Slow Freight Joins the Slow Movement
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 08.13.08
That's the Kathleen and May, pulling into Dublin with 22 pallets--that's 21,000 bottles of Fair Wind Wine--from Languedoc, carried by the Compagnie de Transport Maritime à la Voile (CTMV). They are the "owners and operators of the first European fleet of merchant sailing ships, and the current market leader for clean, environmentally friendly transport." Transportation by sail has one-seventh the carbon emissions of a container ship. (Why that much? Because they have generators for the navigational instruments and diesel for maneuvering in port or down rivers.)
The Belem, another CTMV ship, recently visited Quebec
Hannah Bullock and Julia Sussams write at Green Futures:
"But doesn’t the fact that the journey takes up to twice as long as it would by conventional vessel set the company at a commercial disadvantage? Founder Frédéric Albert explains that his contract with importers recognizes that the voyage varies from four to eight days depending on winds, and points out that wine sellers are keen to display the ‘Carried by sailing ship’ label on bottles.
He sees the enterprise as playing an educational role, too: “Consumers today don’t know how long things really need – how long wine takes to mature; how long an apple takes to grow. [Slow freight] is a pedagogic thing. If the ship’s late, it’s because it’s working with nature.” He adds that there are added benefits of sending the bottles by boat, too – the rolling of the waves apparently improves the flavour of the wine." ::Green Futures
How Slow Can You Go? More on the Slow Movement in TreeHugger
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Edmund Burke tells us that certain wines only grow sweet after making a voyage by sea.
They should switch to a bio-diesel for their engines.
Seems like out on the open ocean you could reduce the need for a diesel generator with solar panels.
Perhaps someday there will be solar panel fabric useful for making sails.
"owners and operators of the first European fleet of merchant sailing ships"
I'm pretty sure they missed out on being "first" by a few hundred years. Merchant sailing ships aren't exactly a new concept
Wow!
Another of their features: they're gorgeous!
That is definitely a great thing to see. I wonder if the fuel savings offsets the cost of the extra crew needed?
True bulk shipping by sail for certain items should return. It is silly not to.
I would pay more for stuff shipped this way.
Imagine the extra room for stuff without having to haul a bunch of fuel around.
vsk
Shipping by boat improves flavor? Does that mean French wine tastes better in the States than in France, and vice versa?
and wouldn't the wine be subjected to rolling waves in a shipping container on a freight ship anyhow?
in any case, i just love this idea.
It's the rocking motion - that makes sense. If you've toured a vineyard they talk about turning the bottles. I'm sure there's some science in there somewhere.
I love these types of ships. They're so much more appealing to me than giant barges and modern cruise ships.
Now if they would start taking passengers....
"...owners and operators of the first European fleet of merchant sailing ships
Maybe the first of the 21 century but you'd have to go back a ways to find the real first, first, wouldn't you? Like a few thousand years.
Hmm, read about this one before - but it seems a bit like green washing if you ask me. The mega container ships are shit efficient (money/gasoline used to move a KG), and they took down the price of sending a load of container almost a thousandfold (but as an ecogeek I´d still like to mount a sail to them).
The ship above, is costly and I really wonder if it can even take one 40 feet container inside of it of goods. (I work with exports) It would not surprise me if the carbon footprint actually was equal or even more to a container ship when you make an total analysis of loading/logistics etc. Just imagine filling up a Hong Kong harbour with 3000 slow ships instead of using one mega container vessel.
NO - we are not going back to those old ships, NO those ships will not make a difference, and YES - we should look for those alternatives that can compete with mega container ships / or could make them less damaging to the environment.
BUT - the story above seems more like a publicity stunt with all it´s "flavor enriching features". Too bad Treehugger staff took the bait and delivered it to us.
I love this idea.
--begin tongue in cheek--
As soon as these show up in the Real Good catalog, I'm going to order a bottle delivered overnight by Fed Ex!
--end tongue in cheek--
I don't care whether the motion makes the flavor better or not--if we imagine it does we'll enjoy the wine more whether it's true or not.
"...owners and operators of the first European fleet of merchant sailing ships
Maybe the first of the 21 century but you'd have to go back a ways to find the real first, first, wouldn't you? Like a few thousand years.
It's great to see this.
There should be more bulk shipping done by sailing ships. I wonder of the cost of the extra crew needed is offset by the fuel cost savings?
I would pay more for stuff shipped this way.
vsk 2nd try
This is pretty sweet. I imagine there are a lot of things where the transport time is not really that important. I'm not sure how they can say they are the first sailing merchant ships though!!!
for some reason, i don't think this is going to catch on.
I love sailing!
but turn of the century sailing ships for transport? Seriously? There's no way that this is a scalable operation. This is a plan for increasing the margin of profit on a fancy bottle of wine....not for saving the environment.
Now if they spent some time in the lab and developed lightweight composites with computer aided navigation, sail operation and weather forecasting maybe...
Hmmm...
If regular diesel cargo ships are like SUV's..
and if diesel cargo ships with the kite sails are like the hybrid SUV's...
then these sail boats are like the "first" electric cars.
Maybe we could improve these "first generation" sail boats by pimping them out.
1. In place of regular sails - go for the high kite sails that are much more efficient.
2. In place of diesel, solar charged electric engines, with battery storage and/or minor wind turbine generation.
3. In place of dumping overboard waste using a Sun-Mar system.
Hey, I run a business and i'm wondering how we can get our products on sailing ships....maybe it WILL catch on?
Is anyone else in business enjoying the thought?
This concept somehow makes me breathe easier. If the ship takes 4 extra days, so be it, what can you do? That's life (at least it used to be) and maybe that's what we should be heading back to a bit more.
Wheee! Now we can all join the merchant navy in our youth and become novelists later on!
They should further defray costs by taking on passengers who'd love to travel this way. but not too many, or the green-ness might be lost.
Better watch out for pirates.
I love this idea. I agree with Ben, the ships need to go with a wing type hard sail that won't take as much man power to operate and is more efficient. Then the deck needs to get cleaned up to hold more cargo. I think it could work for other items as well, not just wine. Fuel cost has pushed up the shipping cost latley so bring on the sail power.
While I too doubt that sailing ships will be used for large-scale deliveries, they may very well make environmental/economic sense for small specialty items with a niche appeal, such as the wine mentioned in the article.
As for newer and greener technology that could be used for sailboats, sailing has improved down the ages as better methods have been invented. So I would fully expect that we may one day see much more use of solar panels and wind generators on board ships.
I worked on a schooner many, many years ago on Cape Cod, and can recall the occasional power boat coming by and yelling derisively to our Captain, especially when there was little wind blowing, "Want to race?"
His reply was simply, "Sure. All the way to the Azores. See you there."
Won't the heat affect the wine, or are the containers air conditioned? It seems that "the Other" is onto something.