Groupe Beneteau has confirmed its interest in a project that’s developing a revolutionary method of wind-powered cargo shipping.

The French maker of top-range sailing yachts said the NEOLINE project was “a natural choice” for transporting its exports from Europe to the North American market, which represents nearly a third of its revenues.

“The exceptional dimensions of our boats and the need to safeguard their quality at every stage during their transportation makes this flow a real logistics challenge,” said Magdeleine Allaume, procurement and supply chain director with Groups Beneteau.

“NEOLINE offers a bespoke solution that is ecologically and economically relevant for our transatlantic flows, with loading also located very close to our yards.

“As the world’s leading builder of recreational sailing yachts, the use of sails for maritime transportation, effectively put in place with the NEOLINE project, was a natural choice for us.”

NEOLINE is developing “an industrial-scale freight transportation solution” that is powered primarily by sails.

The project’s first goal is the Neoliner, a 135m RORO vessel with 4,200 square metres of sails which will make it possible to reduce C02 emissions by up to 90% compared to a traditional cargo ship on an equivalent route.

NEOLINE aims to have its first two ships based on this model commissioned by 2021 on a pilot route connecting Saint-Nazaire in France to America’s east coast as well as Saint-Pierre and Miquelon off Newfoundland.

Beneteau Boats are available in Ireland from BJ Marine, which is hosting qualifiers in Greystones next month for the return of Beneteau’s Barracuda Tour in Brittany this summer.