Beyond The Sea

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From the Floating City to the Kitesurf Sail


Since September 2022, Marc Thienpont, merchant navy captain and chief engineer, has been the CEO of Beyond the Sea. Marc works daily with sailor Yves Parlier, founder of Beyond the Sea and creator of the kite sail.


Can an ecological awakening come from old issues of Okapi magazine? Apparently, yes. That’s what happened to Marc Thienpont. Photographs of polar ice and bears convinced him to change course — for good. The captain and chief engineer of the merchant navy decided to fully dedicate himself to protecting the environment by implementing an original solution to reduce ships’ fuel consumption.


But let’s save that anecdote for later and go back to the beginning — to Marc himself. When he talks about his background, his studies, and his career, he does so modestly, almost shyly. Yet one quickly senses a hard worker — a man who doesn’t count his hours, perhaps because he spends so much time with his colleagues. “I’m a very good listener. Maybe I waste time sometimes, but at least decisions are made in an informed way.” That’s his way of moving forward. “No one knows everything — and that’s even truer for me, in this environment…”


That environment is Beyond the Sea, a company based in Arcachon, where Marc Thienpont — former captain and chief engineer — has served as CEO since September 1, 2022. The goal is ambitious: “We have the fabulous project of decarbonizing the merchant fleet, fishing boats, and pleasure craft.” To do this, Beyond the Sea relies on the inexhaustible power of the wind — a solution almost as old as navigation itself, yet one that clearly has a future. The company has imagined equipping ships — even the largest ones — with a kite-shaped sail. Simple as that. “It’s the same principle as kitesurfing,” Marc explains.

Harnessing the Wind to Pull Ships


The sail is attached to the bow of the ship and helps to pull it, thereby reducing fuel consumption — and consequently CO₂ emissions — into the atmosphere. “Power generation is five times higher than that of a traditional sail of the same surface area, with no risk of capsizing.” Moreover, this solution has the considerable advantage of not affecting a vessel’s cargo capacity. It was conceptualized by sailor Yves Parlier, who is also the founder and president of Beyond the Sea.


Utopian? Simplistic? Neither, as Marc Thienpont quickly explains, putting on his maritime expert’s cap: “To reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the merchant fleet, there aren’t millions of options. The first is to stop using fossil fuels, but we’ll quickly face shortages of alternative energies and conflicts of use. The second is nuclear, but that’s very complex — only certain military fleets can handle it.”


The third and final option is to return to wind power — while leveraging the technological advances of the past forty years. That’s how this unusual sail was born: one that reduces a ship’s fuel consumption by an average of 20%, and that caught the attention of Team for the Planet’s scientific committee. In 2023, the investment fund decided to finance Beyond the Sea with €1.5 million and to appoint a CEO.


That CEO would be Marc Thienpont. He admits he didn’t check every box but decided to try his luck anyway. “I saw a job offer on LinkedIn, from a recruiter I didn’t know. They were looking for a CEO. I told myself: okay, my profile doesn’t match perfectly, but the merchant navy — I know that. The Arcachon basin — I know that too…”


Indeed, he does. “I was born in Bayonne and spent my whole youth there. The basin is my home turf. I come back often to recharge.” The sea is his natural element. Unsurprisingly, Marc has long practiced sailing — even competitively. “From the age of 16, I worked every summer as a sailing instructor, at the same club as Yves Parlier. Quite early on, I said I wanted to do the same job as my parents’ neighbor — a harbor pilot.”

Okapi and the Ecological Awakening


After earning his science baccalaureate, he went to a preparatory class that led to his desired training. A diligent student, he passed the entrance exam on his first attempt. “I studied for three years in Marseille,” he says. Then came three years of sailing on huge merchant ships — a versatile training program, one of the few in the world to teach both ship command and mechanical engineering. “It was amazing to combine work and passion — to live on a floating city. I discovered that producing the energy to move a ship forward was almost more complex than steering it.”


His career never strayed far from the Atlantic coast. After several years at sea came family life — the sea lover had to return to land. He then spent ten years at the Compagnie Générale de Géophysique as a technical director. His mission: coordinating the ships that locate oil in the seabed. “We were unfortunately laid off in 2019.” Unfortunately? “Yes and no,” he says, because that’s when the former captain experienced his ecological transformation.


And then came those Okapi magazines — found in a box during a move. “They were mine and my sons’. Some issues were thirty years apart, yet the covers were the same — melting ice caps, dying polar bears. Thirty years during which nothing had changed — and in the meantime, I was managing ships doing seabed scans to find oil…”

“The only name that came after Tabarly was Parlier.”


A sense of guilt? Maybe. In any case, the former sailor from Arcachon now needed a new professional horizon. Soon after, he came across the LinkedIn job offer. Beyond the Sea immediately resonated with him — especially since Yves Parlier was leading it. “He’s a childhood idol. He’s one of the greatest French sailors. The only name that came to mind after Tabarly was Parlier.”


Hired, Marc got to know the legendary sailor on a deeper level. “Yves has a profound environmental awareness. He has strong convictions — and lives by them. He rides a bike, doesn’t own a car… It’s not always easy! But we quickly learned to respect each other, and we each saw what the other could bring.”


Yves Parlier is not only the extraordinary sailor who, during his fourth Vendée Globe in 2002, managed to repair his dismasted boat in the middle of the ocean. He is also the inventor of the kite sail, the innovation designed to reduce ships’ carbon footprint.


What’s it like working with someone like him? “With humility,” says Marc. “It was up to me to adapt. Like many sailors, Yves barely sleeps. He visualizes a lot. Every decision he makes is carefully thought out.”


During his first month at Beyond the Sea, the new CEO spent time observing, learning, and writing a “surprise report.” Once again, restraint was his trademark. “I made sure not to barge in. The company had existed since 2014 and already had a demonstrator ready to be launched.” At the same time, Marc knew what he could bring: “Yves has this ability to gather brilliant people. But when I arrived, they were doing R&D with personal email addresses! I thought: okay, we need to secure things a bit here.”


Funding from Team for the Planet allowed the company to recruit massively: “We went from 15 to 35 employees,” Marc explains. “Everyone had to learn to delegate.” The former captain brought structure and leadership. “My arrival may have accelerated things a bit…”


At the time, the first kite-equipped boat had not yet been tested. Marc insisted that it was time to put the prototype in the water. “I told the team that at some point, we just have to go for it — get the boat wet and see what happens!”


And it worked. The technology imagined by Yves Parlier worked perfectly — giving the whole team new energy and motivation to think big. And that’s good, because the challenge is immense: “If the merchant fleet were a country, it would be the world’s sixth-largest CO₂ emitter.”


The adventure is only just beginning, but the SeaKite® sail is now a reality — attracting both investors and clients. The tests conducted provide real-time data on performance: optimal speed, wind resistance, and more.


Amid all this, Marc Thienpont does what he does best — he coordinates, measures and anticipates risks, and reassures the team. His calm leadership is appreciated internally. Florence Plumecker, Beyond the Sea’s technical director, notes his sense of observation and listening: “It was my first time managing a team, and he didn’t hesitate to coach me. He brought a kind of humanity that maybe was missing in the company before he arrived.” She also recalls his kindness: “When I hurt my eye, he took me to his father, who’s an ophthalmologist…”


Under Marc’s leadership, Beyond the Sea has expanded its network. “He knows the habits and codes of the merchant navy,” Florence explains. “He also brought potential clients.” Enough to turn a sailor’s dream into a profitable business.

“Offshore racing innovations have their place in the merchant navy.”


The next step is to convince maritime partners to adopt the project and equip their ships with kite sails. On this point, the CEO is confident: “The wind-propulsion industry is becoming structured in France, and innovations from offshore racing absolutely have their place in the merchant fleet.”


Marc, for his part, feels fulfilled in his new role. Aude, his partner, confirms: “Marc can finally align his work with his values.” That matters all the more because he doesn’t count his hours. “He’s passionate about his job — and about people. He’s always eager to help others grow.”


And when he’s not working? Unsurprisingly, he’s back at sea — sailing, always. He’s also a fan of comics. His current reading list includes The Hidden Life of Trees and Aquablue, a sci-fi story about humans plundering the resources of an ocean planet. Hardly surprising to find that on his shelf.


Looking back, does he have any regrets? “Not really — except that I wish I’d realized sooner how serious climate change was.” But as soon as he says it, Marc turns back into the tireless worker we met at the start: “I polluted for twenty-five years — I figure I’ve got another twenty-five to make up for it.”


The former captain hasn’t yet completed his journey — but he’s well on his way. And that’s already a lot.