As a part of Excess Catamarans’ overall goal of sustainable boat building and operating, the brand has potentially identified a new resourceful way to reduce its footprint. Part of Group Beneteau, the popular multihull brand does considerable research into product development and carbon footprint reduction. The group takes pride in being the leader in corporate social responsibility, a large part of that being sustainability.
In the effort of achieving a superior product with a reduced environmental impact, the Excess brand has identified a new solution in their decking materials – cork.
Advantages of the New Excess Catamaran Sustainable Decking Option
Non-skid
The natural softness of cork gives it superb non-slip properties. The texture remains consistent in both extremes of temperature and wet conditions.
Watertight
Despite its soft texture, cork is a proven champion of holding back water – or wine.
Thermal Comfort
Even after constant heat, cork does not heat up to an uncomfortable point. This is due to a very low coefficient of heat transmission.
Sound insulation
The texture and perforations in cork make it acoustically superior for dampening sounds like footsteps and voices.
Lightweight
Cork is almost twice as light as a comparable exotic wood or synthetic decking material.
Durability
Cork has very strong impact resistance and a unique property to retrieve its original shape.
Sustainability
The bark of cork oak trees is harvested every 9 years, and naturally renews itself without cutting down the tree. A single tree can supply 10 to 12 crops. This makes it a legitimately renewable resource. At the core of Groupe Beneteau’s corporate social responsibility is sustainable boatbuilding, and projects like this sustainable decking one are of critical importance to explore potential solutions to leave a positive legacy on the boat building industry. This comes in the wake of Excess Catamarans’ last sustainability project, the award winning the “Deep Blue” collaborative project with Torqeedo. In September of 2021 the two innovative brands put heads together to create an electric propulsion system running off of BMW lithium-ion batteries.
Stay tuned for more information as this option goes into further testing.
