How far away it seems, the first journey of Grain of Sail in New York at the end of 2020. After two annual rotations for almost four years between Brittany and the Big Apple with a 24 meter long boat, the French company, spearhead of the transatlantic transport of goods by sail, decided to move up a gear. This year, a sailboat twice as long, tall and wide, with a loading capacity of 350 tonnes, set off on March 15 from Saint-Malo to New York. Named Grain de Sail 2, it should arrive at South Street Seaport (Pier 17), its New York home port for a few days, around Wednesday April 3.
On board, wine and chocolate from the Breton brand, but also – and for the first time – products from other companies (perfumes, guitars, cosmetics, textiles, leather goods, etc.) which have decided to use the two- masts as a transportation solution rather than a polluting and dangerous container ship, like the one that destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March. “ Thanks to this new service, we want to show that our project to decarbonize supply chains can become universal », summarizes Pierre Maruzzi, the export director of Grain de Sail.
A larger sailboat to meet demand
The company was imagined in 2010, when Jacques and Olivier Barreau, two brothers descended from shipowners, set themselves the objective of cleaning up maritime transport. They decide to build a sailboat and use it to make and sell their own products, in this case coffee, chocolate and organic wine. How it works ? The ship drops off its bottles of wine in New York, where they are sold by local wine merchants and restaurateurs, and then heads to the Caribbean with humanitarian equipment on board. On site, he stocked up on cocoa in particular, before heading to France to transform the beans into chocolate.
The small company quickly realized that it needed to equip itself with a larger boat to cope with the increase in demand. She started working on Grain de Sail 2 in 2021. “ We were growing up. We had greater needs. Furthermore, following the commissioning of the first sailboat, we were contacted by several companies who wanted to use our services. It was therefore necessary to have a greater transport capacity », explains Stefan Gallard, marketing manager at Sail Grain.
Thanks to this new, more modern sailboat, the number of transatlantic loops should increase, going from two per year to ” five to six » from 2025. « The bigger the boat, the faster it is because its weight will eventually drag it down. Thanks to the hull (submerged part of the hull, editor’s note), it will naturally gain speed and be more efficient », continues Stefan Gallard.
Grain de Sail 2 will alternate between two types of journeys: its usual “ Big loop » twice a year between Saint-Malo, New York and the Caribbean, and one “ shuttle » three times a year between New York and Saint-Malo only to transport American products directly to France and vice versa.
Filling the holds departing from NY
If the sailboat has no trouble filling its hold in the France-United States direction, the return is another story. “ There is a historical asymmetry in trade between the two countries: France exports more to the American market than it imports. We are therefore always looking for shippers who would like to send goods to Europeraconte Stefan Gallard. We are ‘open to business’ ».
On dry land, Laurent Corbel is impatient to receive Grain de Sail 2. Co-founder of a company promoting sail propulsion, Wind Support NYCthe Breton is at the origin of the Skipper Lounge, a new space at the South Street Seaport (189 Front Street) which will host, until June 15, various sailing events and the maritime world. He will also sell products transported by Grain de Sail 2. “ The ideahe said, it is to show that transport by sail exists. If there are people who discover it on this occasion, I would have scored a point. If, behind it, a big restaurateur like Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who opened a restaurant at the South Street Seaport, decides to use sailboats to bring in goods, it will be a big victory. We are really at the beginning ».
Laurent Corbel, co-founder of Wind Support NYC is behind the Skipper Lounge at South Street Seaport. © AB
2024-03-31 20:04:49
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