Sometimes I like to sit and reminisce about that idyllic day in April 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck arrived in the Cape. The Drommedaris and Goede Hoope arrived on the 6th and the Reijger arrived on the 7th and just picture the wind in their sails. You too can get that feeling. The shipping business has evolved back to the past where there is now a business opportunity for wind powered vessels. With one company having a vessel dating back to 1909 – 113 years old, while Fairtransport’s Nordlys, a wooden fishing ketch dates back to 1873. So it is not outside the realm of possibility to once again hoist the Dutch East India Company flag along the Cape of Good Hope on a wind powered vessel.
What is wind powered shipping aka “sail cargo”
Wind powered shipping is ocean freight delivered using ships that don’t have an engine or using sails powered by the wind. It is (I assume) approved by Greta Thunberg as a eco-friendly shipping method. So companies that want to appear to be eco-friendly as well will use this service even though it will cost a premium and take longer than a traditional shipping vessel.
How did we get here?
Large Ever Given sized vessels are considered the coal of the shipping industry according to some.
Sail Cargo in the 21st Century
The ‘cargo sailboats’ companies are using in place of massive container ships
The Future Of Shipping – Wind Power (Forbes)
The Future of Shipping Is … Sails? (Bloomberg)
Sail cargo: Charting a new path for emission-free shipping?
Fleet of ‘Cargo Sailboats’ Taking on Dirty Shipping
Sailcargo blends old and new in sailing freight venture
This cargo ship runs on wind
Companies in this industry
Fairtransport
Vessel: Tres Hombres – “the only trans-Atlantic sailing freighter without a motor! She is the flagship of Fairtransport and the sailing ambassador for cleaner sea transport”.
Type: Schooner Brigantine
Built: 1943
Operations: The Tres Hombres sails a sustainable trade route between Europe and the Caribbean. The cargo consists of cocoa beans, chocolate bars, coffee, tea, wine and rum.
Ships Sailing under Fairtransport flag are transporting exotic products which are organic, or crafted traditionally – such as olive oil, coffee, wine and rum – to make them available in the only sustainable way: by the power of the wind.
Grain De Sail “floating cellar”
25m schooner with a payload of 35 tons climate and stability-controlled hull for the goods. Able to carry 1500 cases of 12 per trip.
TransOceanic Wind Transport – TOWT
Vessel: The Phenix Class
Imagine that the cup of coffee in your hand was transported all the way from Colombia not on a giant, polluting container ship, but by a sturdy sailing vessel using only wind power.
That’s the vision of TransOceanic Wind Transport (TOWT), a small cargo company based in France which is now scaling up to transport tens of thousands of tonnes per year.
Sailcargo
A Costa Rican start-up, Sailcargo, is bringing old sailing ships back for the maritime cargo industry.
Vessel: Ceiba
Vessel: Vega (pending)
Built: 1909
Cargo Capacity: 148 cubic metres of dry goods. “This is equivalent to 82 tons of green coffee beans”.
Type: three-masted, square-rigged cargo sailing schooner
Business Model
Now obviously you don’t have to own the vessel, you can charter, you can be a shipping agent, broker etc. But…
True story: Why you still poor
That is right. You can get a wind powered vessel capable of moving tons of cargo for half the price (R500k) of a table at Saint Lounge:
Imagine paying R1m for a table at a club. Then you can’t even take the table home with you.
South African entrepreneurs be like
Still a better deal than Saint Lounge
A better business model than Eskom
OK, Ok, I’m taking the piss now, but these people are so comical I just could not resist.
The correct business model
A lot of ships are shareholder owned, as in they might be operated by one entity but their ownership will differ ship to ship. Some of these operators sell shares in the ships to finance them as well as pay for the restoration or refitting. This model allows for the operator to split either revenue with the ship owners or to have a chartering agreement. The third option is the part owner. While shareholders fund the ship to get shares, the operator get shares as well in a type of JV agreement. Will this work in SA? Probably not.
Image credit: south-africa-tours-and-travel.com
