Annabelle Boudinot is a French girl extremely passionate about sailing and ecology: last year, she took on an ambitious challenge to sail across the Atlantic with a boat made from flax.

Her “green” sailboat, ‘Agro650’ was partially made ​​from flax fiber, an alternative to fiberglass (fiber glass is derived from petro- chemistry). The young sailor wanted to demonstrate that vegetable fibers are sustainable over time and can withstand a hostile environment, for this reason she decided to take on this challenge.

This challenge should  inspire and encourage not only boat builders but also other industries to move from  just experimenting with materials to using them in everyday production, and use of these fibers in our lives day to day.

Although the use of vegetable fibers is no longer limited only to the paper and textile industries, there are growing interest for this material across industries. But it is still only used in the construction and automobile industry on an experimental basis (these fibers are found in composite materials).

Vegetable fiber is much cleaner than chemical ones. The reason: it is locally produced and healthy to implement. Its carbon footprint is much lower than fiberglass.

In addition, the plant fibers model is reproducible with other fibers produced elsewhere (e.g.  Jute in Bangladesh) .

Annabelle has crossed the Atlantic solo, leaving France last October and arriving to Guadeloupe on December 8th, with a stopover in the Canaries. A truly great accomplishment!

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.agro650.org