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Almost 20 years later, and having achieved 25 podiums and broken three world sailing speed records, mainly in transatlantic racing, his passion for both engineering, particularly in developing clean energy solutions, and ocean racing has now merged. With the invention of the Hydrogen Power Module marine fuel cell, Sharp has set his sights on racing around the globe in the world’s first hydrogen race yacht.
My journey into engineering started at Imperial College London where I spent four years doing a masters in mechanical engineering. During my degree I learned how far I could push myself to meet big deadlines but, more importantly, how to apply myself to create technical solutions to practical applications.
At university I also joined the Imperial College Sailing Club and sailed dinghies at Welsh Harp Reservoir in London. Although this small lake was pretty far from the ocean, and probably pretty polluted, it really inspired me into the competitive sport of offshore sailing. The lust for adventure and pushing myself outside my comfort zone really appealed to me. Having only ever sailed boats that had a diesel engine onboard I knew there was an opportunity for a solution that used renewable energy. Following my university finals, I raced solo across the Atlantic in a solar-powered boat, one of the first boats to ever do this.
Inspired to work in the renewable energy field and following some years working as a composites engineer, notably at Blade Dynamics where I helped engineer a 43m wind-turbine blade prototype, I co-founded a cleantech company, Genevos, in 2018 to develop clean energy technologies for maritime applications. Based in La Rochelle area, France, we started developing an ultra-low weight non-slip solar photovoltaic solution and hydrogenerator. Having integrated this solution into the deck of a Class 40 race boat, we used it to compete in the Class 40 World Championship in 2017 to 2019, uniquely as the only zero-emissions entry, and also in the Isle of Wight Round the World Record.
Many of the transatlantic races I have competed in have been solo races. It’s not always easy sailing on your own, the solitude is one of the hardest aspects of the adventure. Spending three months cooped up by yourself in a very small space may not seem natural but it offers a huge satisfaction because it is just so immensely challenging. Navigating this challenge has helped grow my self-leadership and self-awareness skills, which have proved very important in business in that it has helped me realise that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.
A dream I’ve really wanted to achieve for a long time is to race in some of the world’s toughest races, including the Vendée Globe, a solo non-stop round-the-world yacht race, in a boat that has no fossil fuels onboard. With this driving ambition, I led the engineering of the Hydrogen Power Module marine fuel cell, which was launched last year by Genevos. Along with other commercial applications, this pioneering zero-emissions energy system is being integrated into a 60-foot foiling IMOCA racing yacht designed by Sam Manuard Yacht Design, which will be ready to race next year.
It has certainly been a challenge to reach this point in my career but what I’ve learned is to really keep pushing towards solutions that offer sustainable performance. I strongly feel that as engineers we have to produce environmentally responsible solutions. We can’t engineer just for performance any more, we need to engineer solutions for the future that will benefit our planet and society in the long term. This has to be front of mind in everything we do around innovation.
While working towards turning my dream into reality there have been times when I thought it was an impossible task, but I stuck at it. As Henry Ford famously said, “obstacles are what you see when you take your mind off the goal”. In other words, what seem like big problems become small hurdles if you keep focused on your long-term objectives. For many years now, my goal has been to race around the world non-stop as fast and as cleanly as possible, and, while I still expect there to be a lot of barriers to overcome, and there have been in terms of funding and technical issues, I know that, if I keep my focus, eventually things have to come together.
Ultimately, if there is one thing I’ve learned throughout my career it’s that if you’ve got a dream and a goal that you really want to achieve then don’t hesitate to follow it because that’s really what will bring out the best in you.
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