Listening to a segment about a wind-powered ocean freighter, the Grain de Sail II, on this (podcast) episode of the January 26th PBS Newshour, I imagined that ship in a happy, soft-focus glow and could sense a sweet sea breeze while learning about this fairytale-come-true.
Then watching it, despite seeing the crew bear the chill of stronger ocean gusts, it still felt great to think that such a thing could work — an ocean-going cargo ship, powered to move only by wind, while transporting three great things: coffee, wine and chocolate.
The Grain de Sail II takes wine from the port of St. Malo, France to New York and then picks up coffee and cacao in “Central America,” (it is unclear exactly where) and brings those products back to France.
Could this really exist? Apparently yes, although I wondered if it wasn’t a corollary to the ongoing riddle, “How do you make a small fortune in the BLANK Business?” (I’ve heard it told as being the “Wine” Business) Answer: You start with a large fortune.
But the Barreau Brothers, the owners of this enterprise, are evidently for real and they are making their business work without the heavy carbon footprint of ocean diesel. A larger vessel, more at-scale, is in the works.
[This isn’t a lone example, either, the ocean freight industry, overall, has made some great advances in reducing their carbon footprint and many vessels around the world today also carry sails that assist their diesel engines and have thereby reduced their emissions significantly. Ironically, these reductions have been so great that temperatures over the Pacific have recently increased and some researchers believe that it’s because of a reduction in the “smog cover” that ocean-going freighters used to contribute (it’s a good problem to have).]
The Grain de Sail II, though, is 100% wind-powered while at sea* and while I am sure there are other opportunities to carve out sustainable niches in the coffee business, this one can serve as inspiration for many others to come — and that is my point – This story inspires.
Cheers, and anchors away, to Jacques and Olivier Barreau…
(I have not tasted any of the Barreau Brothers’ products, nor have I had any contact with them or their company — I’m posting about them and their ship here because I thought this was a sweet story and I was in the mood to share some good news.)
* Port Authorities require that all vessels have a tiny engine to assist in docking, if necessary. There’s also some batteries and generators aboard to keep the lights & amenities on and the instrumentation working.
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