Reflections on 2024/1 - a trip to Den Helder
Reflections on 2024 / Part 1
Remembering some of the highlights of the year….
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To the Netherlands in November for the Fairwinds Collective **Future of Sail** Symposium at Willemsoord dockyard in Den Helder.
A chance to catch up with friends from other cargo companies Europe-wide that we see too much by social media than in person.
Mixed emotions in the room – the optimism of creating something positive together, alongside a mood of wasted years in which the transition to post-carbon could have gone so much faster (and as the latest COP gets off to a bad start). Trepidation too, at learning more about environmental limits being crossed at alarming rates, and what that means for weather patterns in the ocean (more hurricanes, reaching landfall in Europe – see Hurricane Kirk in October).
Big talking point between those thinking a modern high tech sail fleet can come to the rescue of business-as-usual globalisation, and those seeing a future of drastically curtailed trade and tighter regional networks, where the cargo fleet will be much smaller.
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Willamsoord is a 19th Century naval dockyard, once humming with workshops, set alongside an older North Sea fishing community. It’s a much quieter place these days, the workshops now a mix of museums, cafes, a casino and a cinema, with some modern-tech maritime and traditional ship repair trades still going on.
It's also the home of Fairtransport and the Tres Hombres, the people who largely kickstarted the modern sail cargo movement over a decade ago and are still going.
So it was good to fit in a visit to their office as well, and see the final work taking place to rig-out Tres Hombres ahead of another trans-Atlantic crossing for this remarkable little boat.
In a couple of weeks she will set off for, incredibly, a 15th year of sail cargo operations – all done without grants or subsidies or loans and on a straightforward commercial basis. A real achievement. We wish the crew fair winds for the crossing.