Hoisting the sail, a supply chain podcast

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/

In this episode,  you are in for a treat with our guest Daniel Hubbell.  We first met Dan around a glass of wine and a bar of chocolate aboard Grain de Sail last spring in Brooklyn and interviewed him in October when he was the Shipping Emission Campaign Manager for Ocean Conservancy (since the interview, Dan started a new position as Policy Analyst at U.S. Department of State) Daniel Hubbell takes us on a tour of the International Maritime Organization where he spent a few years of his  career advocating for Ocean Conservancy.  Thanks to Daniel insight, you will learn how the IMO is tackling GHG, what have been decided and how these new indexes (with acronyms such as EEDI and other CII) will translate in term of real solid change for an industry that has been seen as very difficult to move in the right direction to tackle the emergency of climate change. If you are naturally pessimistic about seeing one day governmental decision to address the pollution caused by the shipping industry, this episode will help you gain some optimism. For Daniel, even the mighty Jones Act represents a chance for a greener future in our ports and oceans. Just look at the Green Shipping Corridor announced by the United State and the Republic of Korea at the COP 27. Zero Emission Vessels will soon set SAIL! (one can dream, no?)

In this new episode, we are thrilled to receive Nicolas Abiven. Nicolas is a Senior Engineer at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique, the shipyard in Saint Nazaire, France. The 150 years old shipyard has launched some of the most iconic vessels, such as the Normandie, the Queen Mary 2 and the Splendor of the Sea to name a few. After launching a first concept ship equipped of sails, Eoseas, in 2009, les Chantiers have been developing a type of sails suitable for large cruise ships and for commercial ships. From this intensive research was born Solid Sail, a large, rigid sail made of composite rectangles assembled together, a system simple and efficient to harness wind energy. If you have visited Saint Nazaire or follow us on LinkedIn, you have seen their demonstrator in the middle of the busy shipyard. The Solid Sail setup is a mast, equipped with a balestron and a set of sails - mainsail and jib - constituted of rectangular panels made in composite. Using an electric winch, the Solid Sail can be raised and lowered in just a few minutes. When it’s raised, it uses the wind the same way any sailboat does. The mast can be tilted to allow the boat to pass under bridges when entering or leaving a harbor.Nicolas takes the time from his busy schedule to present the concept, its applications, its market and why it’s important for the Chantiers to develop a wind assist technology for their customers. We recorded this interview from the Monaco Yacht Show and are sorry for some  noise in the background. 

We launch today Season 3 with an interview of Clare Newman, the president and CEO of  the Trust for Governors Island.  Kat and Clare discuss many facets of sustainability and adaptability - New York City since Sandy, the current and future developments on Governors Island, its maritime facade and the many experiments that can be run from the Island.Governors Island, located South of Manhattan and East of the Statue of Liberty, was originally used by the Lenape as a hunting  & fishing camp, before becoming an US Army base then, from 1966 to the mid 90s, a base for 3,000 US Coast Guards. Since 2010, the Island is run by the Trust for Governors Island, a 501(c)(3) non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion cre­at­ed by the City of New York respon­si­ble for the plan­ning, oper­a­tions and ongo­ing devel­op­ment of Gov­er­nors Island. 

In this new episode of Hoisting the Sail, we are delighted to welcome two guests from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute:  Kerry Ann Crehan-Strøm, the Marine Operations Coordinator for WHOI and Magdalena Andres, associate scientist physical oceanography and an expert on climate variability & impacts.Magdalena and Kerry are speaking with our host Kat about Science RoCS, i.e. Research on Commercial Ships, an initiative launched to answer the need for increased ocean monitoring. According to NOAA, 80% of the ocean is still unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored:  Science RoCs aims to fill in some gaps with the help of the  shipping industry. Since Science RoCS started in 2021, companies such as CMA CGM, Pangaea Logistics Solutions and Wallenius Wilhelmsen have already helped deploy equipments and collected important datas. Today there are an estimated 100 ocean-going research vessels worldwide and more than 50,000 commercial ships on the ocean at any given time: "it will be a game changer to have sensors on more commercial vessels", Strom said. "Imagine what we could accomplish in terms of science advancement with even just a one percent of the commercial fleet equipped."

In this new episode, our guest, Benoit Baisle Dailliez, initiative leader for WISAMO by Michelin, explains how the giant tires manufacturer came to develop a solution suitable to any vessels, and more particularly cargo ships (new or existing).Their motto, “Engineered by Michelin, powered by the wind”, makes clear that the company is fully committed to the decarbonization of maritime transport and a decrease of greenhouse gasses emissions.WISAMO's team embarked in "a real adventure fully in line with Michelin's "all sustainable" approach." WISAMO is a wing sail, inflatable as the parent's company main line of products.  The prototype is still tested on a 40' sailboat off the coast of Royan in France, under the supervision of legendary sailor Michel Desjoyeaux, In a near future, a full scale WISAMO wing sail will be installed on a freighter operating in the Bay of Biscay. WISAMO is an active member of the International Wind Ship Association.

This week's episode is about performance sailing and how innovation in yacht racing can be transferred to maritime shipping, making it more efficient and cleaner. We are delighted to receive John Cooper, who is the CEO of BAR Technologies, a company that is at the forefront of maritime innovation. Cooper joined BAR Technologies as CEO In October 2019, swapping automotive technology for marine technology. At the end of 2020, Cargill announced a promising partnership with BAR Technologies to combine world-class yacht racing design and technology using wind propulsion to reduce carbon emissions. BAR Technologies is invested in becoming a key player in cutting emissions in the marine industry and has resulted in the development of their WindWings technology. WindWings combines wind propulsion with route optimization and depending on if the installation is a retrofit or combined with a fully optimized newbuilt hull, it could increase the fuel efficiency of vessels in excess of 30%. BAR has already secured 2 signed contracts for work on new vessels using WindWings.BAR Technologies has also patented FOSS (Foil Optimisation and Stability System), which combines hydrofoil technology with hull hydrodynamic optimization. The resulting system achieves significant hydrodynamic efficiency gains while actively improving handling and sea keeping. Join us as we discuss methods of achieving significant fuel savings and optimization for all types of vessels.

We are back this week to welcome Martina Reche Villanova, a naval architect and maritime engineer, with a special focus on aerodynamics, green shipping, and digitalization. Though originally from Spain, she finished her Master’s degree at the Denmark University of Technology in Wind-Assisted Propulsion Systems. Villanova currently works at North Sails in Denmark, an international sailmaker and sailing wear company that designs, engineers and manufactures sails for racing and cruising sailboats. Here, she is developing the group strategy to get into the wind assist technology market. She is also pursuing a PhD on wind propulsion for commercial ships and details the objective of this endeavor and what she hopes to prove. Join us in our discussion with a bright and motivated young mind and listen in on what she believes is the most promising sail assist technology on the market. 

In this week's episode, we welcome Miles Keeney-Ritchie and Satchel Douglas, the founders of ALOFT. This startup champions wind propulsion and was founded in 2021. They aim to retrofit current ships with wind propulsion and optimize operations to significantly reduce shipping supply chain emissions. Our guests are creators and well-experienced in the technical field. Satchel is a naval architect and professional engineer. He has built sailing yachts, crewed on oil tankers, and engineered retrofits for numerous commercial ships. He also recently led the integration of the largest battery-electric ferry in the world. Miles has built mobile autonomous robots and worked in industrial process automation. He is an expert at integrating technology, with a decade of experience in mechanical design, hardware development, and project management. Their shared passion for decarbonization and solving challenging problems gave rise to Aloft where they try to make maritime shipping cleaner and more fuel-efficient. Currently, their retrofitted vessels reduce emissions per shipment by 50 percent; however, in the future, they will be emission-free.Michelin, among a group of 12 European cargo owners, has made a call to bid for a tender to move 1,000 TEUs weekly, from Europe to the US on wind-powered vessels that reduce CO2 emissions by 50%. This is an exciting opportunity for Aloft:  Miles and Satchel will detail their bidding process with us. Tune in to hear about their proposition and future plans for making maritime shipping cleaner using wind propulsion technology. 

In today’s episode, we are delighted to host James Rhodes, the Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder of Magnuss, a maritime technology firm. Rhodes brings over 30 years of experience in maritime shipping, renewable energy, investment banking, and management consulting. Magnuss delivers onboard systems that reduce fuel consumption and emissions for today's global shipping fleet. Rhodes joins us to talk about a technology called the Magnuss VOSS™  which stands for Vertically-variable Ocean Sail System. The Magnuss VOSS is a mechanical sail that converts wind into forwarding thrust thereby augmenting ship propulsion. Similarly to the  Flettner Rotor, the Magnuss VOSS relies on the Magnus Effect,  which states that a rotating cylinder in a wind stream produces a force perpendicular to the wind direction. When wind hits the rotating cylinder it sets up a high and low-pressure difference and creates thrust roughly ninety degrees to the wind direction. A vessel sailing with the wind on the beam is therefore given maximum forward thrust from the spinning VOSS. The idea is to have the sails act as a supplement to the ship’s installed engine power. This will increase fuel economy and reduce harmful emissions by harnessing the wind. Join us to learn about how the VOSS addresses major issues in the shipping industry, namely energy consumption and environmental impact, and the mechanisms available to help ship owners finance the retrofit.Magnuss is running until June 28 a funds raising campaign on Start Engine. 

We are delighted to receive today one of the early partners of Wind Support NYC,  Guilhem Gaillarde, calling from  Utrecht in the Netherlands. 

In today’s episode, we are delighted to receive Ami Daniel, the co-Founder, and CEO of Windward: a maritime data and analytics company. Daniel is an entrepreneur and a driver of technological change and is the recipient of the Israeli President's Award for Social Activism and The Ilan Ramon Award for Leadership and Excellence.Windward is a Predictive Intelligence company that is digitalizing the global maritime industry. Their technology allows other ship owners & operators, banks and commodity traders access to real-time information about the maritime ecosystem to make predictive and financially secure decisions. The company has recently launched the Data for Decarbonization Program which is a hub for sharing data and technology to predict and reduce maritime carbon emissions. The goal is to create large datasets gathered from all stakeholders in the marine trade industry to build AI models that will accurately predict the carbon emissions of any vessel voyage and optimize the whole pre-fixture process.This technology will aid in solving the rush to wait issue. Did you know that shipping businesses lose an estimated 18 billion USD annually due to “Rush to Wait?” This happens when vessel operators, wanting to ensure their vessel arrives on time, rush their arrival and speed up the journey. This leads to a lot of fuel waste, increased CO2 emissions and is incredibly inefficient. Windward’s AI offers a way to share information that will improve operational vessel efficiency. Join us to learn more about their unique data collection process and find out what makes Windward’s approach different than other maritime innovators. 

This week we take a step back from our usual topic of wind propulsion and decarbonization of the maritime transport to promote a fairly new documentary: “Maiden.” This documentary tells the story of the first all-woman crew to race around the world on a sailboat named Maiden and how they challenged the male-dominated world of sailing. This endeavor begins with Tracy Edwards who recruited a 12-woman crew to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race – now known as The Ocean Race. Dawn Riley, who was one of the crew members on Maiden, joins us on this episode to describe the documentary. She details the incredible story of how the underdogs of a world-renowned competition went on to win 2nd place overall in their class. On May 18th, the Hudson River Maritime Museum will be the venue for screening the documentary. In addition, between June 8th to the 11th, Maiden will be at the Hudson River Maritime Museum docks and we encourage our listeners to visit. This program is free and open to the public, but donations are encouraged. For our listeners in New York City, Maiden will also be making a stop at the Brooklyn Marina from June 1st to June 8th. Check out their website for more information on their stop-over schedule and on the Maiden Factor. 

This week's guest is Yves Parlier, a legendary sailor and an individual with a passion for innovation. During the Vendee Globe 2000-2001, Parlier, after a devastating dismasting, completed an ingenious repair to his ship’s wing mast and still managed to finish the race. This achievement, among others, has placed him in the public eye as an extraordinary sailor. He has since then switched careers and is now the CEO of Beyond the Sea. Beyond the Sea develops kite sails used to tow boats. In 2017, they launched the first towing sail for pleasure boats: the LibertyKite. Soon after, the LibertyKite Second Generation was launched: a kite sail steered by an automatic pilot that will also send and recover the sail. This is an exciting technology and for this episode, Yves joins us with Marine Rialan, project manager at Beyond the Sea, to discuss the potential of kite power.But what makes the LibertyKite so innovative? For starters, using kite sails is one of the easiest ways to retrofit cargo ships to utilize wind power. Kites are adaptable to all ships and can be attached with ease while retrofitting cargo ships to use sails is more complex and costly. In addition, when kites are not in use there is no drag from the wind or adverse affect to ship performance which cannot be said about sails. Beyond the Sea is also working on a new project called “SeaLab, '' where they will rebuild a catamaran to be self-sufficient in energy with zero emissions. Parlier hopes to transform the ship into a “laboratory of the sea,” where it will be used to develop new maritime technologies. Beyond the Sea was also selected to receive 1 million Euros in funding from Time for the Planet, biggest citizen community dedicated to global action against greenhouse gases emissions. Wind has been used for ship propulsion for thousands of years and despite our transition to bunker fuel in the 19th century, Parlier believes the future of maritime shipping lies with wind. Join us in this episode to get a glimpse into Beyond the Seas’s role in innovating the green maritime shipping industry. 

Our guest this week, Geraud Pellat de Villedon, Head of CSR for the supply chain at Michelin, joins us to bring a new perspective on the shipping industry. Michelin, the French  tire manufacturer,  is one of the largest shippers worldwide, transporting 240,000 TEUs per year. This company has been a leader in innovating ways to be greener since they introduced their green tire technology in the early 90s. Now, they are delving even deeper and making their supply chain environmentally friendly as well. Michelin is part of Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Vessels (coZEV), which is a coalition of companies that seeks to accelerate maritime shipping decarbonization. However, unlike other companies within the coalition, Michelin refuses to wait for shipping companies to propose a solution and has instead sought out low carbon transportation for their cargo. Michelin, among a group of 12 European cargo owners, has made a call to bid for a tender to move 1,000 TEUs weekly from Europe to the US on wind-powered vessels that reduce CO2 emissions by 50%. The selected shipping company would fulfill these requirements under the most optimal combination of lead times, carbon dioxide emissions reductions, and cost. Yet a key question remains: why have they chosen to harness the wind instead of opting for low carbon fuels? Tune in for this episode as we discuss Michelin’s motive for taking such an initiative and how corporate social responsibility fits into the supply chain.