The Flax 27 is a Judel\/Vrolijk-designed daysailer built using flax and linseed resin. Matthew Sheahan takes a closer lookThe Flax 27 is built from 80% renewable or recycled materials. All photos: Jozef KubicaIn the face of it there was nothing unusual about the Flax 27. Set in a corner of one of the 17 halls at Boot D\u00fcsseldorf at the beginning of this year, the 27ft cruising dayboat may well have been elegant and beautifully finished, but at the word\u2019s biggest watersports show there were plenty of others like her.
\nSo, as the visitors strolled past, her elegant lines, with a modern plumb bow and a classically styled counter stern, weren\u2019t always sufficient to cause them to pause. Even the immaculate finish to her topsides wasn\u2019t always enough to turn heads: perfection is commonplace at Boot.
\nYet ironically, while the Flax 27 fitted in so well, she was fundamentally different to them all. She may not look eccentric, but this was the greenest boat at the show.
\nThe pigment-free resin and rolled gunwales show off the pattern of the woven flax cloth. Meanwhile, the Flax 27\u2019s foam core is produced from recycled PET used in the manufacture of plastic bottles
\nTo the careful observer there were several clues on display: a bunch of dried flowers and a handful of seeds on the cork laid deck. But the biggest clue was the easiest to gloss over: her immaculately finished topsides, where a flawless clear resin provided a glistening finish to the woven fabric of the yacht\u2019s structure. While it may have looked a little like carbon, that base material is in fact flax, encased in a resin that is made from linseed oil \u2013 which is also derived from the flax plant.
\n\u201cOur focus was to build as green a boat as possible without compromising the structural properties,\u201d said boatbuilder and Greenboats founder Friedrich Deimann. \u201cIn fact this boat is around 70kg lighter than if we had built it in glassfibre.\u201d
\nConstruction gains
\nLight weight is just the start. \u201cThe flax fibres are mainly grown in Belgium and France and are half the weight when compared to glassfibre. They also have great impact and abrasion resistance and don\u2019t create any splinters when fractured,\u201d he continued.
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\u201cThe linseed epoxy resin is also derived mainly from the flax plant and provides an odourless resin that is infused into a sandwich laminate that uses a foam core derived from recycled PET [Polyethylene Terephthalate] bottles.\u201d
\nThe deck is built from another green material, cork, which offers several key benefits too. Providing good thermal, vibration and noise insulation the material has great non-slip properties and recovers well from any deformation.
\n\u201cIf you have a stone in your shoe, the cork springs back into shape where teak wouldn\u2019t, and it is great at repelling water,\u201d said Deimann. \u201cIt is also a more sustainable decking material as cork trees do not have to be felled during harvesting. Instead, they are peeled every nine to 12 years.\u201d
\nCork decks look traditional while offering a non-slip and a durable finish. Cork is also used as the sandwich material in other areas of construction, and has good noise and thermal insulation properties
\nIn his boat building career so far, Deimann has worked with both traditional and modern materials. \u201cI started out building wooden boats before moving into building tenders for superyachts,\u201d he explained.
\n\u201cI was really impressed with what was possible with modern composites but I had real problems with being itchy when I was using the resins, which were also really smelly. So I started to do some research to find better resins that might be comparable to the normal composite construction methods.
\n\u201cWe have spent the best part of ten years researching and building natural fibre composites (NFCs) where the fibres, cores and adhesives are derived from renewable and sustainable sources.
\n\u201cOur goal has been to prove that boats of all shapes and forms can be built of NFC without sacrificing performance or durability, but we have also been able to prove that the whole construction process has been more environmentally friendly.
\n\u201cThe fact is that you need around five times more energy to produce glassfibre products than you do to create the flax fibres and it takes 20 times more energy to create carbon fibre, so there are some very big savings to be made. Plus we save on CO2 emissions as well.\u201d
\nModern classic
\nThe boat itself is an elegant daysailer from the Judel\/Vrolijk design office. She\u2019s a simple configuration with a modern, high aspect ratio fractional rig, a 105% overlapping furling jib and a furling Code 0, both of which are flown off recessed furlers in the bow.
\nBoth the 105% headsail and Code 0 are fitted to manually operated furlers that are mounted below deck
\nSleek, clean and thoroughly modern, she\u2019d make it onto plenty of wishlists irrespective of how she\u2019s built. Add in green build values and the sustainable nature of a product that can also be recycled and there\u2019s much going for this 27-footer, which can hold her own in any beauty parade.
\nSo, where\u2019s the catch? At this stage the only real stumbling block is cost. As with so many green-based developments there is currently a premium to pay.
\n\u201cAt this stage the materials are around 20-30% more expensive,\u201d concedes Deimann. \u201cBut when you take this as a proportion of the overall build costs the increase isn\u2019t so great.\u201d
\nThe rudder is mounted in a removable cassette system, which is easily unsecured using two locker-type catches
\nGiven that no change in build procedure or specialist equipment is required, the future for such an eco-friendly composite construction system would seem to be very bright indeed.
\nDeimann\u2019s work has already attracted the attention of others in different industries and markets. Greenboats has built a range of products using the same system, varying from an autonomous deep-sea Hybrid-ROV capable of plunging to 6,000m, to municipal furniture and nacelles for offshore wind turbines. Yet the company is still committed to taking boat building onto yet another level.
\n\u201cAt present we have achieved a boat that is currently 80% built from renewable or recycled materials. In two years I think we will have a resin system that is 100% bio based.\u201d
\nFlax 27 is a pretty yacht in a traditional style that conceals groundbreaking green technology advances
\nIt is an exciting prospect and, in a world where green progress often means key compromises, the Flax 27 almost seems too good to be true.
\nSpecification
\nLOA: 8.20m (27ft 0in)Beam: 2.25m (7ft 5in)Draught: 1.40m (4ft 7in)Displacement (light): 1,350kg (2,976lb)Mainsail area: 19.00m2 (204ft2)Headsail area (105%): 11.50m2 (124ft2)Code 0 area: 35.00m2 (377ft2)Design: Judel\/VrolijkBuilder: GreenboatsPrice ex VAT: \u20ac149,500
\nFirst published in the August 2020 edition of Yachting World.
\nThe post Flax 27: Cork decks and electric propulsion make this the most eco-friendly yacht appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Flax 27 is a Judel\/Vrolijk-designed daysailer built using flax and linseed resin. Matthew Sheahan takes a closer lookThe Flax 27 is built from 80% renewable or recycled materials. All photos: Jozef KubicaIn the face of it there was nothing … <\/p>\n