Last Monday I was on deck working on the sailing cargo ship, De Tukker, when I got talking to an interested passer-by.
He had followed the outfitting of the ship week by week during his walks. He had seen: the finishing of the galley, the making of portholes in it. All the rigging work: the tensioning of the standing rigging, and the bending on, of the sails. The cargo derricks.. And on top of that the constant coming and going of steelworkers and carpenters who were busy with jobs that were invisible from the outside.
The passer-by said “it’s nice to hear that cargo is being sailed by wind ships, but it’s much slower, isn’t it?”.
And indeed sailing is of course dependent on the wind, while a motor ship can just keep steaming. On average, that might make a sailing ship slightly slower.
However, that is as long as there are still enough fossil fuels… and I know, they are still there. The question is however: are we prepared to actually burn the fossil fuels that are left? If we are indeed willing to do so, and do not care about the Paris climate agreements, then cargo sailing is indeed slower.
However, if we want to keep those fossil fuels in the ground, sailing suddenly becomes unimaginably fast! So please spread the word: sailing is the fastest possible natural transport by sea.
Many thanks in advance and fair winds,
Jorne Langelaan
P.S. If you want to do even more to: enable the sustainable transition to shipping with wind energy, and benefit from the growth of EcoClipper, you can still invest via the website: EcoClipper.org/invest/.
