06 Jan Upcycling : from the boat to its equipments

Dream Racer Boats, the start-up company that puts on boats steeped in history. Combining aesthetics with functionality, the Rethink. Rebuild. Refit. concept by Dream Racer Boats allows you to create a new identity for the boat and its equipment. It can be identified by the term Upcycling. The result combines design, comfort, performance, beauty and emotion.

But above all, what is upcycling?

Upcycling is about recycling a material “from the top” (up) to create a new, high-quality product. In the nautical world, this amounts to extending the life of a boat, improving its performance, and its comfort through creation.

Responding to an environmental concern that is widespread, the use of “upcycling” is increasingly common, but what does it really mean? Upcycling consists of recovering materials, which we no longer use, in order to transform them into materials with an aesthetic or market added value.

Upcycling consists in giving a new “high-end” life to a waste: it is better than making new with old!

Everyday objects, fashion accessories, decorative objects… everything becomes possible, from the Do It Yourself product to the unique design object, in the luxury sector. However, in order for upcycling to truly enter the professional world, it is necessary to leave the unique creative or artistic offer and propose a qualitative and followed offer with the same demanding criteria as any manufacturer. The intervention of the industrial designer is all the more necessary to offer a quality “upcycled” product, durable, functional and aesthetic.

A vision that Trash to Trend, a web platform promoting upcycling and upgrading of materials in the textile sector, defends while encouraging designers to work around these practices, for a zero waste objective. With tool proposals and organized operations, Trash to Trend hopes to foster the creation of a whole new market. An ambition which, if it spreads, would have many positive consequences! Indeed, each new garment made up of waste generates up to 84% less CO2 and uses 85% less water.

“Upcycling is to reconsider the banal to reach the astonishing!”

Valérie Fernani

Sail It Great Again, the second life of a boat

Dream Racer Boats is committed to the circular economy with the conviction to develop the concept of Sail It Great Again. The promotion of a product or upcycling is the art of seeing outdated products from a new perspective.

Vidar Nordli-Mathisen

The secret of a successful refit lies in the study of several elements. First, we differentiate several boat refit profiles: future buyer looking for a customizable boat; boat owner wishing to optimize it for its sale or in search of some new performances; sailor looking for optimization for a race, a specific gauge.

Expert advice

The priority is to properly identify the boat and the desired level of refit. The preliminary project can be a long work to achieve (wide choice of possibilities) and quickly become an endless headache. This is why, within Dream Racer Boats, we have developed guides such as the check log as well as guides: Technical, Equipment and Services. These “easy refit” guides facilitate the first steps and support the client in choosing refit thanks to pre-customized solutions. In a 100% eco-responsible approach, we participate in the choice of eco-design (article to find in the next news).

On a resale project, it is important to quickly identify the profitability of the refit project. This work consists of studying the market and its trends. Some boats tend to depreciate more than others. If you have chosen to sail on this boat, is there one or more reasons? This step is essential in the study of the refit project.

Identifying the negative / positive sides and correcting them, improving the concept, can change the value of a resale.

In order to support you on the right questions to ask, we have created pre-customized solutions. They were based on a set of projects (in progress or carried out) and on feedback. These solutions have been studied to be adaptable on boats of similar configuration. This allows the realization of a plan quickly and accelerate the realization of the pre-project.

Investment & Having fun: possible mix?

On a boat refit or custom project, freedom and inspiration are limitless. Choice of design, materials, textures, colors, etc. This playful tendency is the opportunity to adopt an ecological behavior, and to be at the origin of his own creations (design, equipment on board, performances). In terms of budget, a refitted and well-studied boat is up to three times lower than the price of a new technically comparable boat. Refit and boat staging therefore respond to an economical and ecological alternative.