Hoisting the sail, a supply chain podcast

Ask an AI  agent "Is Cafe William sailing?": the answer is "Yes, Café William is actively using sailboats for transporting coffee as part of their commitment to sustainability. They partner with TransOceanic Wind Transport (TOWT) to ship coffee beans using wind-powered cargo ships, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Their latest initiative includes transporting coffee from Colombia to Quebec aboard the largest modern sailing cargo ship."We are delighted to receive on the show this month Serge Picard, the owner of Café William, a Quebec-based coffee roaster known for its commitment to sustainability and fair trade practices. Join us on this fascinating interview and discover the innovative approaches to reduce the environmental impact of coffee production and transportation: investment in SailCargo, transporting  coffee on the sailboat Avontuur, partnership with TOWT, collaboration with the German manufacturer Neuhaus Neotec to design, manufacture and operate the first electric coffee roaster.Thank you Serge for your time on the show, the hope and inspiration you provide!

On the show this month, we are delighted to receive Jean Zanuttini, president of Neoline. End of January, Neoline launched in Turkey an innovative and eco-friendly vessel, the Neoliner Origin. This 136-meter wind-powered ro-ro cargo ship is designed to transport rolling and oversized freight across the Atlantic. The Neoliner Origin appears to be a significant step forward in the decarbonization of the maritime industry. By utilizing wind as its primary propulsion energy, the Neoliner Origin aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 80% compared to conventional ships of similar size. This innovative approach combines traditional sailing techniques with modern technology such as SolidSail rigging from Chantiers de l'Atlantique, making it a pioneering example of sustainable shipping.The vessel's ability to transport a variety of cargo, including vehicles, luxury goods, and refrigerated items, while also accommodating passengers, demonstrates its versatility and potential to revolutionize the industry. The support from major global brands like Renault, Hennessy, and Clarins highlights the growing demand for eco-friendly shipping solutions. Overall, the Neoliner Origin represents a promising shift towards greener maritime transport, potentially setting a new standard for the industry.Learn more from Mr Zanuttini about the Neoliner Origin and Neoline's future development.

To wrap up 2024, we're thrilled to welcome Nico Cymbalist to the show. Calling from California, Nico will introduce us to Clippership, one of the few wind propulsion projects in the US.Nico, an aerodynamic specialist and former engineer at Mercedes Formula One and Tesla, founded Clippership a year ago with three partners. The company's ambition is to transport pallets faster and more cost-effectively than existing methods.In this captivating interview, Nico shares how his passion for sailing and autonomy led him to secure investment from 50 Years, a renowned California-based venture capitalist firm. Unlike the traditional European approach, Clippership’s development strategy is distinctively innovative. They embrace the credo: start small, fail fast, learn and grow faster.Besides discussing the project, Nico offers fresh insights into the development of sailing cargoes and highlights the roadblocks encountered on this recent journey.

To launch the fourth season of Hoisting the Sail, we are delighted to welcome back Grain de Sail, the pioneer in modern, wind powered ocean shipping operating sailing cargoes since 2020. Stefan Gallard, marketing director is joined by Jacques Barreau, CEO and co-founder. In our first discussion with Stefan in 2021, he detailed the inception and early stage development of Grain de Sail, its unique business model: a shipowning company with a maritime business but also a land-based business with manufacturing plants for the production of chocolate and coffee, sold and distributed under the Grain de Sail brand. Please join us to learn more about Grain de Sail 2, the 51 meter, 350 tons schooner launched in March 2024 and sailing the Atlantic between Saint Malo, New York and Guadeloupe. In an exclusive interview, Jacques Barreau will reveal details of the next vessel Grain de Sail 3, a 3 masts with a capacity of 200 EVP, a breakthrough in the wind propulsion business. 

This episode is taking you to the high seas with our guest Boris Herrmann, the skipper of the IMOCA Team Malizia, currently racing around the world in the Ocean Race 2023. Yes, it’s a lot about racing sailboats. You’ll discover Boris’s joy and thrills of racing high performance sailing machines around the planet, but it’s also a lot about the future of maritime transportation. Because, it’s now an evidence that offshore racing is an engine for innovations. Just like the America’s Cup, Formula One or Nascar.Boris will guide you through the pathways between his sport and the development of wind assisted cargo vessels. Not only is he passionate about it, speaking like a true advocate, but he is also directly involved since Team Malizia joined  the International WindShip Association a few months ago. With his sponsors - a clever mix of foundations and private enterprises - he is guiding the adaptation of wind propulsion for several German based shipping companies. When Kat spoke with him, he was fresh off the boat, after a gruesome and epic victory in the longest leg, between Capetown, South Africa and Itajai, Brazil. But since Boris was waiting for a flight to take him back home in Germany, we recorded this interview from the airport. We apologize for the background noise.

This week's episode brings us down memory lane. Our guest on March 31st, 2021 was Roger Strevens,  VP Global Sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen. Roger shared with us the design and feasibility assessment of the Orcelle Wind, the car carrier that will be powered primarily by wind, killing emissions by up to 90% in comparison to other new-built ships. Today, Kat Bride is catching up with Niclas Dahl, managing director of Oceanbird: the Swedish company (joint venture of Alfa Laval and Wallenius) develops and provides technology for wind-powered vessel propulsion. The Oceanbird wing sails will equip the Orcelle Wind. Niclas is a true believer of using wind to power the maritime industry toward Zero Emission. He is leading his team “to take the step to try something new”,  developing  top of the art wing sails. “In my view, the more mature products today are the wind ones" tell us Niclas.  He reminds wind is a free energy, abundant and, thanks to the enormous progress of the last decades in forecasting, it’s reliable! We can all agree, it’s time to go forward!So Niclas Dahl is not wrong when he is saying “There will be early adopters. For the others, I hope they will wake up as soon as possible”

We are thrilled to introduce our two new guests. They met on a boat and decided to start a shipping company. They both are committed to succeed on their mission, helped by their passion and their business acumen. One is an accomplished athlete, a sailor whose credentials are world-renowned. The other is an engineer who has worked with success in the automobile industry. Together, with three other partners, they launched VELA Transport. François Gabart and Michael Fernandez-Ferri are our guests and we couldn’t be more proud. François competes on the ocean with his state-of-the-art SVR Lazartigue while running his company Mer Concept. He recognized early on that his passion and skill in his racing endeavors could be translated into projects that can transform the way people are going to sea, on a ferry or a cruising boat made of flax.  So why not transpose this expertise into maritime transportation, with a goal to reach the sacrosanct Zero Emission? Francois Gabart’s victories in the Vendee Globe in 2012, the Alain Colas Trophy in 2018 and many more, plus the work done by the pioneers at TOWT and Grain de Sail are part of the response. It’s a challenge that Francois, Michael, Pascal Galacteros, Pierre Arnaud Vallon and Thibault Charles from VELA feel they have a good shot at and they want to bank on. 

This episode of Hoisting the Sail begins with the wish of a sail racer who yearned to pilot a flying sailboat above the water and win every race. In 1987, legendary sailor Éric Tabarly famously proclaimed that “one day, all boats will fly.” Today’s guest, Richard Forest, CEO and co-founder of SEair, diligently leads a team of engineers to prove Tabarly was right! Founded in 2016 and based in Lorient, France, SEair rose above the competition to become the global specialist for hydrofoil vessels.  If wind propulsion can drastically reduce CO2 emissions from cargo ships, foiling is a proven solution to reduce fuel consumption for smaller boats, from commuter ferries to pleasure craft. In addition, foils are transforming gray boats (military vessels) into green ones. To wit, SEair was awarded EU grants to develop fast intervention boats for several European navies.Richard spoke passionately about his work as an innovator and entrepreneur. Changing the way we travel on water is a big issue, and adopting foils presents its own difficulties.Thankfully, SEair’s expertise and dedication to designing and building better ships will lead us closer to a faster and cleaner future for maritime transport. If that’s not enough to celebrate, foiling above the water reduces seasickness!

This new episode of Hoisting the Sail is taking you to Barcelona! Our guest is David Ferrer Desclaux, co-founder & CTO of bound4blue. A trained aerospace engineer, he switched to the vast horizon of our blue planet in 2015 and started, along with a group of classmates, bound4blue, “to power the world with wind”.Bound4Blue is developing an automated wind-assisted propulsion system, the eSAIL.If you grew up watching Commandant Jacques Cousteau adventures on TV, you may remember his 2nd boat, the Alcyone. Commandant Cousteau’s team included two bright engineers, Professor Lucien Malavard and Doctor Bertrand Charrier. Together, they revived and improved the Flettner Rotor,  developing the a Suction Sail named the Turbosail™ - the ancestor of the eSAIL was born!Doctor Bertrand Charrier is now an associate at Bound4Blue! With the young and dedicated team of the Spanish start-up, they keep improving the Suction Sail technology & design, gaining an impressive 20% boost in fuel saving performance. Bound4Blue has become a major player in the growing wind propulsion technology. The eSAIL has been harnessing the wind since 2021, bringing live data to confirm the savings predicted by modelisations. For our aerospace engineer and his team, the sky's the limit!

Our guest today is Christiaan De Beukelaer, a sailor, traveller, and a researcher at the University of Melbourne. Christiaan and Kat discuss his bookTrade Winds, A voyage to a sustainable shipping.In 2020, Christiaan De Beukelaer spent 150 days covering 14,000 nautical miles aboard the schooner Avontuur, a hundred-year-old sailing vessel that transports cargo across the Atlantic Ocean. Embarking in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, he wanted to understand the realities of a little-known alternative to the shipping industry on which our global economy relies, and which contributes more carbon emissions than aviation.What started as a three-week stint of fieldwork aboard the ship turned into a five-month journey, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced all borders shut while crossing the ocean, preventing the crew from stepping ashore for months on end.Trade winds engagingly recounts De Beukelaer's life-changing personal odyssey and the complex journey the shipping industry is on to cut its carbon emissions. The Avontuur’s mission remains crucial as ever: the shipping industry urgently needs to stop using fossil fuels, starting today. If we can’t swiftly decarbonise shipping, we can’t solve the climate crisis.Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature describes Christiaan’s book as “a truly fascinating account of a voyage, but also of an idea that is counter-intuitive in a world based on speed, but revelatory for a planet that is going to have to start taking real care of itself. There's a bit of romance here, and a lot of reality."Deborah Cowen, author of The Deadly Life of Logistics, in turn says that “This is a book that should change the world.”It should indeed!Trade Winds is published by Manchester University Press; our listeners can order using the link below and get a 40% discount with the code GIFT40. https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526163097/trade-winds/