the Yacht Club de Monaco welcomes AI for the 12th edition

July 8, 2024

Monaco Energy Boat Challenge: The Yacht Club de Monaco welcomes AI for the 12th edition

MONACO, July 8, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As part of the Monaco Capital of Advanced Yachting initiative, the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge will take place next year (2-5 July 2025) with exciting news. The 12th edition will see AI make its debut. “For 2025, we have many good ideas. For example, we introduced the Sea Lab class, a new class of boats that is closer to the industry and the customer. Then we decided to make room for AI. It is very important to be able to steer a boat like this with some help, like you can get from artificial intelligence. We can take into account the sea, the wind, the waves and the distance and be able to make assessments, which is ideal with artificial intelligence. We started the challenge with two boats and today we can be proud of what we are doing because it is the young generation that will shape the yachting of the future,” said YCM Secretary General Bernard d’Alessandri.

With the introduction of AI, the Yacht Club de Monaco is taking a step forward into the yachting of the future. “As the Yacht Club de Monaco, we are trying to position ourselves as a demonstrator and promoter of innovation. The AI class will be applicable to all other classes, so that all current electric units can be developed into AI class boats and these can race in the normal classes and later in the AI classes. In this way, we cover the three main pillars: decarbonization, digital ship operation and autonomy,” explains Szilard Czibere, Development Manager at YCM in the Sustainability Department. “We called it AI class because it is a fairly broad topic. It is spectacular when boats can navigate without driver intervention, but on the other hand, many systems at a smaller level are already autonomous systems and use AI to optimize their operation.”

The winner of the 11th edition was the Oceanos Team from the National Technical University of Athens. Second place went to the Croatian Adria Energy Boat Team and third place went to UniBoat from the Università di Bologna. “Our team started in 2016. We started with a competition in Saint Tropez and then started participating in the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge. Today is a very special day for us because we won a prize that we have been trying for for many years,” explained Konstantina Delioglu, Oceanos team manager. “The competition was a real challenge for us. We managed to finish first in all the challenges and races. We had some problems at the beginning that we tried to solve and we managed to do that and we had a great time. The weather was perfect, the team was perfect, our communication with the team was very good, everything was perfect,” added Emilios Monos. The Sustainable Yachting Technology Award, created by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, was awarded to the Physis Peb team from the Politecnico di Milano. The prize, worth 25,000 euros, was awarded for the best technological solution in terms of energy efficiency and/or CO2 reduction. The winner will now be able to showcase the progress of their project at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge for three years starting in 2025. “From AI to recycling, through combining advanced technologies with simpler solutions, there were so many that caught the jury’s attention,” said Alejandro Velez, Managing Director of UBS (Monaco), who presented the Innovation Award to Sea Sakhti, which also won the Design and Communication awards. The SeaLab class is dedicated to vessels that do not have the standard European certifications but offer an exciting insight into international design and engineering approaches.

From an industry perspective, the event is becoming more and more interesting as time goes on. “Our goal as a shipyard is to find more talent and engineers to ensure that we have a more sustainable future for the yachting industry and that is very important to us,” said Gilles Vernhet, Chief Designer of Oceanco. “For example, fuel cells are really being improved, new elements of these fuel cells are being improved with the help of the students and that looks very promising for the future.”

For more informations:
Press office LaPresse – [email protected]

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/22d283bc-e0ef-4ec1-a4bd-e8eacf43946f