Sail Revival

The idea of a revival of sail freight shows some vitality in our area.

Tres Hombres which has been doing a Caribbean run for a couple of years , arrived in Portsmouth in mid-May to unload before returning to her home port . Our native Irene, as we go to press, is on passage back to Bristol for end June. The extensive blog on Irene, mainly written by Lucy Gilliam, gives a good idea of the bureaucratic and practical difficulties of reviving trading, as well as the many delights of Caribbean sailing. It also has some wonderfully evocative photos.
Our new membership secretary is hoping that some of the chocolate survives the ravages of passage and crew starvation!

The Greenheart project for a versatile new build 200 tonne sailing/solar vessel suitable for shallow waters, and initially focussing on island trading, was represented at a conference in Cardiff in May. If you are interested, they welcome comments, and I suspect many of you might have thoughts on the design. Other larger vessels at the design stage include the B9 project, for a 3000 tonne vessel.
I am planning a meeting based on sail revival, past/present/future, for October. It would be helpful to know if there is interest, and whether this would extend to a slightly higher cost than usual if held on the waterfront at Bristol, where venues are pricey but there is much to see. Do drop me a line.

Jonathan Seagrave

Sail freight websites:
www.greenheartproject.org
http://newdawntraders.wordpress.com/

Thanks to George Stephenson for sending the following list of other relevant sites. Despite having deserted the South West to go to York, he eagerly awaits his first delivery of sail borne coffee beans !

http://svtreshombres.homestead.com/Index.html
www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/95/41/
www.sailtransportcompany.com/
www.ellagocoffee.com/
www.SailTransportNetwork.com
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/12/09/sail.ships.cargo.transport/index.html
http://www.b9energy.com/B9Shipping/tabid/4036/language/en-US/Default.aspx