The futuristic cargo ship made of wood

&gt; After a day spent at the shipyard watching Ceiba being built, I ask Lynx Guimond, another co-founder of Sailcargo, what he thinks is really needed to cut the shipping industry’s sizeable emissions. Perhaps surprisingly for someone in the middle of building a ship, he tells me that one of the solutions is simply less shipping. “At the end of the day we just need to transport less stuff.”<p>I love it when people are so brutally honest about their own work.

I&#x27;d love to see truly modern wind powered ships - maybe more rotor ships (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Rotor_ship" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Rotor_ship</a>) or something using a modern CFD designed computer controlled aerofoil. Something that could actually slot into the modern shipping industry and reduce emissions - even if only by 20% or in favourable winds.<p>Building 120 year old ship designs without the aid of modern construction techniques is cool, but it&#x27;s not going to change the shipping industry.

I love wood sailing ships, and I think it’s pretty amazing that you can get people to sponsor you building and sailing them in current year. Of course, from perspective of actually fighting climate change, the idea is beyond silly, but what really happens here is that you’re selling to people the <i>idea</i> that you’re doing it for the climate, you’re selling the feeling of doing good, and people can spend lots of money to feel and signal that. I applaud the people behind the project, and my only worry is that stunts like these are going to distract from and remove the steam from efforts that actually push the needle.

While I love the idea of bulk transport based on sail power, making this out of wood instead of steel is really one of those feel-good things instead of a practical way to protect the earth. The trees Ceiba is made of take the better part of a century to grow to maturity, and steel is actually pretty good for the environment all things considered: most steel container ships are recycled due to the high value of the steel. A completely different story to fiberglass, which is basically plastic and is tossed in landfills.

I think there is a place for sailing cargo ships, not convinced about wood though but would love to be wrong. Related, here is a project of a 67.5m&#x2F;221ft long (LOA) sailing ship, with what looks like a steel hull <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.towt.eu&#x2F;voilier-cargo-towt&#x2F;?lang=en" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.towt.eu&#x2F;voilier-cargo-towt&#x2F;?lang=en</a><p>Best of luck to the Ceiba&#x2F;sailcargo team though! The project -&gt; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sailcargo.org&#x2F;en&#x2F;vessel" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sailcargo.org&#x2F;en&#x2F;vessel</a>

From the pictures the ship looks awfully small compared to container ships. I wonder whether the economics will work out for them.

Wood is an interesting material: It is biodegradable and it&#x27;s production is cheap and captures CO2.

I believe high carbon taxes are what&#x27;s needed to capture the negative externalities of our current systems. All these do-good attempts are wonderful to show what&#x27;s possible, but so much more would happen automatically if we just accounted for the true costs of things.

How do they load and unload this ship? I don&#x27;t see anything in the article or on their home page.

How is taking down more forest environmentally sound idea?

Why build the ships of wood? Show that you can build containers.