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The clouds were spinning, the wind was roaring, and the waves were crashing into the hull of the sailboat Apollonia, but the ship held its course on the Hudson River in New York. The ship captained by Sam Merrett carried ayurvedic spices from Catskill; Wheat flour, hemp ointments and malted barley from Hudson; wool yarn from Ghent; and other local goods for the hundred-mile journey south to New York.

“It’s a case of initial syndrome, a matter of saying yes to everything and seeing what works,” said Mr Merrett, 38, on the phone from a location near Peekskill, with the waning winds of Tropical Storm Henri roaring in the background. “In this case, it was delivering 3,600 pounds of malted barley to a port in Poughkeepsie in the pouring rain.”

years old flight embarrassment, car embarrassment and even meat embarrassmentConscientious consumers with disposable incomes are increasingly aware of their carbon footprint and are interested in buying locally. Producers attempt with cleaner, greener packaging and delivery methods.

With his new “clean shipping” initiative, Mr. Merrett hopes to help them all.

In 2015, he and his two business partners purchased the Apollonia, a 64-foot steel-hulled sailboat horsepower, from Craigslist for $15,000. Built in the 1940s, the ship had been out of the water for 30 years before its crew sailed from Boston to its new home on the Hudson. They then spent three years rebuilding the sailing gear and adding creature comforts like a compost toilet and bunk beds, some of which were 20 inches wide.

The refurbished vessel made its maiden voyage in May 2020 and will set sail almost monthly from late spring to fall in 2021, creating an ecologically conscious supply chain to connect the Hudson Valley and New York Harbor. Carbon neutrality is embedded in every aspect of its operation, from its solar-powered e-bikes and sometimes to the last-mile delivery plan that includes horse-drawn carriages, thanks to partners at Prospect Park Stable in Brooklyn.

For centuries, wind-powered boats have carried cargo on the same route, and while there’s a certain old-fashioned romance to the business plan, Mr. Merrett says the venture isn’t a play on nostalgia.

“Not that I wish it was 1823 again,” he said after helping lift an 1890s tabletop printer into the cargo hold. “I think there used to be ways to do things that were really right, and we can learn from them. But today’s version will look different. And it should look different.”

As in the old days, the goods transported in the ship’s 20,000-pound hold are limited (nothing that needs refrigeration, nothing too perishable) and logistics are unpredictable (subject to factors as variable as the breeze and as difficult to navigate). municipal slip charter port policy in New York’s small coastal communities). But Mr. Merrett and his partners hope to provide a model for the future.

“We present a counter-narrative to the dominant narrative of ‘more, better, faster’,” said Ben Ezinga, 42, one of the partners. He previously converted car engines to run on vegetable oil with Mr. Merrett in Oberlin, Ohio. “Some things need to stay overnight; most things don’t. It has an incredible carbon footprint for this speed. We’re giving people a way to think about it.”

Downstream Benefits

Consumers may feel virtuous about buying things that don’t happen overnight, but some manufacturers say it’s just good for business. Dennis Nesel, a 61-year-old malt producer in the town of Hudson, said he was “very serious” about this method of shipping his local malt to local brewers.

“Shipping today post Covid is a nightmare,” he said. “When tow trucks take our load, sometimes things we plan to go to Brooklyn end up in Herkimer or Syracuse, things that need to go to Syracuse end up in Brooklyn. That doesn’t happen in Apollonia.”

Laura Webster, a 35-year-old entrepreneur who makes hot sauce, uses Apollonia to ship fermented probiotic chili products downriver from the Hudson.

He said it was “no-brainer” to add wind-powered shipping to their distribution methods, despite all poor Devil’s Pepper Company’s efforts to engage in ecologically responsible practices such as sourcing from regenerative-focused farms and zero-waste packaging from recycled chili paste. ”

Likewise, Nika Carlson, owner of the Greenpoint Cidery, described Apollonia as the “anti-Amazon”. On Mr. Merrett’s estate near the Hudson he grows apples and fodder for other cider ingredients such as wormwood and goldenrod.

“I think people are looking for such connections, especially when the world is really transforming from climate change and whatever is happening with Covid,” he said. “They’re looking for community, they’re looking for stories, and they’re looking for what ethical consumption looks like these days. That sounds like a luxury, but it shouldn’t be.”

Marines Get Alert

Apollonia’s small crew—members include a woodworker, a dam builder, a teacher on summer vacation, and a colleague of Mr. Merrett of the Hudson River Maritime Museum, other maritime part-time engagements—have their jobs cut out for it. Being a captain is not easy for beginners. “If everything is going well, I don’t have to do anything, but that’s never the case,” said Mr. Merrett as he anchored off Red Hook beach and looked at a long to-do list scrawled on a whiteboard. companion door: “Close gaff cracks; touch-up varnish — rubbing against the wind; provisions.”

The exhilarating freedom of living on the water is interrupted by such realities as not showering for days, eating pasta with salted olives for dinner several nights in a row, or being kicked out of the program due to lack of wind or an unexpected storm. .

Mr Merrett says that while Apollonia’s crew members don’t endure bouts of scurvy or embrace the art of scrimshaws to make long, isolating trips, their unconventional work schedule — two weeks, two weeks off — can have a negative impact on their personal lives. .

Even in the off-season when Hudson is frozen and there is no money to be made, there is always work to be done. As of 2018, the owners had put upwards of $110,000 that they had raised from several investors. renewal of Apollonia – and the expenses never end. This winter the boat will need to be sandblasted and the caliper repaired; it will also need adjustments to the cockpit syphilis surrounding the drains at the rear of the deck.

Perhaps not surprisingly, then, a number of establishments They previously set out to resurrect wind-powered ships on the East Coast and are no longer around to tell stories.

The Vermont Sail Freight project raised $13,000 on Kickstarter in 2013. first cargo voyage however, it closed after two years due to insufficient funds. A effort in Maine faced a similar fate. Of course, there are worse ways to screw this up: In 1979, a former high school English teacher sailed from New York to Haiti on a lovingly restored 97-foot sailboat with a cargo of canned chemicals and lumber and a dream. wind powered transport. But craft sank in waves of 20 meters about 190 miles off the coast of Long Island; Nine people on board were rescued.

These failures have not dampened the enthusiasm of those who believe in the business potential of clean shipping. worldwide, new operators They repair old ships, build new boats from the ground up, and pool their efforts under flags like the Sailing Cargo Alliance. In Europe, some climate-sensitive sailing freight operators have managed to survive for a long time. more than ten years. In Brittany, France, the Grain de Sail, a 72-metre aluminum cargo ship, features a state-of-the-art maritime wine cellar designed to transport biodynamic pallets of wine on the high seas. (This year, it brought coffee and cocoa from the Dominican Republic to France. return trip.) in Costa Rica, Sailing Cargo Inc. It’s building a fleet and a plan to launch in 2022.

Even shipping giants like Maersk, the world’s largest operator exploring wind powered shipping. The company last month committed $1.4 billion to carbon-neutral innovation.

“Is this profitable? Absolutely not,” said Mr Merrett. For now, he says, he’s focused on achievable goals like creating trade routes, making deliveries “to see if it works,” and “trying to pay the crew a $20 fee.”

Business partner Mr. Ezinga said: “This is the new green economy. These are green jobs. They didn’t even exist two years ago. We make them exist.”

But Mr Merrett said it “doesn’t work as a single boat doing one thing”. “For this to work as a country, we need to start reinvesting in offshore infrastructure,” he added. “A boat would never do that. It has to become a pattern.”