Philippe Guenat has always wanted to build environmentally-friendly boats, and he has been doing that for the best decade. And as advances in solar technology keep being made, Philippe’s PMG boatyard keeps designing more innovative and eco-friendly vessels as witnessed by the construction of the latest group of vessels the company is building for Silent Yachts.

Philippe really started to be intrigued by solar power in 2008; he thought enough progress has been made with solar panels that the world was ready for a solar-assisted yacht. But his plans were met with skepticism and de-boatyardPMGrision with everyone he approached in Europe until while on a visit to Thailand he stumbled upon Corrie Lamprecht who was running the Bakri Cono shipyard in Ocean Marina. The two struck a partnership and went into business de-signing the first solar-assisted yacht, Heliotrope. In August of 2019, the partnership ended with Philippe taking sole control of the company, renaming it PMG SHIPYARD.

Originally, Bakri Cono focused on OEMs for a Middle Eastern company, specifi-cally fast catamarans. Then the Heliotrope 65 solar-assisted project took place taking advan-tage of a catamaran’s large roof surface. It was the first solar-assisted (8 kw/h) luxury powercat built in Thailand by people living in Thailand, including Michel Royer, the solar specialist, and Albert Nazarov, the boat’s designer. The yacht was powered by solar energy except for the en-gine. The Heliotrope 65 was designed in 2010, and construction ran from 2011-2013. Bakri Cono had to invent and develop new technol-ogy for the yacht as it was an original design and build. In 2013 the company upgraded its electronic system from the traditional breaker system to the more advanced computerized CZone digital switching technology similar to the technology used in building modern aircraft.