Holly is the editor of Dockwalk. She grew up racing sailboats in England before switching to the world of superyachts and moving across the pond to Fort Lauderdale.
At the 2024 Monaco Yacht Show, leading global classification societies Lloyd’s Register (LR), RINA, DNV, Bureau Veritas (BV), and ABS announced the creation of the Yacht Safety and Environmental Consortium (YSEC).
The new group aim to improving safety and environmental performance across the yachting industry, particularly for commercial and pleasure yachts over 24 meters in length. Unlike other vessels covered by the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS), yachts lack the same level of regulation, making YSEC a vital addition.
YSEC will harness the collective expertise of its members to tackle challenges in yacht design, safety, and sustainability. The consortium aims to foster collaboration, promote best practices, and advise on industry standards. It will also focus on areas like tonnage calculations and environmental guidelines.
Engel-Jan de Boer, LR’s Global Yacht Segment Director, said, that the collaboration is a "shared vision that will enable the industry to address safety and environmental challenges more effectively.”
Fiorenzo Spadoni, North Europe Marine Senior Director at RINA, said: “Promoting safety at sea and protecting the environment are at the heart of our daily operations. These must not be areas of potential misalignment among key stakeholders. A collaborative approach, where the sum is greater than the individual contributions, is the way forward.”
Representatives from DNV, BV, and ABS echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and unified standards to shape the future of yacht safety and sustainability.
The YSEC will appoint rotating leadership and is already working on key environmental initiatives.