SAINT-NAZAIRE, FRANCE December 9th, 2022

Today, Chantiers de l’Atlantique celebrates the success of the manufacturing of its first carbon-fiber mast along with Lorima, Multiplast, Avel Robotics, CDK Technologies and SMM, its partners in the project. Potential customers have already expressed their interest in this industrial and technological prowess.

This great industrial adventure started three years ago when Chantiers de l’Atlantique gathered experts from the fields of composite materials and offshore racing around the SolidSail project. The manufacturing of this carbon-fiber mast in France was the opportunity to highlight our know-how in this area.

At the heart of this ambitious industrial project are extraordinary features: a 66-meter high, 2-meter wide mast assembled in less than 6 months. With a weight of approximately 20 tons, this mast is one of the highest and sturdiest in the world and can carry a SolidSail sail of 1,500 m2 without any stays.

SolidSail is an efficient, foldable sail made of 100% composite materials created by Chantiers de l’Atlantique. It was engineered to propel Silenseas, which is currently being developed by Chantiers de l’Atlantique and is destined to be the largest wind-powered cruise ship in the world, as well as cargo ships. The Aeoldrive rig, which comprises the SolidSail mast and sail, is fully automated. The rig can rotate 360 degrees and the masts can rotate or tilt 70 degrees to go under bridges.

Chantiers de l’Atlantique spearheads the design and manufacturing of tomorrow’s ships. Partly wind-powered, these ships will see their CO2 emissions reduced by up to 40%. The work on energy efficiency will further reduce the CO2 emissions of the ships by 25% to 40%.

In association with its partners, Chantiers de l’Atlantique is considering a rapid construction of a plant in Morbihan based on the commercial success of this solution to industrialize the manufacturing of these extraordinary masts.