While three captains decided to transport goods by sail in the future on the Tres Hombres, there is only one on the German Avontuur. Among sailors, there are always those who are aware of the harmful effects of modern maritime transport: “During his more than 20 years of experience in the shipping industry, Cornelius Bockermann was able to form his own opinion of how we humans are negatively impacting our environment,” according to the website of the Timbercoast shipping company, which operates the Avontuur. “With his company, he carried out heavy transport for the oil industry. It was a lucrative business that earned him a lot of money, but it also made him aware of the impact that global shipping has on the oceans.” More than 90 percent of global trade is handled by ships that run almost exclusively on heavy fuel oil. “A fuel that has long been banned on land and must be disposed of as hazardous waste. This makes the ocean giants virtually floating waste incinerators, for which there are few pollutant guidelines and which are subject to hardly any environmental obligations.”
Bockermann purchased the schooner Avontuur. From 1977 onwards, under Captain Paul Wahlen, this ship had transported cargo mainly between Caribbean islands until almost the end of his life. Among other things, Wahlen circumvented the US embargo and delivered pianos to Cuba. Later, the Avontuur was used for passenger charter trips in Europe.
The restoration of the Avontuur, not least with the work of volunteers, absorbed not only money but also a lot of energy, time, and nerves. As a result, plans to transport cargo around Australia were scrapped. Ultimately, Timbercoast developed a business model for the Atlantic route that, like Fairtransport, is heavily based on trading its own goods transported by sail. This replication of the business model led to temporary tensions between the two projects. They are now working together: the Avontuur is listed as part of the fleet on the Fairtransport website.
Failed expansion
"In order to avert the impending shipwreck of our Mission Zero, we were forced to use our entire inventory to settle outstanding debts. Therefore, until further notice, we will no longer be able to offer our own goods directly through our online shop and our store in Elsfleth," Timbercoast wrote on its website in the summer of 2020.
The background to this was that the extremely wealthy investor Hans Georg Näder withdrew at short notice and emptied Timbercoast's warehouse as securities for the loans he had granted. This meant that trading, and thus the company's basis of existence, was immediately suspended. This led to the insolvency of Timbercoast GmbH in March 2021. The owner company of the Avontuur was not affected by this. The ship continued to sail and brought home enough cargo so that, from summer 2021, a company founded under a new legal form, “Timbercoast cargo under sail,” was able to offer goods online again.
When Timbercoast brought the billionaire on board, one of the main issues was the three-masted schooner “Anny von Hamburg,” whose conversion from a formerly elegant passenger sailing ship to a sailing cargo ship was under discussion. In vain. But ultimately, Näders' exit also serves to clarify the situation: a study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) confirms the criticism repeatedly expressed by the aid organization Oxfam: the over-rich are particularly responsible for climate change. According to ETH, they cause 76 times as much CO2 as normal consumers. The richest 1% of the population contributes 26 times as much to heat waves and 7 times as much to droughts in the Amazon region as the average. Oxfam has recalculated and come up with even higher figures: "A person in the richest 0.1% of the world causes over 800 kg of CO2 emissions every day. (...) In contrast, someone from the poorest 50% of the world causes an average of only 2 kg of CO2 emissions per day.“ Private jets and luxury yachts, among other things, play a role here. According to WirtschaftsWoche, Hans Georg Näder enjoys both. The Süddeutsche Zeitung describes him as one of ”Germany's most dazzling entrepreneurs,” as evidenced by his Wikipedia entry.
In short, a ship like the Avontuur, which, according to its shipping company, advocates “the transition to social and ecological sustainability in the shipping industry – for the protection of the environment and for future generations,” is ideologically on a completely different deck than the super-rich Näder. Näder has also been criticized for continuing to earn millions in Russia despite Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. With an investor like this, the Avontuur could run into sanctions problems.
The “Anny von Hamburg,” on the other hand, remained an unfulfilled dream of expansion. Instead, it was sold to Finland and completely overhauled as a charter ship.
The Avontuur at the climate conference
The initiator of the Avontuur, Cornelius Bockermann, writes: “Like any company, we, that is, for the most part myself personally and over 100 small investors, have invested in the project and expect to generate sufficient profits after a reasonable period of time to finance the project.” Cargo-carrying sailing ships are also businesses that have to compete in today's market conditions. But the ambition goes beyond that: “With our sailing ship Avontuur, we offer the possibility of transporting cargo by wind power, thereby creating a link between sustainable producers and responsible consumers,” writes Timbercoast. "We are on a mission to show the world that clean maritime transport is possible and necessary. We want to make people think about the consequences of our lifestyle, our consumption, and the pursuit of constant growth. In other words, we don't just sail a traditional schooner for the sake of tradition. (...) All crew members on board are encouraged to support the mission with their work, their conviction, and their hearts! In every port we call at, we are ambassadors of a mission that we carry out into the world with the Avontuur.“
On its 16th voyage in 2025, the Avontuur underlined this ”Mission Zero" by sailing to the UN Climate Change Conference COP30 in Belém, Brazil. “We are not just participating – we are sailing there to send a message: that clean freight transport is not only necessary, but also possible. Every mile under sail is a call for fairer, slower, and fossil fuel-free trade. (...) And we say it clearly: Planet. Nature. Economy – in that order.”
In contrast to previous voyages, the Avontuur will then remain in the Caribbean and shuttle between the islands on tramp voyages depending on the cargo available, before picking up coffee and cocoa for its European customers in April and returning to Europe in the summer of 2026. In doing so, it will continue the tradition of Paul Wahlen, who transported cargo in the Caribbean with the Avontuur from the 1970s onwards.
Sea rescue
At the end of February 2020, the Avontuur encountered an open wooden boat south of the Canary Islands with sixteen people on board. They had already been at sea for ten days and had had no food or water for two days. While the Avontuur was sailing against climate collapse, it suddenly encountered further victims of the system: Global market-oriented agribusiness is driving small farmers off their land in the global South. Cheap imports from the EU, such as chicken parts that consumers in Europe spurn, or milk powder from EU surpluses – both produced with soy from overseas, among other things – are driving local producers out of the markets. Added to this are poorer harvests or the loss of their animals due to the climate crisis. When ruined producers migrate to the cities, they become part of the reserve army of unemployed, which keeps wages low and makes it lucrative for corporations to have their products manufactured in such countries, especially in Asia and Latin America.
On the one hand, such supply chains require cheap sea transport: first in bulk carriers for the feed, then in refrigerated containers for the chicken meat produced with it. On the other hand, the whole system functions on the basis of the free circulation of capital and goods secured by free trade agreements, while at the same time denying people from low-wage countries the freedom of movement. Today, Europe forcibly rejects job seekers, after having used African labor in the form of millions of slaves from the 16th to the 19th century to build the foundation of Europe's current wealth. But when the routes across the Balkans and the Mediterranean are blocked, desperate people try to cross from the west coast of Africa to the Canary Islands in small boats. If the engine fails and they lack nautical knowledge, these people drift out into the Atlantic to their deaths.
The ship Avontuur
The Avontuur was built in Holland in 1920 as a sailing cargo ship for coastal voyages. In over 100 years, it has changed owners seven times. At times, it was used without masts, powered only by its engine, but also as a tourist excursion ship for passengers. In 2014, Cornelius Bockermann bought the steel ship with the aim of converting it back into a cargo sailing ship. Around 160 volunteers helped with the conversion. Nevertheless, the costs rose from an original budget of €600,000 to €1.4 million – more than double.
The Avontuur is a flat-bottomed ship. A sailor who sailed on her as a crew member estimates that she only runs upwind at an angle of around 80 degrees. This means that, due to the lack of a keel, the drift is large and the distance traveled in the direction from which the wind is coming is correspondingly small. With an overall length of 43.5 meters and a width of 5.9 meters, this gaff schooner has a draft of 2.5 meters and carries 495 square meters of sail, which can be expanded to 612 square meters. Wikipedia estimates its maximum speed under sail at 6 knots. However, this is likely to be an underestimate.
The cargo hold is 135 cubic meters in size, and the ship can transport around 100 tons of cargo. She has a 305 hp engine and solar panels and wind turbines for power generation. She is sailed by six paid crew members and up to ten trainees.