An eco-designed Mini 6.50
Announced for summer 2022, the Mini 6.50 project led by the Bénéteau Group in association with The Arch was officially presented at the event dedicated to various technical solutions for environmental transition. The yacht is made from Arkema's Elium thermoplastic resin, a recyclable material on which Bénéteau has been working for several years. Erwan Faoucher, the Vendée-based group's director of business and innovation, explains how it came about: "We were approached by Damien Grimont and his team to become an industrial partner for The Arch's eco-designed Mini 6.50 class project. It fitted in well with the group's industrial dynamic already underway to find greener materials for our boats. We had already launched a Proof of Concept for the use of Arkema thermoplastic resin with the First 44, which was presented in 2022. The Mini corresponded to an industrial ramp-up, to move from the laboratory to the industrial tool. It allowed us to have the small series that would enable us to relaunch activity at our Cheviré site."
The right amount of flax
While The Arch had also approached Mer Concept, François Gabart's company, about the design of a Mini 6.50 made entirely of biomaterials however, differences in analysis led the projects down different paths. In the end, the Bénéteau Group's Mini 6.50 incorporates only 6% flax fiber, a technical and environmental choice justified by the Director of Innovation: "We wanted to find the right balance, and replace glass with linen as soon as we could. But you need to take a global view of linen, and our life-cycle analyses show us that this is the right balance. The impregnation of linen is stronger, which increases resin consumption."
A commercial future still unknown
While this is an interesting industrial trial for the Bénéteau Group, which has already built 3 boats and is aiming for the 10 Mini 6.50s to be homologated as a series, the Vendée-based company doesn't, a priori, imagine continuing far beyond that. Erwan Faoucher explains: "The Group is not in the business of building small racing boats. The idea was that all innovation comes from ocean racing, and we'd demonstrate that here. After that, we keep our finger on the pulse of the market. We have launched the manufacture of the Sun Fast 30 OD at Cheviré, 2 hulls and 3 decks are already made in Elium, and in 2024, a resin will be deployed on other industrial sites of the group."
