A sailboat that ships cargo across the ocean? This company looks to the past for inspiration

Guillaume Le Grand is trying to bring cargo shipping back to its roots.

Standing on the deck of an 82-metre sailboat docked in Quebec City's port, Le Grand, a sailor and CEO of the French company TOWT, says he was inspired to harness the natural resources around him.

Hundreds of years ago, ships sailed into the Port of Quebec carrying supplies. This month, that tradition was revived with the Anemos — a modern sailing cargo vessel built by TOWT which can transport up to 830 U.S.-format pallets on board.

"It is not something from the past, but actually for the future in terms of properly decarbonizing shipping," said Le Grand.

"I've always been sort of astounded by the power of wind and we don't do anything with it instead of just for pleasure-seeking purposes."

Exporting wine, spirits, jams and other French products to the United States and Canada, part of the shipment arriving through the St. Lawrence River on Oct. 5 carried coffee beans from Colombia for Café William — a business in Quebec's Eastern Townships.

Scheduling is a potential issue with a boat of this kind, says Pascal Raby, vice-president of operations for the Port of Quebec. But he says the port was happy to be part of the premiere of the boat in Quebec.

"[It] is the first time [in] many years that we saw that and for us it's important to be a partner for this event," said Raby.

But despite reliability concerns, Serge Picard, Café William's co-owner, is attracted to the shipping option.

The company came across TOWT when they started looking for better ways to bring in fair trade coffee from Colombia.

"It's the cleanest form of transportation [and] one of the oldest ones," said Picard.

With 325 pallets on board the Anemos, Picard says the boat actually transports his containers faster than a container ship, which would make more stops.

Leaving Santa Marta, Colombia, on Sept. 21, he says it arrived in Quebec City in under 20 days despite variability with the wind.

From a supply chain perspective, coffee is one of the commodities that may lend itself well to shipment by sailboat, says Sailbal Ray, a professor of supply chain management at McGill University. That's because it has a consistent demand throughout the year and can store well.