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A Sensible Proposal
The Concept: Green Shipping
The Definition: Transportation of goods with little or no redundant carbon emmision. The Green part means environmentally friendly and/or sustainable. The Shipping part means just that: shipping, and not coincidentally, by sailboat.
The Scenario: The development of an alternative to overland and fuel based commodity transfer using sailboat(s).
So:
Wind is a renewable resource. Early tall ships took advantage of that and the natural currents to develop trade and explore the world. They relied on the trade winds to get large heavy wooden ships full of stuff everywhere. They wouldn't sail up wind and they required large crews who were frequently pressed into service (against their will) or absorbed voluntarily as an option to prison. It was tough dangerous work!
The came the industrial revolution and steamships. The sun set on the days of tall ships as working vessels. The second half of the twentieth century brought the advent of fiberglass and the notion of yachting to the working class, with trailer and weekend sailers: small sailboats became affordable and easily handled with the Marconi, or fore and aft sail, configuration. Thousands of sailboats were produced to meet the demand. At one time there were fie Cal 20's made a day!
Flash ahead to the twenty first century. Peak Oil looming. Marinas so full of sailboats they're giving 'em away for cheap of free! People who can no longer afford to support a house mortgage, a car lease, escalating cost of living, and the luxury of a dock ornament - an unused boat - that cost money to slip, insure, maintain, and even destroy (which is what the marina will do to the boat after it is seized by lein and not saleable when they are "too far gone" and exorbitant to destroy). Eventually the boats acquire a negative value; they cost of reclaiming them is beyond their actual value - seaworthy and operational boats can be found for less! That kind of boat is called an upside down boat. They are still good! They can be restored and used by savvy people and reclaimed materials! It can cost thousands to destroy a boat.
What?
What if sailboats, which use almost no fuel, were used to move goods with renewable energy to deliver goods, again? Sailboats are actually solar machines since they rely mostly on wind, which is generated by the sun in the form of shifting air masses of varying temperatures. They have engines called auxilliaries (outboards, inboards) that usually use fuel but there are also electric motors now, and sails that double as solar panels! Even using gas or diesel (or biodiesel), it is said a sailboat gets a thousand miles to the gallon.
As a pilot project it's good to start small. In fact, the whole current business model of success by (large) volume may be over. The Buy Local thing may become not just a zeitgeist but the norm as it no longer makes sense to ship avocados up from Chile to sell in California where they already grow. This is one form of redundant shipping and only occurs because the existing system profits heavily from it (how?) especially in the form (government subsidized) fuel consumption. Some distribution companies send goods back and forth on the sme run as per contract, and a wholesaler can be bound by contract to support such redundancy. That means goods produced ine one region leave and come back to be sold locally!
The story:
About seven years ago I started reclaiming unwanted boats as a hobby when I was not on tour as a performing songwriter. The first sloop was a 21 foot boat in Florida. It cost me $700. I gave it away in the end. My next boat cost $200. It sank at the dock while I was working on it but I stuffed a plastic bag in the broken thru-hull and managed to save her. I did my first gig by boat on her, a 24' Islander, and sold her for $1750. Then I got a 28' Islander for $500 and brought her as far back as I could before going back on tour. I gave away her to a friend.
People were surprised when someone gave me a 24' C & C after more touring, especially since it needed no work. I learned to single-handed sail in the snow of wintery Bellingham bay. I sold her and got a bus after waking up locked in ice too many times. Last spring I was given a 42' antique (1940) wooden ketch in San Pedro, Ca. I brought her back as far as possible but the title was not forthcoming and this blocked further superstructure work (and financing). I left her for the owner, much improved, and published my second novel which, documented the process, materials and craftmanship, called Deja Vu. See a photo essay at www.myspace.com/dancarrigan.
I also reclaimed a sailing dory, wooden, and experimented with different handmade sails and pulled sticks from the woods, eventually whittling the right sized mast. I sailed this boat so much, with my akita, that at one point when the ambitious acquisiton of a 32' Tahiti ketch fell through, I lived in and out of it for three weeks!Tthis was an eleven foot open boat. So my experience with boats has been very lively and extensive in a relatively short period of time. I have also worked for cheap or free on myriad other sailboats of legendary and obscure pedigree, mostly free. This is called a labour of love.
Last summer I began harvesting kelp from the bay to supplement the dog food that I was making for my animals. I did this during the morning row, or sail, daily after the dog walks. The dogs came (I'd acquired a shepherd mix too - she LOVED boating!) and I'd snag kelp from the water, throw it in the boat and lay it on rocks to dry once ashore. Then it got chopped up and mixed into their foods. At the health food store it $40 a pound, when available.
The year before I was rowing and sailing to my volunteer job at the food bank and doing the same to get back. I was commuting by boat, and on the return leg transporting food for myself and homeless people I knew that couldn't get there themselves. It was a very rewarding and healthy lifestyle, especially with strong headwinds! I would also boat with my guitars and laundry, etc, The dory proved much better than my bike for moving anything bigger than a bag, plus my bus got 5 m.p.g. less on vegetable oil which was a bear to garner. The oil I mean. That's alot of material! So I preferred to keep it parked and transit across the water. One thing is for sure: it can take longer!
The plan:
I have sourced many boats since my arrival on the west coast a few years ago. There is no shortage of sailboats and no shortage of unwanted ones. I would like to restore this boat with my own skills, volunteer help, endorsements, sponsorship and funding. It will be used to bioneer the green shipping idea and show that not only is it viable but fun and healthy. It will be a model for future generations to come, and surely they will improve on the ideas! In fact there are all sorts of high tech boat alternatives extant for years now: Huge ships with wings on deck, etc.
Appendix:
Who am I?
Dan Carrigan, singer songwriter and two-time author, boat rescuer and project catalyst, at your service!
I will update this proposal to keep the data current, as it is available. If you are interested in becoming invovled please contact me with your ideas and.or resources. I welcome all input the supports and promotes this project. It may take a community!
Thanks for your time,
Dan Carrigan
please use email:
greanshipping@hotmail.com
march 30, 2010 update:
The target sloop was sold, I discovered this morning, was sold to be destroyed for her lead keel.
Oh well. There are more boats!
Proposal Logistics:
Ventura is fifteen downhill miles from Ojai, which is 8 nautical miles from Oxnard, the next port south/east. Add some overage and call it forty miles total. If the sloop is designed to sleep six, which it is, it has space for the carry on baggage of that crew and the space needed for it's provisions. If the sloop is cruising short distances with a crew of let's say, two or three, that space can be re-allocated. Let's say the available space is two by two by six, or 24 cubic feet. In shipping that's called the cube (I had a brief stint as a freight forwarder). The cube is one factor and the weight is another. The calculations are oriented to the greater number. Obviously something like lead would only be granted a tiny cube since it would be so heavy. Feathers, well, stuff in as many as you can! Get it?
This is why something like dried sage, with a higher market retail price, would work so much better that oranges, which sell in season for about twenty cents a pound. Especially if being transfered over land by bike cart (I used to be a bike messenger in San Francisco) even if it is downhill. Not that I'm ruling out oranges. A recently read book tells how a ketch stepped in to deliver oranges in the islands when the sched'd packet ship couldn't make it (Blue Water, Bob Griffith), as one example.
Although all the cost projections are currently incomplete, imagine a slip fee of $450 per month ( it's $432 in reality), that would be a fixed cost to be met with the shipping price, among others like maintaince and materials. So at $10 a pound, shipped without fossil fuels, a hundred pound load would generate a gross of a thousand dollars. A hundred pounds is fifty less than the 150 lb. maximum of my bike cart, so there's room to move. A commodity that was light, like sage, would have a larger cube than oranges but if it was small enought to fit in the twenty-four cubic feet of space it would be ideal as a light product with a relatively higher retail value. Oranges, for example, wouldn't work since at a retail price of $.50 a pound, or five bucks for a ten pound bag, you'd need to ship two thousand pounds of oranges to make a grand, even if they were free of charge and freely (no charge) delivered by bike !
So using that (incomplete) formula, four runs a month could generate four thousand dollars in gross. This is figured as a dead-head or one way system but goods should be transfered on the way back. In theory that doubles the potential gross to eight grand a month. So far the overhead is only $450 but we know there are other costs unarticulated as yet. In fact, the start up costs must be amortized but compared to other business I believe they can be re-couped relatively quickly. The run can expand into a route. as more business is acquired and experience is built on real situations, more boats can be rescued and re-assigned to the fleet as needed. When it's up and running information can be shared with other locals wanting to emmulate the plan.
The more people doing it, the better it will work. This is no idea to be kept secret! It's not high science!
What does that mean? In theory, the business can achieve the aim of carbon-free shipping while reclaiming unwanted boats destined for destruction and landfills, while actually turning a profit. How cool is that?
Other ideas:
There is no reason why passengers can't be aboard, for a fee to offset costs, to commute. There is no reason why the vessels can't be chartered in their off/down time for weddings or special events. My personal favourite is to carry mail - Sail Mail (light and small!) - and/or have a band on the boat. There are unlimited associated opportunities.
The enterprise can partner up with sail clubs or associations and serve as a part time training vessel to promote sailing and sailing skills, with or without official certification.
The vessel may be able to obtain environmental data - animal and environmental changes that are monitored - and be paid for that, to eliminate other research vessels' efforts in the same areas.
Avant Garde Bioneer Vessel
They have electric motors equal to or better than combustion engines, diesel or otherwise. It has been suggested to pull the diesel engine out of the boat and replace it with an electric motor. I think that's an amazing idea. One step at a time!
But You would have a solar powered small ship moving commodities while eliminating the carbon based transfer. That's not just using french fry oil, already used once, to run your bus (eliminating the use of petroleum products and thus lowering the demand and smelling great). It's fostering a sustainable and renewable industry while creating an altrernative to the old one. Switch a thousand miles to the gallon to a milion!
Sure it's nice to pick up the phone and have UPS/FEDEX/DHL etc. at your door in an hour and your stuff across the world in a day or two. This is not about that. This is something else that can not compete with that, nor can it be competed with.
This is something else.
This is green shipping.
