The Extinction Rebellion Group offered food for thought at this year’s The Superyacht Forum event after turning up on the final day to protest against the existence of the industry. The group arrived at roughly 9:30am on Wednesday morning with a megaphone and banners to peacefully protest against the complicit behaviour of stakeholders in yachting – they also made it clear they would not be using superglue or tins of tomato soup. We invited the group on stage to speak candidly to the nucleus of the industry about their reasoning and motivations.

Full unedited transcript below:

Martin H Redmayne: Elodie, the microphone is yours. Elodie is from Extinction Rebellion. What this means, is that the Superyacht market is on the radar, as we have said several, several times. And I’ve just had this protest happen in the forum as we would have expected the protest to happen. But why not listen to the protest as a group… and maybe respond? So I have asked them to speak for 10 minutes, to bring their banners on stage and have their say. Elodie, have your say, but please don’t shout, speak nicely. You can sit down if you want.

Elodie (Extinction Rebellion): I’m good. I’m good. I’m good standing. Okay. So I totally understand why you’re inviting us on stage right now. This, of course, looks much better than kicking us out. And I really want to avoid being used…