Savouring a Dominican organic rum would feel even more delicious if you read on the bottle that your fine spirit has reached you in Europe after a month-long voyage on board a sailing vessel directly from the Caribbean distillery. This is not a scene from a pirate movie and you have not travelled back to the 16th century.
It is the delightful result of the innovative yet very retro import/export business model of young French company TransOceanic Wind Transport – the wind-driven sailing ship.
TransOceanic seeks to bring together and connect sailboat owners with the producers and buyers of goods which can be shipped over the seas using only the power of the wind.
This very old tradition for European empires to communicate with the New World, which led to a cornucopia of substances like cocoa, corn and tobacco being brought to Europe for the first time, has been given new life by TOWT’s network of passionate sailors eager to promote an exciting, eco-friendly way of transporting cargo. Thanks to the alliance between these maritime enthusiasts from different countries, shipping cargo by sail is now no longer an absurdly nostalgic idea, but an economically sustainable and efficient alternative to engine-powered tankers and container ships.
A dozen vessels have worked with TOWT since its inception in 2009, and have moved hundreds of tonnes of choice products across the Atlantic Ocean and around the coastlines of Europe. Dominican chocolate, Portuguese tea, Scandinavian soap and French wine are just part of a growing list. The navigation routes always include a return journey with new cargo, so the economies at both ends of a shipping route benefit and the ships are never empty. People involved in the effort to resurrect old engineless sailboats highlight their reduction of greenhouse emissions and their capacity to return to a more personal and transparent way of trading.
“When consumers see our label on their products they understand it is a coherent way of doing things that puts together the old and the new,” says Diana Mesa, co-founder of TOWT, and originally from Colombia herself but now residing in Brest. “Local producers we deal with take lots of care to cultivate in the most natural and ecological way and they needed an alternative to cargo container ships to make the shipping process sustainable as well.”
Diana Mesa and Guillaume Le Grand founded TransOceanic Wind Transport in the French port of Brest in 2009 / Photograph: Martin Römer.
Every item transported through TOWT holds an eco-label that enables consumers to track online the maritime progress of their order, with information on the boat and even its captain’s name, as well as checking the network of establishments that sell goods transported by wind-propelled ships – already more than thirty in France, mainly in Brittany. To raise people’s interest in traditional shipping, vessels also organise events in the harbours they stop at, in which guests can try the products and visit the sea craft.
“The majority of people smile broadly when they discover us and realise there is a beautiful voyage behind each label,” says Guillaume Le Grand, TOWT co-founder, and a Breton himself. “Many do not go further, but some get truly fascinated because they had never wondered before how products got to them from the other side of the planet.”
TransOceanic Wind Transport delivers its cargoes at only little extra cost than engine-powered ships and within a reasonable time – average 30 days to cross the ocean rather than 22 days for slow-steaming container ships. However, as these stylish traders have to adapt their ways to this century’s demands, so their vessels – mostly from the beginning of the last century – get modernised as well.
“The ultimate goal of the company is to build modern freighters to sail,” explains Diana. She says they understand this represents a big challenge, but they would not have arrived where they are if did not follow their passion and intuition. The French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) agree and awarded TOWT’s innovation project a €200,000 grant last year.
Guillaume describes his ideal modern vessel as 60 metres long with 1000 tonnes freight capacity. Alongside its reliability, he underlines the importance of being “as cheap to build and also to work, as possible” if they really want to create their own market and meet the demands. This affordable boat would need an estimated 6 crew and could carry up to 12 passengers.
As Guillaume says when asked about TOWT’s future, “navigation is a world of uncertainty”, but it is clear that, so far, TOWT and its partners have found a niche in the market renovating something as simple and beautiful as sailing. All they need is a fair wind in their sails.
