A collection of notes about wind assisted / Fair transport.Some vague possibility of this as a connection between older knoeledges and newer ones, that could help us deal with coming changes.

The meeting is interim and tried to outline the currents tate of the project. Parallel to it, a stakeholders meeting was being held on the ship “Stad Amsterdam” which a few of us talked ourselves into.

The main project for NSRsail is the Ecoliner, a sail assisted container transport vessel.

Film “Ready About / Rueckkehr der Windjammer” from NDR, features interviews with many of the people present.

Leeuwarden will be capital of culture in 2018 and there is interest to carry on some cultural aspect of this project in that context.

Mast shapes is difficult in aluminium or steel. A cheap cylinder can have less that 1% up to 8% losses.

Early motor driven vessels carried sails as they were a guarantee that the vessels could get through.

“Is the expression “Clean Cargo” greenwashing? Working Group This does not seem to mention anything but carbon footprint, while heavy fuel oil seems to have its major problem with SOx and NOx (sulpher and nitrogen oxides) emmissions. The Clean Shipping Index (Overview Main site) seems to look at these aspects as well.

Andreas Lackner from Tres Hombres talked about their Fair Transport work. Since 2013 they have reached a break even point. So this is financially sustainable, the people working are being paid. “An organic banana is no longer organic after shipping.” One other aim is to increase maritime job variety.

Question about transport in the Baltic / Ostsee: is it somehow greener, due to local legislation or other requirements?

Carbon credit markets and rerlated topics are difficult. There are various markets.. LNG as a fuel is being considered. There is a problem with split incentives: the owner needs to act, but the charterer pays / saves. There is no existing methodology for (measuring / crediting) fuel savings. Voluntary / Verified Carbon Standard is one international system. Given the Ecoliner's aim of saving 50% of fuel, there would be around one million Euro per year in savings that could be made and paid. There is also no existing system for Europe. Once this methodology has been developed, it could be taken on and applied widely - but who will take on the costs for doing it the first time?

As a result of meeting Madadh MacLaine at NSRsail, a conversation with various people and organisations has arisen. Let us try and keep track of them here. They of course begin to interconnect with other conversations….

David Buckland runs this in the UK. Artists and environmental considerations. Arts/Science collaborations.

Peter Nuttall at University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji. Have run several conferences. There seems to be a useful series of meetings and work going on.

If I understand, the issue is developing vessels for cargo between PAcific islands, that are commercially as well as ecologically workable and sustainable. Islands are losing transport chances because duesel is no longer affordable as a propulsion fuel.

One suggested design, similar to the one above: (in French)

A voyage from Fiji to Rotuma should take place under the name of Island Mesh. Call will be made in Feb 2015. This is an ANAT / ADA Aotearoa Digital Arts) collaboration.

This might be connectied to the Mesh Cities project about arts in transitional spaces.

Wipke Iwersen has been sending out small, unmanned sailing vessels that sail into the wind, as his search for “the origin of the wind” since 2004. Website

While its acronym is relatively general, Media Art Research Interdisciplinary Network, there is a strong Makrolab taste about these projects. Journeys, data streams, autonomous sensor networks, etc. One sees close connections to ATOL's project in Slovenia and the Arctic Perspective Initiative as well. Ran 2009-2011, unsure about current status.

Link: Blog and Info

A 5 year EU Culture project, re-exploring the Odyssee in the context of the Baltic, The Ionian (I think, around Italy) and the Aegean.

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