“Ten or twenty years from now, we will no longer have a choice. We will need to have zero-emission boats. This is a first step. » The words of Laetitia, a 17-year-old student, sum up all the ambition surrounding the new boat at the Bastia maritime high school (Haute-Corse), inaugurated on Friday November 15.
Named “Alba” (dawn, in Corsica), this 20 m long ship has the particularity of only running on carbon-free hydrogen. “So it does not pollute,” assures Julien Cometto, substitute director of the establishment. This is the first zero-emission professional boat in France. »
A vocation of ecological exemplarity carried by the maritime high school, which also finds it of particular interest for its 183 students: they will be the first, on the national job market, to have been trained in maintenance and handling of this type of boat. “A great source of pride”, for Yuna, a BTS student, as well as a “boon in terms of professional integration”, as Laetitia claims.
An idea that seems to be verified from the day of the inauguration. “In the audience there was a man who is currently building a ship of this type. He has already assured me that he is interested in our students for his crew,” confides Julien Cometto. An achievement for the director, who, with his team, has been carrying out the project for four years. Inspired by the Energy Observer hydrogen catamaran, “Alba” was financed to the tune of 4 million euros by the France Relance program and entirely produced by French companies.
