FUSION Issue 3-2026 DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 16
MARITIME
Still Waters...
New Engines
More than 99% of the world's sailing boats still run on
diesel. A landmark joint venture between seven of the biggest
names in sailing is about to change that. And the composites
industry will be doing much of the heavy lifting.
There is something quietly ironic about the sailing boat. It is the original zeroemission vessel: a craft powered by wind, requiring nothing but seamanship and
patience to cross oceans. And yet, below deck on almost every sailing boat built
in the last fifty years, there is a diesel engine. Manoeuvring in harbour. Motoring
through flat calms. Running the navigation equipment, the refrigeration, the
lights. The sail may be up, but the engine is never far away.
This is not a secret, but it is a fact that rarely gets much attention outside the
marine industry. More than 99 per cent of sailing boats currently in production
and in service are fitted with an internal combustion engine. That figure comes
from the founders of E-Lektra Marine, a joint venture announced in April 2026
by Groupe Beneteau and Fountaine Pajot Group, two of the world's largest
sailing boat manufacturers. Together, through seven brands including Beneteau,
Jeanneau, Lagoon, Dufour, and Excess, they account for roughly 60 per cent of
the global sailing market. When they decided to do something about that 99 per
cent figure, the industry paid attention.
The alliance and the ambition
E-Lektra Marine is structured as a 50/50 joint venture, equally owned by both
groups and drawing on both their existing technology and a network of specialist
partners in electrical systems integration, energy conversion, and battery design.
The scope is deliberately broad: the venture aims to develop electrification
solutions covering sailing boats from 9 to 24 metres, spanning fully electric
configurations for smaller vessels through to high-voltage hybrid systems for larger
cruising yachts and catamarans.
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