At the environmental held today at the Monaco Yacht Club, La Ciotat Shipyards announced that, following a competitive bidding process, the hydrogen propulsion company HYNOVA has been offered the business unit lot 14 in the Yachting Village on the La Ciotat Shipyards site. The multidisciplinary jury assembled for the exercise was mostly won over by HYNOVA’s ambitious project to design and build a boat that will incorporate a propulsion system powered by the 'green' fuel hydrogen.

The call for projects inviting companies to submit proposals for the occupation of lot 14 in the Yachting Village was launched last October to select an innovative company capable of reducing the environmental footprint of large yachts and/or La Ciotat shipyards.

This objective for the LCS Yachting Village, a 100% subsidiary of La Ciotat Shipyards (LCS), was achieved when, on Wednesday 17 March, 2021, the name of the winner, the company HYNOVA, was announced. The company is developing an innovative leisure craft powered by hydrogen.

Founded in 2020 by Chloé Zaied, HYNOVA is being offered the opportunity of occupying, after an initial contractual development phase, lot number 14 in the Yachting Village, a completely new, 470 m², premises which will be completed this May. The company will then have three years to consolidate and demonstrate the viability of its business model. This objective will require the solidification of sustainable technological and financial partnerships, but the development prospects are commensurate with the level of risk of the project.

HYNOVA’s initial goal is to begin the building of three boats in the first year and to complete eight within three years. “Beyond that, we will have to push the boundaries,” comments Chloé Zaied. “Personally, I am dedicated to the preservation of the fabulous environment of the Parc des Calanques. I was committed to hydrogen before I learned of the recovery plan because I dreamed of vessels that would emit nothing but water. We will continue to work to improve our product to find ‘clean’ solutions throughout the entire boat lifecycle, even though it is a complex challenge."

The choice of the HYNOVA project is the result of an in-depth analysis of the risk/benefit balance of the project, and the members of the jury did not fail to point out the many pitfalls that HYNOVA will have to overcome. On the plus side, Sandra Servière, LCS representative on the jury, observes that: “Green hydrogen is a technology on which all the big names in the maritime industry are working at the moment. HYNOVA, therefore, presents a great opportunity for La Ciotat to be at the forefront of this movement.“

That LCS is putting its faith in the development of hydrogen power technology is another positive step in the right direction for the superyacht industry that is increasingly proving its commitment across the board to a more sustainable future.

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