The French catamaran builder has just signed the first sale, a Windelo Adventure 50, whose construction has already started. The launch is scheduled this autumn.
Designed in partnership with the architects Christophe Barreau and Frédéric Neuman, the Adventure 50, the first Windelo catamaran, has been sold. We are talking about a project focused on the ecological design of the materials and the construction methods.
The Windelo catamaran structure is made from a new environmentally-friendly composite sandwich, mixing basalt fiber and PET from recycled plastic bottles. The new innovative composite reduces carbon emissions by nearly 50% compared with traditional GRP composite manufacturing methods.
Windelo 50 Adventure: a new living space
“The challenge was to build a boat marrying performance with the joy of sailing, and to create pleasant and spacious living areas at the same time. The boat has an innovative cockpit layout with rigging converging at the helm station midships. It also features a new handling of the living space aft of the nacelle,” says Christophe Barreau.
Behind the mast, the forward cockpit has two helm stations protected from the wind and spray, a good view of the sails and the bows, and all the running rigging at hand. At anchor, the cockpit can be well protected from the elements and opens up to the stern.
The self-tacking facilitates maneuvers also with limited crew; the lifting daggerboards are placed at the center of the hull to optimize their hydrodynamic performance.
A modular layout
Aft of the cockpit everything is flush, offering a large modular space that can be opened up. “We have focused our attention on the geometry of the material and visual boundaries of this space and on the way the doors open”, adds Barreau. Once they are open, they “disappear” so that the interior space blurs with the exterior.
The ample windows of the new Windelo Adventure 50 also modulate ventilation, using a wide range of openings on four sides. The work on modularity and blurring boundaries can be seen to the far aft of the nacelle, where an articulated platform with davits converts to a floor at anchor, and in the aft cabins, where a wraparound porthole does away with the corner between the hull side and the aft side, opening the view.
Hybrid engine power
The two electric engines are hooked up to a bank of lithium batteries. These can be charged in different ways, using solar panels as well as the electric engines’ ability to operate via hydrogeneration. These two systems combined mean you can use green energy for short periods when the electric engine is in use.
Sailing for longer times on the engine will require starting up the generator after one or two hours, depending on the battery strength chosen. This extends the boat’s cruising range to around 800 nautical miles.
Discover more on Windelo Catamaran official website.