Building Sustainable Sails for Haiti

[keving]

Students at Ursuline Academy of New Orleans are building sustainable sails to help the environment and subsistence fishermen in Haiti.

Ursuline Academy has a class called STEM for Others, which teaches STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) through a hands-on, service learning project that ties classroom curriculum to service. This year, the class has partnered with Community Sailing New Orleans and Sails for Sustenance, a non-profit organization that collects used sails in the United States and ships them to Haiti to be used by Haitian fishermen, who largely rely on sails to power their boats. Sails for Sustenance has had an enormous impact on the lives of the fishermen, but we can do better than giving the fishermen sails that are already near the end of their useful lives. There is also another big problem–the sails they receive are usually made out of petrochemical products, which contribute to the plastic pollution in the Haitian fisheries when they break down.

After studying the causes and effects of plastic pollution in the oceans, and the history, economy, and daily lives of Haitian fishermen, the Ursuline Academy students began learning about how sails are made and work so they could develop a solution.

Students recently completed two prototype mainsails that were tested in the 420s at Community Sailing New Orleans. One sail was made from cotton duck canvas, which is biodegradable. Another prototype was made from Top Gun fabric. While the Top Gun fabric is synthetic and more commonly used for boat covers, it is UV resistant, so it should last significantly longer than traditional sail materials such as dacron. Both sails worked great! The next step is for the class to video conference with a Haitian Fisherman to get his input, then selecting the fabric to build him a sail that will be sustainable.

The STEM for Others class is raising funds to purchase the materials needed to build their next sail, which will be shipped to Haitian fishermen through Sails for Sustenance. If you would like to help, please consider donating through the link below:
https://e.givesmart.com/events/tPG/i/_All/jKqI/?search=

 

[nota]

they are only going to use them to sail to MIAMI
SO NO PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT

 

[PaulK]

H.A. Callahan describes the care needed for cotton duck sails in his book "Learning to Sail". MacMillan, NewYork 1936. The chapter starts on page 292 and goes for a good long stretch. (Overstretching the sails is to be avoided, of course.) Cotton duck sails are not likely to last longer in Haïti than they do in New Orleans. Continuously having to replace them is not cost-effective. Haïtian fishermen would probably appreciate the longest-lasting sails they can get, but the plastic issue is also important. Perhaps looking into other readily available materials would be a good idea. What about making sails from sugar cane fibers? That might be a good STEM project.

 

[nolatom]

Well, good on them for making the effort and following through. Whether or not there are better strategies, we'll find out, but this is a start.

I'm biased. I teach part-time at Community Sailing New Orleans.

 

[keving]

H.A. Callahan describes the care needed for cotton duck sails in his book "Learning to Sail". MacMillan, NewYork 1936. The chapter starts on page 292 and goes for a good long stretch. (Overstretching the sails is to be avoided, of course.) Cotton duck sails are not likely to last longer in Haïti than they do in New Orleans. Continuously having to replace them is not cost-effective. Haïtian fishermen would probably appreciate the longest-lasting sails they can get, but the plastic issue is also important. Perhaps looking into other readily available materials would be a good idea. What about making sails from sugar cane fibers? That might be a good STEM project.

We know cotton sails will not last as long as dacron (polyester), but will the cotton sails last longer than the old dacron sails that are getting donated? Daron may end up being the chosen fabric, we are not testing it because we already know the characteristics of dacron sails. I'll take a look at the book you mentioned, thanks!

 

[dacapo]

and how do these haitian fisherman plan on procruing these sails? they're as poor as some of the fishermen I know in the bay islands of Honduras who use hefty bags as sails in order to live off the land.

 

[keving]

and how do these haitian fisherman plan on procruing these sails? they're as poor as some of the fishermen I know in the bay islands of Honduras who use hefty bags as sails in order to live off the land.

Though Sails for Sustenance

Donate used sails to Haitian fishermen.

We use your donated sails to empower subsistence fishermen. Reliably. Equitably. Sustainably.

www.sailsforsustenance.org

 

[nota]

btw cotton rots in the tropic's quickly

 

[Irrational 14]

Spent some time in Haiti. The fishing fleet is broad from motorized to traditional sail.
There's nothing more sustainable than what they are doing now which is recycling the huge vinyl street banners and cutting sails from them. The Digicell (local cellular co)banners alone could probably support at least half the fleet. They are everywhere on the island. Haitians are the most resourceful people I've ever met. They can make something work out of almost anything.
They don't need some college kids trying to save them. What happens when that program runs out? Who's paying to ship the sails over and will they ever get to the intended recipients with such a corrupt port authority? Let the Haitians work it out as they have been since their beginning.

After the earthquake, there was so much aid coming in which the country desperately needed. Sadly, most of the money and aid wasn't going to the citizens. You could walk into almost any market in Haiti and the products stamped US AID were for sale at very high prices. Tarps for shelter, food, clothing, everything needed was a price gouging frenzy.

Like I said, Haitians are some of the most hardy people on this planet. If you are stuck on a desert island or in a floating liferaft, you probaly want a Haitian w/you to survive.

 

[keving]

Spent some time in Haiti. The fishing fleet is broad from motorized to traditional sail.
There's nothing more sustainable than what they are doing now which is recycling the huge vinyl street banners and cutting sails from them. The Digicell (local cellular co)banners alone could probably support at least half the fleet. They are everywhere on the island. Haitians are the most resourceful people I've ever met. They can make something work out of almost anything.
They don't need some college kids trying to save them. What happens when that program runs out? Who's paying to ship the sails over and will they ever get to the intended recipients with such a corrupt port authority? Let the Haitians work it out as they have been since their beginning.

After the earthquake, there was so much aid coming in which the country desperately needed. Sadly, most of the money and aid wasn't going to the citizens. You could walk into almost any market in Haiti and the products stamped US AID were for sale at very high prices. Tarps for shelter, food, clothing, everything needed was a price gouging frenzy.

Like I said, Haitians are some of the most hardy people on this planet. If you are stuck on a desert island or in a floating liferaft, you probaly want a Haitian w/you to survive.

I understand your criticism; however, I don't think you are getting the full picture of what we are doing. We are very aware that we do not want to be just shipping things to them, then once the charity stops, they are left without a source of sails. This is why we are working with an agency who is in the country. We have talked with the Haitian Ambassador to the United States who supports what we are doing, just had a video conference with three Haitian Fishermen in Cap-Haitien. We are not intending to send many sails over the course of years. We are looking for a solution that can eventually be replicated by the Haitians themselves to resolve the issue that plastic materials are being used far beyond their useful lives are ending up as microplastics in their fisheries. I am aware that we will probably not have a viable solution for them, however, we will have raised awareness about the poverty in the country and inspired our students.

 

[Irrational 14]

I wish you well. I really do.

There are so many obstacles to get through in Haiti, especially for NGO's. Trying to do the right thing is an enormous, never ending task and requires a well established network to avoid the common barriers there.

Micro-plastics is a HUGE issue everywhere and Haiti has a big problem here. Sustainable non plastic SAILS are a minuscule problem IMO.

You are probably aware that the island has a few water plants that the population relies on.
These local companies actually bag the water (no bottles) in a small bite size, one time use plastic bag about the same size as a sandwich bag. These bags are than master bagged and brought to market all over the island. They are sold individually. The end user bites off a corner of the bag and squeezes the water out for a drink, then chucks the bag. Nobody wants to carry a bag of water around. You see these bags overflowed in the streets and flying around in the wind. Many of them ending up in the ocean. Recycling is still a new thing there. I would hope by now that it has gotten better but I have not heard of any type of turnaround. If you want to find one of the many local sources of Micro-plastic impact, start here.