the advantage of fuel efficiency because you have less drag generated. You know, today people realize that a large camera is, makes a better sustainable boat because you can put more solar panels on it. There's so many advantages. And he figured that a long time ago, but he thought, okay, I need the luxury edition of the camera. And this is how Sunreef started when he had that, that spark. Okay. There's a niche here in the market. No one does that electric, not, not electric luxury at the time. All he needed was a luxury catamarans. And then came the evolution to electric catamarans. Tell us, when did the ecology change happen? A long time ago, you know, it was, uh, it's for us making an energy efficient boat started a really long time ago. Before we started considering electric propulsion there, there was also a first stage. It was the, uh, finding a solution for the, uh, for the air conditioning and, uh, you know, the air conditioning is one of the highest energy consumers on board. Uh, so yeah, we started to think of a way to, uh, maybe power the air conditioning, um, you know, through, through a battery so that we don't have to use the generator at night. Uh, so it's, it was like a, like an evolution. And then at some point, I think it was in 2018 or 19, uh, we launched the first yachts with, uh, with electric, uh, propulsion, but, uh, we go much further than that, you know, for, for, for many shipyards, it's, uh, the sustainable, the definition of a sustainable boat, you know, ends with just installing electric propulsion. For us, it's, it really is about looking at every possible aspect of the air. We've seen quite a few [00:04:27] Speaker 1: yachts and catamarans around here that have got electric propulsion, but I think you offer the three options, right? You can go for a diesel, a hybrid or electric. What would you say? What are the benefits [00:04:37] Arthur Polichensky: and, uh, and downsides of each? Yeah. So, um, as you said, you know, it's, uh, today we give our owners the choice, right? So they can go diesel either way, even if they choose the diesel version, it's a diesel catamarans, not a monohull. It will burn less fuel. That's already good. But then if they want to go a step further, uh, they're going to go electric. Uh, so one of the downsides, let's say, is that they're going to pay a little more at the beginning, roughly 15%, maybe more than the, than the diesel version. But then it's, it's our job to tell them, look, you're going to save a lot of money on fuel and maintenance because the, the electric engines are a lot easier to maintain. And, uh, yeah, there's [00:05:19] Speaker 1: going to be massive fuel savings. It's something that I noticed going around the fair here. When we spoke to, um, you know, um, boat manufacturers that don't offer electric propulsion, one of the things that they kept saying was, yeah, just imagine if you're in French, French Polynesia and your motor breaks down. If you've got a diesel engine, you can fix it all around the world. But you know, I worked in the car industry. I know that electric engines basically just don't break down or not [00:05:44] Arthur Polichensky: very often, right? They're a lot simpler. They're a lot simpler. So yeah, this, you, you will probably not have that problem. And, uh, yeah, so I think that the argument is invalid. I agree. I agree. [00:05:56] Speaker 1: Let's just have a little think about, um, the actual vessel that we're sat on. Could you just give us some specifications because this is not just as we would say in Germany, a YOLA, it's not an optimist, right? It's not the sort of thing that kids learn how to sail on. Tell us a [00:06:10] Arthur Polichensky: little bit more. It's a big luxury yacht, right? So right here, you know, making things energy efficient and cleaner is a big challenge. Uh, you know, um, a luxury yacht is, uh, it's a, it's a big endeavor, right? If you want to make it, uh, as energy efficient as possible, there's a lot of things, you know, that, that you will do. Okay. One, uh, huge thing that, uh, that this yacht has is the solar skin system and a part of the solar skin system, the solar cells that are built in the entire body work of the yacht. One of the things that, uh, that it does here, it, uh, it powers the air conditioning. And as we said, it eats a lot of energy and part of this solar power, uh, system here will power over a hundred percent of the air conditioning needs. So this is, you know, we got a huge problem out of the way already. Um, so yeah, on this boat, you will find the solar cells, as I said in the beginning, everywhere in the composite structure of the boat, but the owners will still add more. They will add some in the bow part of the yacht, uh, to generate even more, uh, energy. On top of that, the captain is planning, uh, I think in two years time, uh, to do an Atlantic crossing without using a drop of fuel. So they're going to use their, their kite and their solar. And, uh, yeah, so this will be a, [00:07:25] Speaker 1: this will be definitely an exciting thing to follow. So just to get this absolutely clear, when you say you want to go across the Atlantic without using a drop of carbon energy or a drop of traditional diesel fuel, what you mean is you're going to use a wind kite sail and you're going to use solar energy to power your boat, but you're not going to have a traditional sailing boat when you're doing that, right? Yes. This is the plan for the 80 Sunreef Power Eco Metea. This is, you know, [00:07:50] Arthur Polichensky: I had a little chat with, uh, with the crew. They're telling me this is part of the plan. Uh, we're [00:07:54] Speaker 1: going to be following the story because it's, it really sounds exciting. I can't wait to actually follow that story because you know, this is what it's all about. We're, we're inventing the future and it feels so exciting to live in this generation where we have the ability to define what's coming in the future. You know, it's a little bit like the, the, you know, Mr. Daimler, Mr. Benz and Mr. Rolls and Mr. Royce of our generation. You're inventing what comes next, right? Yeah, those are exciting [00:08:19] Arthur Polichensky: times and there are many things that manufacturers can, uh, can do. And, uh, I'm proud to say that I work for a company with, uh, we have our own R&D department, right? And they appear to be the busiest people in the, in the company, right? So they're constantly thinking of new things that I can improve. Uh, [00:08:35] Speaker 1: and yeah, there's just so many things that can be done still. Just if you explain a little bit [00:08:39] Arthur Polichensky: about this specific yacht. So how long is it exactly? Uh, so we have an 80 footer, so slightly below, uh, slightly below, below 24 meters. Uh, the beam is 12 meters. That's the width for people who don't sail. Yeah, exactly. So, uh, a catamaran, so slightly larger than, uh, you know, the usual mono hull and that makes it very, uh, very stable, very large. And that makes it, uh, um, a very comfortable boat because it offers, you know, just, uh, a lot, a lot of, uh, living space. So of course, [00:09:09] Speaker 1: sitting on here, you know, it feels like one of those super yachts that you see on the Hollywood movies, but you don't just stop at the actual electric propulsion. You've also got actually sailing yachts with all this solar technology as well, right? We do. We produce sailing yachts and motor yachts. [00:09:24] Arthur Polichensky: And, uh, in the sailing range that you have an additional very important feature is the sails, right? That's the most natural thing that you can do to propel your yacht. Um, but it gets even better when you have a sail catamaran, uh, with the electric engines, uh, you're going to use your propellers as hydro generators. So when you put your sail up, you sail, you navigate under sail, [00:09:46] Speaker 1: your propellers are going to generate energy for you. And I know you guys also offer like wind turbines on the top of your yachts as well, so that even at night you can generate, uh, electricity, [00:09:55] Arthur Polichensky: right? Yeah. But I think mostly we like to rely on the solar, uh, but of course there's always like an ongoing, uh, ongoing, uh, thought process in the R&D department. And this involves all the aspects of [00:10:06] Speaker 1: the, uh, of the yacht. Now, just tell me, I know you're in a real big rush because you've got lots of people queuing up to buy these boats. Yeah. Everyone, please like the video, share it with everyone because if this goes viral, I'm going to be back as a customer, but just right now, there's other people that are queuing up to do that. But tell me a little bit about the materials. Tell us about the whole, tell us about, well, you tell us about all the things I'm not going to tell [00:10:27] Arthur Polichensky: you about. Yeah. Well, there's, there's just so many things, you know, that, uh, yeah, it's just to give you an idea, you know, PET foam, uh, you know, some time ago, uh, we started using PET foam. PET is basically recycled plastic, right? And, uh, yeah, inside a, a sunreef, an 80 sunreef power like this, uh, you have the, uh, the insulation of the hull made of PET foam. And the foam that we use here is the equivalent of 600,000 recycled plastic bottles. And, uh, at some point we thought, okay, we're not going to stop there. We're going to start replacing elements of plywood inside by PET foam. Uh, so that's another 160,000 recycled plastic bottles that go into a, uh, a sunreef 80. On top of that, at the end of life, you can recycle that foam. So, uh, it makes sense. It also makes your boat lighter. A lighter boat means you're going to need less energy, right? [00:11:19] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And that's brilliant. And I think also, I don't know if this is the case as well, but a lot of the materials you use inside the boat are also recycled or recyclable. Yeah. [00:11:26] Arthur Polichensky: Yeah. It's we, we have an in-house team of designers and their job is to, uh, you know, sit down with the customers and present them with, you know, the, uh, the healthier alternatives. And there's so many fabrics that are recyclable or recycled that feel, you know, that have that luxury luxury feel. And, uh, it's the, it's the same case with something that we've done with, uh, with teak. Okay. Today, we're on a yacht that uses teak wood, but, uh, we're moving away, uh, from teak. Uh, and we're the only, I think the only shipyard to do this on like a complete scale where the whole range, the whole sunreef range is going to move away from, from teak. Really? Yeah. We're going to use a natural alternative, not plastic, but a natural [00:12:07] Speaker 1: alternative. And I also, I think I, when I did the research, I heard that you also offer the option to use antique teak or old teak. I mean, old teak is antique because it's old trees, but you can basically take old houses that have been ripped down or whatever and use that wood, right? Yeah. It's a good name for a product and teak. Yeah. I get 2% on that. I can probably retire on that anyway. [00:12:30] Arthur Polichensky: But, um, yeah, uh, repurposed teak or reclaimed teak. Yes. This is something that we've done. I remember there's one, uh, one nice sailing electric 60 that uses repurposed teak, uh, um, one electric 60 sunreef power that uses, uh, um, reconstituted teak. Um, yeah, there's a number of things that you can do with the design, uh, with recycled recyclable or sustainably sourced materials and still keep that [00:12:56] Speaker 1: luxury feel. Each yacht that you build is unique, right? You build it for the customer. There's obviously some basic principles you start from, but you build unique, unique yachts for each client. And I think you've got a couple of pretty famous ones that are mentioned on your website that we're allowed to, uh, mention. I'm thinking about the formula one world, for instance. Yes. Well, [00:13:13] Arthur Polichensky: the formula one world, uh, you know, we had first, we, uh, uh, we worked with, uh, Nico Rosberg. Oh really? Yeah. Yeah. He's, he's, he's big on this stuff, right? Yes. Yes. He is. And it's, he, you know, it's, it's, it's his career right now. It's all about investing in, in green, uh, technologies and promoting those. So that's, uh, he's a really inspiring ambassador to work with. Uh, and then, uh, now we also work with, uh, Fernando Alonso, who's the owner of an electric 60 sunrave power. [00:13:39] Speaker 1: Wow. That must be amazing. I mean, just to think, these are people they've spent their life at the pinnacle of what they're doing and they've come to you guys because you're offering the better option, right? It's, it's ultimate luxury. It's not just ultimate luxury. It's better than old school technologies. It's quiet. It doesn't smell. It's regenerative. You don't have to go to the gas station. This is just 10 times better, uh, than what you would have on a traditional boat, but also combined with the sort of luxury that people who have done so well in their life deserve to, to, to enjoy, but with a good conscience, right? [00:14:15] Arthur Polichensky: Sure. And it makes a lot of, a lot of sense. Not only it's, it's, you know, the efficient and, and respectful way to, uh, to enjoy the sea, uh, it also lets you save money, uh, and then, uh, and save fuel. And yeah, it makes a lot of sense on so many levels. It just seems like the, the reasonable [00:14:32] Speaker 1: thing to do. Arthur, it's been so nice to speak to you today. I know you've got a queue of people waiting for you, but is there anything else you'd like to mention that I, any question I didn't ask yet, [00:14:41] Arthur Polichensky: which you'd like to, to just, uh, tell people about? Um, yeah, actually soon we're going to the Monaco Yacht Show and the Monaco Yacht Show is, uh, is a different type of, uh, show. It's a super yacht show. And, uh, in the world of super yachts, you're used to seeing big monohull fuel guzzling yachts. And, uh, we're there, we like to go there because we like to go there with, uh, with a catamaran. Uh, and it's, and it looks like a, like a fresh approach to the super yacht sector. Um, and right now we're building three, uh, super yachts that are going to be, yeah, like a new definition of the super yacht experience. Uh, they're 43 meters long. Uh, they're going to be electric sailing yachts, again, equipped with the, the, the solar skin and they're going to have hydro generators. And yeah, I think that in that way, we're going to prove the, that, that point that the, the super yacht [00:15:34] Speaker 1: experience can also be about energy efficiency. You know, what we always say is to get the transformation of decarbonization to, to get people interested in sustainability. We need to move from FOLO to FOMO. FOLO is fear of losing out. So fear of having something that's a bad compromise. Whereas fear of missing out is fear of, if I don't get that sustainable option, I'm not going to have as much fun as the guy that does. And I think this is exactly what you're doing perfectly. I'd like to thank you for your time today. I'm going to wish you all the best in Monaco and all the best with everything that's going on here. Thank you for, for making the world a better place tomorrow than it is today. It's really, really great to see this. Thanks so much. Thank you. I'll pass on the, the thanks to the Sunreef team. Thanks. Thank you. Cheers. [00:16:20] Speaker ?: Thank you.