MINI TRANSAT CAMPAIGN
The Mini Transat is a 4200 nautical miles solo race across the Atlantic Ocean on 6.5 meters boats. A month of sailing that often marks the beginning of the career of great navigators. The race takes place every two years and it requires a long process of qualifications.
Lorenzo Garosi is now training and getting ready to participate in the Mini Transat 2021. To do so a team of supporting people and companies is needed, in order to help the preparation mentally, physically and financially.
My role in Lorenzo's campaign is to manage the communication; this involves designing the website, managing social medias, photography, video making, video editing and sponsors finding, through communicating with enthusiasm Lorenzo's stories and goals.
CIRCULAR SAILING
To explore the potential of the simple act of sailing with innovation in mind. To use this practice, which has been alive for a long time, to speculate the future. To understand its potential to tackle issues on the planet or to develop it into important innovations.
To use an entirely new perspective.
Solar sail
Sailboat
Egyptian craft
Circular Sailing is a participatory platform that aims at creating a community that sailors, but not only sailors, can rely on. It is for everyone to engage with a world they might not know. A space to stay up to date with the latest innovations, for creating engagement and bringing people closer. The ultimate goal is to educate and create a wider awareness of nature and the environment that surrounds us.
VIN+OMI
Vin+Omi is one of the leading pioneering eco fashion brands today. Their objective is to expose the wasteful industry and providing an alternative through the reusing of organic materials.They work with different waste materials to develop unique eco textile processes. Vin and Omi developed a range of rPET textiles from silk-like finishes to wool, made from recycled plastic usually found through river and ocean clean up projects.
I had the opportunity to work with Vin and Omi to prepare for their upcoming London Fashion Week show. It involved constructing garments from old and unused sport gear from the Olympic sailing and fencing teams, horse hair, nettles and old bags from Prince Charles’ Highgrove Estate. I aided the planning and ideation of the garments made from the British Sailing Team gear and drew up, planned and created tote bags made from industrial bags from Prince Charles’ Highgrove Estate. I used both machine and hand-sewing.
[One of the tote bags on the catwalk at Vin and Omi’s London Fashion Week Show 2020. Photo by Chris Yates]
[Team GB Sailing garment under construction-gear donated by Hannah Mills]
[Team GB Sailing garment on the catwalk. Photo by Chris Yates]
3FL SAILDESIGN
A sailmaking company based on handcrafted products. During my time at 3FL I understood the complex design process of sails, from designing on software, to laminating or plotting to then cut and assembly and add the last details such as numbers, protections, foot lines and leech lines.
I had various roles, starting from the assembly of small sails, that helped me to understand the way sails are structured and shaped. Focusing then on fixing broken sails to then start sewing.
Making sails, like many other industries, leaves a lot of waste. Materials that sails are usually made of, such as dacron, are strong, long lasting and waterproof. I believe that there is a lot of potential in focusing on the recycling of sail waste. On the right my first experiment using only recycled sail pieces.
SAILING FROM OCEAN TO SPACE IN THE AGE OF THE ANTHROPOCENE
Does sailing has the potential to face environmental issues?
With innovation in mind, I sought to consider what could be developed from the simple act of sailing. I wanted to use this practice, which has been alive for a long time, to speculate the future, to understand its potential to tackle issues on the planet or to be developed into important innovations. This is why solar sailing is the object of this research: a great innovation based on the concepts of sailing and depending on the forces of nature. Exploring the topics that surround sailing and solar sailing, I developed an interest in questions about the future of humanity. I wondered whether we should develop something like solar sailing, which could take us faster and further than ever before. Is this the right century to invest time and money to develop these kinds of projects? Or should we focus on other issues before trying to escape from our home planet?
What will a sailship look like?
Giovanni Vulpetti (2015) highlights these key points about solar sailcrafts:
- A spacecraft equipped with a sail experiences a continuous thrust that allows it to reach any destination.
- There is no cost of onboard propellant during interplanetary travel.
- As terrestrial sailboats, solar sailships require a device to control the orientation of the sail.
- As terrestrial sailboats, interplanetary sailcraft can be fully reusable.
- Depending on how well the navigation is, flight times for certain missions can be decreased significantly with respect to those obtainable by rockets.
These key points highlight the similarities between a solar sail ship and a traditional sailboat.
[1.Tobia Ravà's interpretation of a solar sailship]
[Will humans ever be able to live in space and sail exactly the same way as a terrestrial sailboat?]
[2. Matteo's interpretation of a solar sailship - structure and functionality: in his drawing he designed a way the craft could deploy the sail]
[3.Stefano, a self-thought yacht designer that applied similar concepts of a sailboat to his drawing of a solar sailship]
[4.Glyn represents the functions and includes different angles to highlight the experience]
As in the 1400s, our ancestors were setting sails to discover new lands, in an hypothetical world of the future we will set sails to reach planets and stars. The pioneering spirit of sailing has been a constant throughout the life of this practice, from the will to discover to increased environmental awareness and a solution-oriented attitude. Sailing allowed humans to explore the world on a slow but incredibly efficient means of transport. In the same way, solar sailing could allow us to explore the universe in a way that is respectful of nature, making use of natural resources efficiently. Solar sailing is not invasive and uses a resource, the Sun, that we could be using more and more effectively. In addition to the pioneering spirit, central to the history of navigation, the concept of sailing, on Earth as in outer space, is understood to allow humans to feel closer to nature and increase their awareness.
[Assessing the public view on space exploration. 160 respondents, aged 18 to 75]
We should fix the Earth first, since it is the most comfortable planet to live in and maybe develop new technologies in the future.
We should focus on developing technologies to go to space becasue soon enough living on Earth will be unsustainable.
We should try to fix Earth and invest time and money in developing space technology at the same time.
Would you like to travel to space if it was
safe and if we had the technology in order to do so?