Fountaine Pajot to build hydrogen powered yachts

Fountaine Pajot has launched the first project of its strategic development plan, entitled Odyssea 2024, aimed at finding energy solutions for its sailing catamarans. They have chosen to incorporate EODev’s hydrogen generator, REXH2®.

It is their aim to combine the power supply of their 59-foot sailing catamaran, Samana 59’, with the hydrogen power generator, which has been developed around Toyota’s Fuel Cell. This technology will be integrated in La Rochelle, ideally located near the Fountaine Pajot shipyard. The first hydrogen powered Samana 59' with fuel cell technology, will be launched at the beginning of 2022.

EODev’s hydrogen solutions feature zero emission and zero noise targets, but also have an optimised design lending them perfectly for use in smaller scale sailing yachts. The Samana 59’ will have a REXH2® generator able to power her 70kW and 44kWh lithium batteries, which will only take up around one square-metre of space. In addition, “With an absence of moving parts, the fuel cell will guarantee simplified and predictive maintenance, for a service life of at least 15,000 hours. Finally, the REXH2® being a "plug and play" solution, there will be no need to be a hydrogen engineer to operate the boat. As in modern cars, the system will be fully automated and connected, with data from all components being collected and archived remotely.”

This latest development comes only a week after Lürssen announced the sale of their first hydrogen powered superyacht, which will also incorporate fuel cell technology, during their second Lürssen Live. It demonstrates how the industry is moving towards more sustainable solutions, pushing the boundaries of what has previously been seen in the yachting world, and striving for the target of zero emission yachts.