Polar tourism may have the wow factor, but the fact is, cruises are one of the most carbon-intensive ways to travel. What’s the alternative? Enter Sophie Galvagnon. This record-breaking explorer and sailor is aiming to shake up the cruise industry with a groundbreaking solar-powered vessel. She talks to Katja Gaskell.
“Really, I am an ice nerd,” says Sophie Galvagnon. “I’ve seen whales, walruses, seals, and 554 polar bears, but I have a passion—almost an obsession—for the ice.”
38-year-old Galvagnon is a modern-day explorer. She’s the youngest ever female Arctic captain, and the youngest woman to be decorated with the French Order of Maritime Merit.
She’s also fascinated by ice. “I record the noise of the ice and play it when I’m at home,” she laughs as we chat via Zoom from her base in France. And now, she’s preparing to launch a ship that promises to revolutionize the polar tourism industry.
Galvagnon has spent most of her life at sea. The French-Swedish daughter of a cargo ship captain, she first stepped on board a boat aged just three months. At the age of 17, she entered the École Nationale Supérieure Maritime, the French National Maritime Academy in Marseille.
After graduating, she worked on container ships, often the only woman on board, before spending a season working on board a passenger ship sailing in the Antarctic, where she saw her first iceberg. “When I came into contact with the ice for the first time, it was like a hard crush,” Galvagnon tells me. “It’s the same feeling that you might have with a human; it was so intense I knew I had crossed a line that I couldn’t come back from.”
“First, I was driven by the excitement of exploration and challenging myself at sea. But within 10 years, I could already see a difference in the environment and I started to feel guilty.”
- Sophie Galvagnon
That moment sparked a passion for exploring the icy worlds of the Arctic and Antarctic, and she began working on specialized ships: Swedish icebreakers in winter and polar expedition ships in the summer. She spent 10 months of the year at sea, learning everything there is to know about ice navigation.
“It’s completely different,” says Galvagnon. “You become familiar with your ship and you learn how she reacts to the sea. But this behavior changes completely when you’re surrounded by ice; you have to adapt and re-think everything you have already learned.”
But alongside her fascination for these untamed environments was a growing sense of unease. “First, I was driven by the excitement of exploration and challenging myself at sea,” says Galvagnon. “But within 10 years, I could already see a difference in the environment and I started to feel guilty.”
Cruises are an incredibly carbon-intensive way to travel. Analysis by US-based non-profit, the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), showed that a cruise ship emits, on average, 250g of CO2 per passenger kilometer traveled. Flying, by comparison, emits between 10g and 130g per passenger; longer flights have lower carbon intensity.
Nevertheless, the number of cruisers continues to skyrocket; the Cruise Lines International Association predicts that by the end of 2025, 37.7 million people will have been on a cruise, up from 34.6 million in 2024. According to the Arctic Council, ships entering the Arctic Polar Code area—a regulated maritime zone around the North Pole—increased by 37 percent between 2013 and 2024.
Galvagnon decided to use her expertise to try and bring about positive change in the Arctic. In June 2022, she teamed up with naval architect Laurent Mermier and began designing a sustainable alternative to huge carbon-heavy cruise ships. Inspired by historic exploration vessels and using the latest technology, they drafted the blueprint for the world’s first solar- and wind-powered polar ship.
Towards the end of 2022, a friend introduced Galvagnon to experienced entrepreneurs Julia Bijaoui and Quentin Vacher. Together, the trio founded Selar, luxury polar expedition company focused on making travel to the polar region more sustainable, securing financing from European banks and private investors.
Their first ship, the Arctic Captain, is currently being built in Mauritius and is due to be completed in August 2026. The 70-meter expedition yacht is designed to carry 36 passengers and 24 crew—and it aims to be the first cruise ship powered by renewable energy.
Most of the time, the ship will rely on its five 35-meter-high aluminum sails to navigate. Each sail will be covered in 20,000 solar panels, and the energy will either be used directly or stored in batteries. The sails have been designed to twist 180 degrees to catch the winds, and can retract when not needed. Using renewable energy also means the ship is silent, which minimizes its impact on marine wildlife.
“What I saw in parallel to the destruction of the environment is what I call travel consumption—the idea of fixed itineraries, ticking boxes and breaking records.”
- Sophie Galvagnon
On board, the ship will be heated via a pellet boiler which uses recycled wooden waste pellets, while fresh water will be generated through reverse osmosis. The Arctic Captain is also the first in the region equipped to collect plastic waste and when not transporting passengers, it plans to work with environmental organization Clean Up Svalbard to remove a minimum of five tonnes of plastic from the shores of Svalbard annually. There’s also an on-board science lab so they can collect data even in the most remote areas.
And while the ship has an engine, it will be used as little as possible and will run on HVO fuel, a biofuel made from renewable waste materials. It’s estimated that the ‘almost zero emissions’ Arctic Captain will save 90 percent CO2 compared to the average cruise ship operating in the region.
But it’s not just the ship itself that Galvagnon wants to reinvent. She also aims to challenge the reasons why we travel.
“What I saw in parallel to the destruction of the environment is what I call travel consumption—the idea of fixed itineraries, ticking boxes and breaking records,” says Galvagnon. “This is so far away from the spirit of adventure and what these remote regions are about.”
Consequently, Selar expeditions will have no fixed itineraries. Instead, they will be themed, but with a flexibility to react to the whims of the natural environment. “Of course they will be planned,” says Galvagnon. “Because not planning and going into the unknown is just foolish and very dangerous—but if, for example, we see a polar bear, then we will adapt.”
The first expedition, ‘Dancing with Orcas’, will set sail from Tromsö, northern Norway in November 2026. “This will be one of our signature expeditions,” says Galvagnon. “During the dark season, you can see quite well because of the snow and the northern lights. It’s also the only time of year, and the only area of the world, where you can snorkel with orcas.” Wildlife encounters are accompanied by experts, with minimum distances maintained, as dictated by the Norwegian government.
The six-day journey is already fully booked, as are 80 percent of the other expeditions scheduled for the first two years. Although Galvagnon won’t be on board every expedition—“My life now has to be dedicated to being the CEO of Selar,” she says, somewhat reluctantly—she will be at the helm of the Arctic Captain when it sets sail in November. And she can’t wait to get back.
“I miss the field a lot,” she tells me. “I haven’t been away from the ice for this long ever. It’s a very different lifestyle being at sea and being on land. It’s been a challenge to switch over to Earth.” Looking ahead, she says Selar plans to create “new ships, new itineraries and new challenges,” but for now the focus is on the Arctic.
Galvagnon is optimistic too, about how their innovations may help shape the future of Arctic travel. “I hope we will lead a change in the polar tourism industry,” says Galvagnon. “We want to show that an alternative model is possible.”
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Katja Gaskell is a freelance journalist who writes about adventure, family travel and skiing for publications including The Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, National Geographic Traveller (UK), Wanderlust, and Lonely Planet. She is also the founder of globetotting.com, a website dedicated to adventurous family travel. Katja spent much of her life moving around, living in nine different countries, and now happily calls London, England home.
