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It's nearly time for the departure of Grain de Sail II's first transatlantic race. In two days' time, on Friday March 15 at 11am, the cargo sailboat will be in the Saint-Malo lock, for a 12:30pm lock passage. Olivier Barreau, co-founder of Grain de Sail, talks about this symbol of innovation and environmental commitment.
We hear that you and your brother are big fans of "good taste" and adventure. Did you have any previous sailing experience?
As for the fact that we like things in "good taste", I don't know who said that; it seems a bit presumptuous. Jacques, my brother, and I are just like everyone else! We think it's important to put the quality of the products we eat back at the forefront. Contrary to the trend towards industrialized foods, we put the emphasis on health and taste. Rather than buying a lot of mediocre food, we prefer to consume less, but in a more thoughtful way. This also makes more sense from an environmental point of view.
As for sailing, there are different ways of using the wind. I've done a lot of windsurfing, and taken part in a few boat races, but I'd never experienced the open sea. My passion for the wind is quite pronounced and explicit. I've also harnessed this natural force in paragliding and, as a musician, I even feel a particular affinity with wind instruments. That's how effective it is for so many things!
When I realized its potential, the idea for Grain de Sail emerged in 2010, especially as I had been trained in how to achieve energy savings through the use of wind. Following the development of onshore and offshore wind farms, I knew that to propel ships in a carbon-free way, the only effective way was to adopt sails.
Were you inspired by a particular boat model when designing the lines of Grain de Sail?
Initially, the idea of using old ships seemed interesting, but we realized that it wouldn't be economically efficient enough. We looked for a realistic and sustainable approach to make our projects viable in the long term. There was no standardized model of cargo sailing vessel for the merchant navy, so we had to reinvent many aspects of the concept. We had to gather ideas from different sources, thinking about the best way to build this type of boat. It all started 8 years ago.
Grain de Sail I was a prototype demonstrator designed to test a system on a reduced scale. This enabled us to carry out tests, absorbing the inevitable errors that usually arise in this process. We took inspiration from several different types of rig, and looked at different hull shapes: catamarans, trimarans and monohulls. To cross the North Atlantic in the middle of winter, the choice of a monohull and a schooner-type split rig appeared to be the most suitable solution for making the very large rig we wanted modular. All this was achieved in collaboration with a team comprising Grain de Sail staff, architects, specialists and external partners. Our main objective was to design cargo sailboats, while succeeding in truly decarbonizing maritime transport. This is where we began to encounter difficulties in our thinking. Today's cargo ships emit less carbon than most people realize, around 20 grams per ton per kilometer for the average transatlantic shipment. We identified this problem early on, and decided to build cargo yachts capable of doing without engines altogether during their crossings.
The Grain de Sail II, with its 1500 square meters of sail area for a boat weighing just 600 tons (aluminum structure), is a very light boat with a true sailboat hull. Its effective anti-drift plan enables it to move forward like a high-performance sailboat. We also had to work on the boat's own consumption, which regulates the helm, hydraulic, radio and lighting systems... The result is a sort of "passive" vessel: the various fittings and holds are highly insulated, and we produce our own electricity using solar panels and two hydro-generators, each generating 9 kilowatts at a speed of 11 knots. With a 100-kilowatt-hour battery bank, we are totally self-sufficient in energy, eliminating the need to run a generator. For heating, we use a pellet-fired boiler, which enables us to use the short carbon cycle and produce domestic hot water. We have therefore worked hard to reduce our carbon footprint to below 2 grams per tonne per kilometer, or even 1 gram. We have to be radical: we're not just reducing our carbon footprint, we're killing it!
How did you feel on January 11th when Grain de Sail II made its first tacks in the Bay of Saint-Malo, all sails up, and how do you feel about Friday's start?
It was a very moving moment to see the result of eight years' work and all our know-how acquired on Grain de Sail I. We were amazed and impressed by the performance of the cargo sailboat, which exceeded our expectations. The rig worked perfectly, with no design errors, and our sail reduction system was operational.
Numerous tests were then carried out to ensure that the boat could sail in all weather conditions, from light winds to gusts of 70 knots or more. We're delighted with the results, and ready to set off on our transatlantic voyage! We reached peak speeds of over 15 knots, and smiled as we watched the guests on board, who were so intrigued by the unusual vibration of the lower shroud of the foremast (V1), a 52 mm-diameter steel cable used for suspension bridges!
52m long and 10.70m wide, not including everything. On a yacht of this size, every maneuver must be meticulously prepared and anticipated to avoid damaging the boat or causing injury to anyone else. What were the crew's training conditions like?
Initially, a number of crew members were mobilized to carry out the maneuvers, each following specific procedures. Each manipulation was broken down into distinct steps.
During test sequences, we were able to observe that navigation worked efficiently with only three sailors operating the entire boat. There will therefore be a total of 9 sailors on board for this transatlantic crossing: 2 crews of 3 sailors, a cook, and 2 sailors in permanent training. Loys Leclercq, the L2O naval architect who designed the boat, is expected to be on board to monitor the design and continue validating potential improvements.
Having unloaded in New York and set sail for Latin America, do the Barreau brothers have other initiatives in mind for the future of Grain de Sail?
The idea is not to sail empty. We transport our raw materials. Each time we arrive, we collect our green coffee and cocoa mass from Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe. To finance Grain de Sail, we had to follow an inverted logic: first we inaugurated our coffee roastery in 2013, then our chocolate factory in 2016, and finally the transatlantic launch of Grain de Sail I in 2020.
The Grain de Sail II holds have been opened up to groups and companies wishing to decarbonize their transport. In this context, we also export some wine to the United States. Our two freighters are among the lowest CO2 emitters in the world, which is why companies are willing to pay a higher price for their pallets in order to obtain the guarantee of a very high level of decarbonization. Our company is not only a shipping company, but also a transport service provider, with a dedicated transport commissioner within the company, offering them a secure solution. It's important to remember that we're owners of cargo yachts, not the other way round; our boats are above all sailing yachts.
We plan to build the Grain de Sail III, IV and V over the next five years, and operate a departure every two weeks. We're waiting to sign contracts that will enable us to fill the boats, once customers have seen that everything is going well. On our side, we're already confident, having already completed 15 transatlantic crossings with Grain de Sail 1!
