How France has become the leading figure in the transport of goods to sail

For ten years that he embarked on the maritime transport of sailing goods, Nils Joyeux has seen pass “Modes”THE “Miracle solutions” AND “Technological mirages”. Master hydrogen for “Decarboner” Control carriers? Develop new summary fuels for an ever greener fleet? Invent the giant battery that will feed 100% electric liners, “A bit like giant tesla, but on the water” ? “We may know how to do all this one day, but at the time it is, that is not the case”notes the co-founder of Lorient éphyr & Borée and Windcoop start-ups.

While maritime transport represents 3% of global CO2 emissions, the urgency to reduce sector dependence on fossil fuels is on the menu of the United Nations Conference on the Ocean, which opens in Nice, from Monday, June 9 to Friday, June 13. “And the more the years pass, the more it appears that the energy of the wind is a boon to achieve it, Plead nils joyful. Why deprive yourself of it? A free, renewable and already available resource. “

Especially since in the country of Eric Tabarly and Isabelle Autissier, we know how to handle the sails to go fast and far. Heirs of a French passion for offshore race and an eco-friendly mission, a handful of “neo-armators” has emerged in recent years, from Dunkirk to Bayonne, to defend a sailing and value business. And if they are an exception in this sector dominated by seas giants, such as French CMA-CGM or Danish Maersk, these newcomers are now trying to prove that they are not only optimists.

While 90% of trade, in volume, are made on the ocean, the overwhelming majority of more than 56,000 “large” merchant ships, according to I carbide with oil and gas derivatives, against sixty ships to “Vélique propulsion”. This learned term describes technologies that allow a boat to exploit the energy of the wind. Thanks to sails or wings installed on the deck, or even kites (These immense stresses) Deployed to tow cargoes and container ships, they aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their trips. Most of these ships have a drop in “5 to 20% of their fuel consumption”Assures Lise Detrimont, general delegate of Wind Ship, the association which brings together professionals from the Vélique sector.

Over the past five years, a dozen French sailboats have sent the Atlantic of wine, coffee, chocolate or construction machines on both sides. Not a week flows without the announcement of a new project – signed Towt (Le Havre), Grain de Sail (Morlaix), Neoline (Nantes) or Windcoop (Lorient).

“It is a fairly exciting period, because now that we all have at least one ship in activity, or about to be, we will finally be able to document the performance of our boats”, explains Jean Zanuttini, of the Nantes firm Neoline. Translation: Show that sail ensures ecological transport, which has economic meaning and which holds delivery times.

And this, despite the weather vagaries. “For a few years, the wind offshore, which we knew abundant, has become predictable and modelizable”Insists Guillaume Le Grand, director of the Towt company, based in Le Havre. “Routing allows us to avoid storms, petolas (absence of wind) and to offer a reliable service “List the entrepreneur, who claims his belonging to the merchant navy. Far from the image of pleasure sailing.

Since maritime trade has been the business of long boats like almost ten Olympic pools, The transport of goods apparently has broken up any link with sailing. Except that “France is a bit apart, because it has a know-how and capacities inherited from its history in shipbuilding, boating and offshore race”explains Lise Detrimont. From 2011, “There has been significant public support, especially in research and development, which created the conditions for these first ships to emerge”she illustrates. Public money that has drawn up bridges between two universes, notes Philippe Cauneau, a transport engineer at Ademe.

“The world of offshore racing and that of the merchant navy have different imperatives, but that does not prevent people who, on both sides, wondered how to be inspired by what you do to win races in order to move ships of goods.”

Philippe Cauneau, specialist transport in Ademe

in franceinfo

“It is also a French design office, whose rigid wings equipped the catamarans of the America Cup, which developed the sail model that we find on the Canopy“, The Runier ship that sent parts of the last Ariane 6 rocket to Guyana. Naval architectural firms that design the ship to the sail manufacturer, including the start-up specializing in weather conditions, “A whole sector is developing around Vélique in France”underlines Lise Detrimont. While abroad, everyone puts on a specialty. “We have, for example, a Spanish or Finnish equipment supplier who makes sails, a Swedish shipowner with a Vélique project, research institutes that work on the subject in the Netherlands, etc.”

Only missed the crew. In May, sixteen sailors benefited from five -day training dedicated to Vélique navigation. A first, in response “to the requests of our students, but also in the sector”, According to François Lambert, director of the National Maritime School (ENSM). At this stage, “The real subject will be how the needs will evolve and how to define the training accordingly”, he explains. However, All the courses offered by the establishment next year “will understand at least a few hours dedicated to Vélique, Designed with the National School of Sailing and Water Sports “.

“It is good that a certain expertise develops in France”, Salues ​​Nils Joyeux, himself former officer of the merchant navy. “Now, we must not lose this advance. For the moment, there are projects, articles in the newspapers, but too few boats on the water.” After the prototype phase, the tricolor sail to have these new ships finance on the only promise of ecological performance. To cross this milestone and become competitive, the young sector must get out of niche markets and dependence on actors only perceived as “green” or “committed”.

“If the sail really wants to get out of the game, it will not be able to continue indefinitely a logic of delicatessen.”

Joyful nils, co -founder of Zéphyr & Borée and Windcoop

in franceinfo

In a sector where “Savings of scale play full”, “it is not for nothing that traditional shipowners invest in 400 -meter boats capable of transporting up to 24,000 containers “, he sums up. Make a place on the water for the new ones, “It’s like trying to compete with semi-trailers with a Solex fleet”.

The biggest ship in the Vélique fleet French, the NeolinerMeasure 136 meters long and can transport the equivalent of 265 containers in July (up to 5,300 tonnes of goods). If its dimensions appear modest in the face of other ships in its category in 100% motorized version, it translates the shared ambition in the sector of “Go to an industrial level”According to Jean Zanuttini. And for good reason: “We are already seeing breading actors abroad who may be less ambitious in terms of impact reduction on the environment, but who are already in a logic of chain production.”

In March 2024, the signature to the Atlantic sites, in Saint-Nazaire, of a Vélique pact Between professionals, the Minister of Industry and the Secretary of State for the Sea was to engage the State to “Support the rise in the sector”qualified as “Reference solution for the decarbonation of maritime transport”. More, “A year later, there is not much left at the bottom of the sieve”is lamented Guillaume le Grand, leader of Towt. Worse, the exemption from social security contributions enjoyed by the French Vélique sector was abolished in the 2025 budget, he deplores.

With two cargo sailboats already active on the Atlantic Ocean and six others under construction, he cashed. “It’s up to us to assert our assets”, he continues, citing “THE Flexibility of exploitation “ Vélic vessels, “more agile” On sea roads that evolve according to geopolitical swell. “And who can even deliver fasterhe pleads. A huge container ship, it goes fast, of course, but it is waiting a lot too! “

William the Great maintains that the Vélique goes in the direction of history and hopes, like the other neo-armators, that the rules on a global, European or French scale will make more and more restrictive the use of fossil fuels. What is the point of claiming “More 95% drop in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional transport (…) when fuel oil costs 20 cents per liter?”he illustrates. “There are laws that may or may not be favorable to us, market laws, and then there are the laws of physics, he concludes. We must reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. That is not likely to change. “

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