By
Laura Hyde |
Chantiers de l’Atlantique has floated out the world’s largest sailing ship, Orient Express Corinthian, after four months of construction at its shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. The ship, which is the first in a series of Accor-operated luxury sailing yachts, is equipped with a Bio-Sea ballast water treatment system supplied by France-based Bio-UV Group.
The chemical-free Bio-Sea B01-0135 unit will treat water onboard using ultraviolet radiation (UV-C) at flow rates up to 135 cubic metres per hour once the yacht begins operations in 2026. The B series system automatically regulates the UV dose according to the water quality, with treatment performance unaffected by water temperature or salinity. As no chemicals or active substances are used in the treatment process, deballasting can be carried out without harming the marine environment.
“Our ballast water treatment systems resonate with environmentally conscientious ship owners and builders because of the compact, low energy consuming reactor technology we have developed,” said Maxime Dedeurwaerder, sales director for solutions at Bio-UV Group. “The Bio-Sea B unit for the Accor ships, for instance, needs only one UV reactor, optimising space and energy saving efficiency without any impact on ballast water treatment performance to limit invasive species proliferation.”
Orient Express Sailing Yachts
Orient Express Corinthian will be the world’s largest sailing yacht at 220 metres long
Orient Express Corinthian has been designed by Orient Express and Chantiers de l’Atlantique with “both grandeur and purpose”. It is the first sailing yacht to deploy the shipbuilder’s in-house designed SolidSail wind sail system, which features three 100-metre-tall lightweight masts that will be rigged with 1,500-square-metre Solid Sail/AeolDrive rigid but foldable sails.
During its float out on 16 June 2025, the 220-metre-long ship was moved from a construction dock to an outfitting dock where interior outfitting will begin, ahead of its scheduled maiden voyage from Marseille in France on 6 June 2026.
A second ship, Orient Express Olympian, which is scheduled for delivery in 2027, will also be fitted with a similar B-type Bio-Sea unit.
“Chantiers de l’Atlantique has good experience with Bio-UV Group’s Bio-Sea ballast water treatment systems, with more than twenty installations over the past decade or so,” said Arnaud Le Joncour, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Chantiers de l’Atlantique. “The Bio-Sea technology combines mechanical filtration and UV disinfection providing chemical-free treatment compliant with both International Maritime Organization and US Coast Guard regulations, which was an important consideration for the operational scope of the Accor sailing yachts.”
Read more: Orient Express Sailing Yachts: The return of a legend