Early June, Vaan was invited to Oslo to speak about the value of aluminium in moving towards zero-impact pleasure yachting. At the industry conference organised by Hydro, Vaan shared the stage with Porsche, both invited as frontrunners in applying the highly sustainable Hydro aluminium.

Vaan co-founder and CEO Igor Kluin spoke about the build process of the Vaan aluminium catamarans and the 10R circularity framework. Aluminium helps Vaan in building evermore sustainable circular sailing yachts. While sailing is very sustainable, most sailing yachts are not. Particularly composites, glass or carbon based, have very low potential for recycling, let alone up-cycling. Ultimately all products should become truly circular, and luxury products like yachts cannot be excluded. Vaan and Hydro are pushing the boundaries of the recycled content in the aluminium for yacht building.

Kluin: “We believe strongly in the absolute circularity of this material, and I think we can ultimately even guarantee the residual value of our yachts because of that. Then circularity is no longer just the righting to do, but also the smart thing; it will protect your investment.”

“All yacht builders must take responsibility for the products they create and the materials they use. Why not introduce a deposit scheme on yachts like on beverage cans? Manufacturers cannot only use the word ‘sustainability’ in our marketing; we must all put our money where our mouth is and thereby proof the value of the materials used. We hope to announce something quite revolutionary later this year as we work out the details.” Kluin concluded.

All Vaan yachts are predominantly made of recycled aluminium. We strive to increase this post-consumer recycled content as high as possible in our mission to always reduce impact further. Besides the recycled aluminium hull, a Vaan is also all-electric, uses certified cork decking instead of teak and locally sourced and certified woods for the interior. Total emissions from a Vaan yacht als more than 50% lower compared to a similar size composite yacht and will last roughly twice as long.