Recently, the Vermonth Sail Freight Project took a self-propelled barge from Vergennes on Lake Champlain, to New York City, loaded with 12 tons of Vermont farm produce for sale. The original plan was to sail her most of the way and pole her thru the narrow Champlain Canal, but at the last moment they added a 20 horsepower outboard motor, and used that about 80% of the way. The maiden voyage worked out well, and the tree-huggers in NYC say the food tasted twice as good because it was transported part of the way by sail. Still, it was an interesting project: http://www.tug44.org/tugboats.trawlers/ceres-sail-freighter/ Fred Tug 44

And the New York Times had a nice article about the project with photos of them selling their goods at several locations in Brooklyn (as I recall). The article appeared within the last two days if anyone is interested in looking for it. Unfortunately, we're on the Tennessee River without good internet at the moment so I can't do a search for the article. -- Sent from my Droid4 phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. Blog: MVSanderling.net/blog Web: cruising.mvsanderling.net Currently southbound on the inland rivers "fred@tug44.org" <fred@tug44.org> wrote: >Recently, the Vermonth Sail Freight Project took a self-propelled barge > >from Vergennes on Lake Champlain, to New York City, loaded with 12 tons >of >Vermont farm produce for sale. > >The original plan was to sail her most of the way and pole her thru the > >narrow Champlain Canal, but at the last moment they added a 20 >horsepower >outboard motor, and used that about 80% of the way. > >The maiden voyage worked out well, and the tree-huggers in NYC say the >food >tasted twice as good because it was transported part of the way by >sail. > >Still, it was an interesting project: > >http://www.tug44.org/tugboats.trawlers/ceres-sail-freighter/ > >Fred >Tug 44 > > >_______________________________________________ >http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/listinfo/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com > >To modify your Great-Loop subscription options (change email address, >unsubscribe, etc.) go to: >http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/options/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com