Time was, wags tossed around the line, “If you want an eco-friendly yacht, buy a sailboat.” The thing is, most of the big ones have diesel engines and generators, and they use many of the same construction materials as motoryachts. They’re markedly eco-unfriendly when they’re coming and going from port, when the wind dies or if the crew is feeling lazy.

But the world is changing. In recent years, the words “sustainable” and “sustainability” have shouldered their way into nearly every corner of our culture, including the world of yachts. It’s powering a wave across the yachting spectrum and appears to be here to stay.

Most of us go to boat shows to see new models, equipment, accessories, and other goods and services. Throughout the decades, I’ve attended shows around the world for business and pleasure. The offerings and their presentation have remained largely and comfortably the same—until recently. Nowadays, exhibition halls and marina docks are erupting with new schemes for reducing environmental impacts. Electrics, hybrids and alternative fuels are in. Straight gasoline and diesel power are fading from favor.

As I’ve moved about the past few years, I’ve witnessed a rapidly increasing number of boat companies pitching sustainable design, eco-friendly building materials, and lower-impact propulsion and power generation. Boat show producers are making sustainability a centerpiece of their events, whether it’s recycling paper and plastic, dedicating spaces for highlighting sustainable initiatives or rewarding green tech.

Cynics might get a whiff of marketing in the air, but this trend is far broader than boat shows. Yacht and boat classification societies are developing standards aimed at making vessels easier on the environment, both during and after their years of service. Governments are enacting regulations aimed at improving air and water quality, including a European Union initiative to achieve “climate neutrality” by 2050, and planned zero-emissions regulations for Norway’s World Heritage fjords. Prospective boat and yacht owners, too, appear to be increasingly interested in buying more eco-friendly products.

Whatever the driver, this trend is rapidly changing the way we design, build and play with the vehicles we love in our liquid sandbox.

In 2022, the Monaco Yacht Show established a Sustainability Hub to showcase green design and technologies for large yachts. This year, Germany’s mammoth exhibition called boot Dusseldorf created the Blue Innovation Dock: a space within the show where individuals, companies and expert panels discuss a range of topics related to creative and sustainable solutions. In 2018, superyacht industry leaders created the Water Revolution Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to “drive sustainability through collaboration and innovation, neutralizing the industry’s ecological footprint and preserving the world’s oceans.” Yacht crew are even being trained in sustainability practices.

In Italy, Germany and Holland, shipyard after shipyard is advancing research and development of alternative fuels, propulsion systems and lower-impact on-board power generation.

Times have changed considerably since the days of Rudolf Diesel, inventor of what is arguably the most consequential propulsion system ever conceived. His eponymous mechanical masterwork legitimately changed the world. In this issue, we have an excerpt from a book about his mysterious demise, at a time when his century-plus-old technology appears to be headed toward refinement, at the least.

I value his contribution, but the water is where we play and the air is what we breathe while we’re playing. For those reasons alone, I think the shift toward more sustainable yachts is a good thing. How could it not be?

Even the kinds of vessels that handle mega-shipping appear to be getting on board, with some designers, builders and carriers leaning toward wind power for cleaner, more economical propulsion. Maybe they’ve also heard the old maxim: “If you want an eco-friendly ship….”