In the best use of a trimaran sailing vessel since Kevin Costner's 1995 film Waterworld, a unit of DHL Group signed a deal to ship transatlantic freight using wind power with France's VELA starting next year.
The operation — named for the Latin word for "sails" — promises 15-day crossings between ports in New Haven, Connecticut and Normandy, France using three-hulled sailing craft.
VELA co-founder Michael Fernandez-Ferri talked me through this intriguing operation, which plans to build a fleet of five vessels in the Philippines at about €25 million apiece, each crewed by eight people and carrying cargo on EU-standard-sized pallets rather than truck-sized containers.
The goal is to create a low-carbon shipping option that is about a week slower than air freight and about twice as fast as giant cargo container ships, which travel faster but often must wait around at ports before unloading.
Targeted customers include luxury goods makers, cosmetics producers and pharmaceutical companies all looking for more controlled environments than shippers of goods like sneakers, Fernandez-Ferri said.
"We took the quality standards of airfreight, put it on a boat and added sails to deal with carbon emissions," he said. Pricing for business-to-business customers will fall somewhere between the two modes.
Takeda pharmaceuticals is lined up as an early customer. DHL will have a dedicated space allocation on VELA vessels, which will carry 600 pallets or about five times a cargo jet's capacity.
