SEAKITE: A STORY OF ALTERNATIVE PROPULSION​

SEAKITE®

Even innovation can be recycled, according to Yves Parlier and the teams at Seakite. They have gone back to the Hydraplaneur project, designed in 2002 by the Aquitaine Design Team, which included a certain Guillaume Verdier, for this project involving a sailing boat pulled about by a kite.​

It is a 60-foot catamaran with chined hulls (a design technique widely seen in motorboating) and a twin rig. Not dissimilar to Team Philips from the same era, a boat which embodied daring innovations, but luck was not its side. It is now going to be used as a platform to test and develop kite traction.​

The Seakite is also distinguished by a complementary propulsion system developed by ADV Tech, also capable of producing energy. Beyond The Sea is working on the decarbonisation of maritime transport, as is Syroco and the renowned naval architecture firm VPLP.​

The team’s ambition is to circumnavigate the world with this experimental platform.