‘Slow travel’ start-up launches cross-Channel crossings by sail

The crossing could also be “a bit choppy,” Captain Andrew Simons warns a dozen of his passengers ready within the French port of Boulogne to cross the Channel with solely wind to get them to England.

SailLink is a British start-up that goals to supply crusing as a low-carbon various to ferries. This week, it made its first paid crossings of the English Channel on its catamaran, a route that may quickly turn out to be every day.

Regardless of the swell and icy gusts on Thursday, Johannes Schneider, 67, totally loved the crossing within the catamaran. He paid 85 kilos (98 euros) for the privilege, dearer than a pedestrian ferry crossing.

“Really interesting to really be able to live it, rather than being on a big ship, where you see nothing, or a plane where you see even less,” he mentioned.

SailLink’s catamaran is 17 meters (56 toes) lengthy and may carry as much as 12 passengers.

To compensate for generally tough seas, the crew presents its passengers mint tea to fight motion sicknessand pastries and blankets within the cabin, the place they will shelter from the spray.

‘Expertise of the ocean’

SailLink was born in the summertime of 2019 when Simons, who was about to board a ferry to England together with his daughter, seemed on the Cherbourg marina in northern France and questioned why its moored little boats couldn’t be used as an alternative for the crossing.

He discovered ferries polluting and impractical with their out-of-the-way terminals.

Simons imagined a brand new mode of cross-Channel transport “offering that experience of the sea to people who are not traveling with a car.”

His preliminary thought of a co-navigation platform—a type of BlaBlaCar for boats—proved too advanced to implement.

So Simons modeled his method on the prevailing ferries, providing pedestrians and cyclists a set, every day route with set schedules.

He needed to increase 500,000 euros ($560,000), together with 350,000 euros to purchase the boat, which he raised from a handful of personal traders “who really believed in it.”

Sail passenger routes exist already in France. Sailcoop has run a route between Saint-Raphael on south coast to the Mediterranean island of Corsica since 2022.

One other firm, Iliens, has since 2021 run a route between Quiberon, on France’s Atlantic coast, to the little island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer.

‘solely actual various’

Just a few kilometers earlier than reaching the English coast, a container ship blocked the catamaran’s approach and Simons and his staff needed to briefly use a motor to maneuver away.

Navigating one of many busiest seas on this planet isn’t any straightforward activity, with about 700 to 800 business vessels and round 1,400 fishing boats utilizing the strait each day.

SailLink nonetheless managed the crossing to Dover from Boulogne-sur-Mer in lower than 4 hours. That’s quicker than the scheduled 5 hours, however for much longer than the 1.5 hours ferry journey —- excluding ready time.

“It’s a new relationship with speed, a new relationship with the landscape,” interesting to followers of “slow travel,” mentioned researcher Sylvain Roche, who noticed “a direct link between the resurgence of sailing boats” and that of “night trains.”

Whereas solely marginal for the second, sail-powered transport may develop in coming years.

At this time, crusing is the one actual various to fossil fuelsmentioned Roche, as different applied sciences for decarbonizing maritime transport, similar to hydrogen, are at the moment “absolutely immature.”

Maritime transport accounts for practically 3% of global greenhouse gas emissionsbased on the Worldwide Maritime Group (IMO).

However a ferry journey nonetheless emits virtually thrice much less greenhouse gases per passenger than a airplane, based on the European Atmosphere Company.

© 2025 AFP