Setting Sail into the Future: How Grand Large Yachting is Redefining Sustainable Boatbuilding

At ZIW 2025 in Paris, we had the opportunity to sit down with Romain Guiraudou, Electrical Lead Engineer at Grand Large Yachting, one of France’s leading yacht and boat manufacturers. The conversation shed light on the group’s unique challenges in electrical engineering, and its forward-looking approach to sustainability and innovation in the maritime industry.

A Leading Name in French Boatbuilding

Grand Large Yachting is a federation of six boating brands, manufacturing a variety of vessels—from monohulls to multihulls—crafted with materials ranging from aluminum and polyester to fiberglass and carbon. The group focuses on serving sailing and travel enthusiasts, offering tailored, high-performance vessels for both adventure and comfort.

Their production footprint spans several regions in France, including the Atlantic coast, the English Channel, and the Mediterranean. This broad geographic distribution prompted a need for harmonized tools and workflows to ensure consistency and quality across sites.

Electrical Complexity on the Rise

As electrical systems on board have become increasingly sophisticated – growing from 20 to 80 pages of schematics per boat over the past decade – electricity is no longer a secondary consideration, but a core discipline. Boats today require up to 7 to 9 kilometers of cabling, and engineers must carefully balance safety, weight, space optimization, and configurability.

To meet these challenges, Grand Large Yachting adopted Zuken’s E3.series software, initiating a group-wide deployment that involved training eight engineers across three production sites within a year. The implementation also included building a unified database with more than 1,700 components, and mapping over 80 kilometers of cabling across twelve boat models, each with up to 80 schematic pages.

Why E3.series?

This adoption of E3.series has significantly improved operational efficiency. The company has been able to standardize design methodologies across its various sites, enhance collaboration between engineering offices and workshops, and become far more responsive to customer-specific configurations. E3.series has streamlined component management and facilitated the creation of accurate documentation, which is crucial not only for production but also for servicing and user experience.

Each boat is customizable: it’s both Grand Large Yachting’s strength and signature. The team integrates every client’s individual preferences—whether it’s the type of battery, the charging system based on the boat’s destination (Europe or the United States), or the number of solar panels. E3.series automates these configurations, saving substantial time. What once took several days—or even over a week—to configure now takes just a few hours.

A Deep Commitment to Sustainability

The conversation also highlighted Grand Large Yachting’s strong commitment to ecological responsibility. As boatbuilding inherently engages with the marine ecosystem, the group is actively seeking ways to reduce its environmental impact. This includes exploring green composite materials—such as recycled or bio-sourced options—investing in renewable energy systems like solar panels, wind power, and hydro-regeneration, and incorporating lithium battery storage alongside hybrid propulsion systems to enable more energy-efficient navigational materials. While carbon fiber remains unmatched in structural rigidity, it poses environmental concerns—leading Grand Large Yachting to experiment with greener solutions while maintaining performance standards.

Looking to the next 5 to 15 years, Grand Large Yachting sees electrical innovation as one of its most critical fronts. Technologies are evolving rapidly—from lithium to sodium batteries—and the group is preparing to integrate these advancements as they emerge from laboratories into commercial applications.

Adapting to changing norms, increasing protection standards, and future-proofing designs are all central to their strategy. As customer expectations evolve, Grand Large Yachting aims to stay at the forefront—offering smarter, more energy-efficient boats without compromising on quality or safety.
Conclusion

Grand Large Yachting is more than a boatbuilder—it is a case study in how tradition and innovation can sail side by side. By embracing digital tools like E3.series and leading the charge on sustainability, the company is shaping the future of recreational marine design in France and beyond.