Transatlantic in recycled yacht

An Italian superyacht designer sailed his 33ft recycled yacht solo across the Atlantic without electronics, compass, GPS or engine in late January and early February. His purist mission was to highlight the damage being caused to the world’s oceans.

Dan Lenard, co-founder of Nuvolarilenard, which designs for Ferretti and Beneteau among others, has been involved with some of the largest sailing superyacht projects to date, including the 210ft Perini

Spirit of the C’s and the 348ft Oceanco Black Pearl.

His ten-year-old carbon fibre sloop, SCIA, was assembled using the recycled parts of five other boats, including the mast, keel and rudder. He wanted to create a ‘pure’ sailing yacht to help carry his message across the Atlantic.

“SCIA is a reset button in sailing technology to highlight that we need to reset how we treat our environment,’ says Lenard’s mission statement.

“We need focused initiatives for both prevention and cure: prevention, firstly, through intelligent design of yachts and secondly, through education to highlight activities and behaviour that cause damage. And cure by taking responsibility for what we have done and devoting resources to repair the damage.”

Leonard, 50, has been sailing all his life and designed his own 50-footer aged 19. He departed from Cadiz, Spain on 20 January with the intention of arriving at the Miami Boat Show on 14 February. Progress was slower than he had hoped, and at the time of writing he had missed that target but was nearing Antigua.

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