Northern Light Composites awarded at the Design Innovation Award during the Genoa Boat Show

Northern Light Composites awarded at the Design Innovation Award at the Genoa Boat Show © Northern Light Composites

The attention to sustainability and the innovative choice of materials by Northern Light Composites were awarded in Genoa with an honorable mention during the Design Innovation Award organized by the International Boat Show and Confindustria Nautica.

To determine the winners, an international jury was composed of Silvia Piardi, Full Professor in Industrial Design at the Politecnico of Milan, Franco Michienzi, Director of Barche magazine, Andrea Pagnin, Innovation Strategist for Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Justin Ratcliffe, Editor in Chief of Yachts International, Philip Easthill, European Boat Industry General Secretary. THE president of the Jury was architect Luisa Bocchietto - Senator of WDO - World Design Organization.

On the stage of the Boat Show, nlcomp launched the Digital Premiere of ecoprimus, the first recyclable dinghy on the market, with a video of the boat sailing in the Gulf of Trieste with strong bura. The small dinghy of the Monfalcone-based startup - defined Optimist 2.0 for its modern lines - is fully made with flax fiber, a core in recycled bottles and with Elium by Arkema resin. Thanks to the innovative construction processes, the boat is completely recyclable at the end of its life and the flax fibers and resin are reusable for the construction of new non-structural parts.

Fabio Bignolini, Project Manager of nlcomp: "It is truly a great emotion to be rewarded here at the Boat Show together with shipyards of international standing. It is a great opportunity for our startup: in the coming weeks we will start a promotional campaign to show the ecoprimus to sailing clubs and spread sustainability and respect for the environment starting from young people who are approaching sailing."

Andrea Paduano, R&D Manager of nlcomp: "We are very satisfied with the attention triggered by our project and we have received great interest from visitors, a strong signal that sustainability is now a very important aspect for the general public. We will continue to work in this sense to improve our technology and give solid solutions to the problems of the sector."

Piernicola Paoletti, CFO of nlcomp: "Being protagonists here in Genoa allows us to look to the future with great confidence. Precisely for this reason we have decided to launch an equity crowd funding campaign to obtain the needed resources to continue the development of the composite materials and study the design of new eco-sustainable boats."

In the coming weeks, Northern Light Composites will present an equity crowdfunding campaign to raise resources to continue the research and development on sustainable composites and to boost the pre-series production of ecoracer769.

Nlcomp's partners for the projects are Arkema, who supplied the Elium resin, and Armare Ropes, for the cordage. Montura is clothing partner, while the technical partners are Shin Software, QI Composites, Eco-Technilin, Bcomp, Meg 3D Print, Onnit and AG Plus.

The video of the launch of ecoprimus was made in Monfalcone by Enrico Lucarelli and Giulio Ladini with the logistical support of the Oscar Cosulich Sailing Company and the Italian Naval League of Monfalcone.