Sail cargo Project - Costa Rica

I think you’re right about the Leaveitt, I watched that documentary, “Coaster” years ago, it was obvious the crew were not mariners.

I didn’t know there were other vessels under sail trading. Maybe this project will do better working in the area of the trade winds.

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Commercial trade by Bugis Perahu (Pinisi) are still going on in Indonesia.
Admittedly all of them now have engines, but some still use sails when the wind is favourable:


Pinisi, Paotere Harbour, Makassar, Sulawesi, c.1994
This photograph from 1993 shows that Pinisi have sails furled and top masts. The following shots from 2012
and 2014 show the occasional furled sail and top mast, but not many.

Link:
https://www.peterloud.co.uk/photos/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Pinisi/Pinisi.html

I took some pictures of Perahu loading at Sunda Kelapa (old harbour near Jakarta):

The loading is done with man power:

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I forget which vessel Coaster was filmed on. This was 40 years ago. It was all play acting. I attended one of the screenings. Ackerman was in the audience. A few real sailors were laughing and shouting “bullshit” in the more ridiculous parts.

There was a guy that did ok for awhile buying rum at cheap islands and sailing it to islands where it was expensive. When he grew to three boats he attracted attention and got shutdown.

Boats have bought tropical hardwood lumber up some horrible bug, snake, piranha,and crocodile infested river in Guyana. They sailed straight to boatyards in New England to sell it at an enormous mark up. Some of the exotic lumber was suitable for making musical instruments and very valuable.

Last I heard, one of the boats that had been doing lumber was doing something similar with a different commodity in the South Pacific.

I’ve heard about sailing vessels making money buying gemstones, antiques, pottery, textiles, leather goods, and artisanal craft products for resale.

The only proven way of making money under sail is “the skin trade,” carrying passengers. For every boat that is successful, several fail. The key to success is the personality of the Captain.

If this boat in Costa Rica is completed, it will end up carrying passengers somewhere else, perhaps Cabo.

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It was John F Leavett

From Wikipedia -

The building and the eventual sinking of the John F. Leavitt was the subject of a film dubbed Coaster , some six years in the making.[10] Critics gave the film glowing reviews, and it won the Best Adventure Film Feature at the American Film Festival. “A thrilling story”, said The Boston Phoenix . “Endowed with the beauty of an heroic epic”, raved The Washington Post . The schooner, carrying a cargo to Haiti on her maiden voyage, foundered in a gale off Delaware, an event captured on film.

Many in the schooner community, however, felt that throughout the sinking Ackerman was more concerned with saving face than saving his vessel.

As I recall, the real John F Leavett was the Curator at Mystic Seaport.

I haven’t heard anything about Ned Ackerman in a long time. I don’t know whether he is still alive. If so, he must be in his 80’s. I have not run into him along the New England waterfront in many many years. Ackerman was a highly intelligent, highly educated, snob with family money and a huge ego. He was an insufferable asshole.

When he was building the LEAVETT at the Newbert & Wallace yard in Thomaston, one of the old time windjammer owners called him: “crazier than an outhouse mouse.” Ackerman turned that around and said he was “crazy like a fox.”

The figurehead on the LEAVETT was a fox with feathers streaming out of its mouth.

As the LEAVETT was completed, Ray Wallace didn’t want to sign the builder’s certificate. He told Ackerman to sign it himself. Ackerman wrongly thought that was a compliment. It was quite the opposite.

It would be a mistake to generalize the the loss of the LEAVETT, or for that matter, the DAYSPRING, or the original PRIDE OF BALTIMORE, to all wooden sailing vessels. There are plenty of wooden sailing vessels with many decades and miles on them.

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3 posts were split to a new topic: Steel Schooner Must Roos

Herb Smith on APPLEDORE IV ?

You probably remember as I do encountering topsail schooners loaded with timber in Indonesian waters in the past. From a distance they looked quite photogenic. Sometimes I regret having never been a photographer.

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They need to read “Way Of A Ship” by Villiers … gets into some of the economics of sailing cargo vessels. Simply though, you need a big weatherly sailing vessel to make quick enough passages to even hope of making coin with low value cargo.

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Oh yes I do. There used to be plenty of them around in the 1960s and 70s. Few had engine at that time.

The last time a saw one that was definitely without engine was in Cirebon in 1997. They arrived under sail until inside the breakwater, then dropped the sail and set out a boat under oars to tow her into the old Dutch trading port, just like in the good ol’ days.

When trading from Singapore to East Indonesia in the early 1970s we frequently came across Perahus that was becalmed, especially in the Banda Sea.
They frequently signaled that they required help and set out a small boat to come across. Usually they had run out of water and/or food. We would give them some water, rice and vegetable so they could survive a few more day, until, hopefully, the breeze picked up.

The Bugis have sailed the waters of Indonesia, S.E.Asia and even down to Western Australia for centuries without the benefit of compass, or any other form of navigation instruments.

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The ship has a really small capacity, the equivalent of 9 standard containers, they would have to be shipping some very high value cargo to make money.

I remember several years ago a group with a sailing craft starting a business running coffee from Central America to Spain.

If you want to check out some people actually doing cargo by sail, check out https://fairtransport.eu/

It is very small scale and I don’t think that the world’s cargo will go back to old time sail.
Fun for some folk to learn old time sailing and move some specialty products.

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The defining feature being most of the “crews" are trainees, who pay the company for training. Operating costs come from tuitions and donations. In essence, school ships with large gift stores. Nothing wrong with that.

For those questioning their intended ports or lack of cargo, their site says they intend to run Costa Rica-to-Canada, and the article linked on their site says they’re already booked up for Northbound voyages.

It sounds like they expect, and have found, importers willing to pay a premium for sustainable haulage. Whether that ends up being a sustainable business model long term remains to be seen.

With at least a year to go until she is on the water, she already has a surplus of interest for her initial northbound voyages from companies willing to pay a premium for emissions-free transport of products such as green coffee, cacao, organic cotton and turmeric oil. Bio-packaging, electric bicycles and premium barley and hops for Costa Rica’s burgeoning craft-beer market are among bookings so far on the southbound journeys.

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I can easily imagine an importer in Canada that brings in thousands of containers a year using the sales pitch that they are eco friendly & give preference to 0% carbon emitting transport when available. They pay the higher cost on the 9 container sailboat & claim all of their product is environmentally conscious. I think that is smart business. If they carry 9 containers north & paying passengers south that would be even better for them.

Agreed, I think it’s the only business model that will work for sail.

I remember back in the 70s where those were still under sail. I was amazed to see that. Too bad the only photo I have of any is this one. Taken in the late 70s.

Scan10044 by , on Flickr

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so the question then is how Canada will treat the vessel’s regulatory class? SOLAS has provisions to exempt wooden vessels and if then not SOLAS will all the other IMO Conventions be applicable? If not, then there is a free pass to man with non certified mariners. I wonder if these folks have been to talk with Transport Canada about all of this?

going to bring up that I hope these folks realize that during the fair months of the year, the prevailing winds on the West Coast are not favorable for this proposed trade and in winter is downright bloody awful. I do not know how their prospective clients feel about cargoes being out at sea for any extra weeks as the vessel is stuck endlessly beating to weather or how would prospective crews feel if being paid very low or even paying the owner to be aboard? People will walk off after becoming utterly exhausted. Lastly, how would they be able to call in US ports of refuge unless the USCG gives them a pass and unless that have cash to pay for tugs and port fees? Means they will be stuck out there getting the SHIT kicked of them all winter long!