Monday 23 July 2012

Fair Trade vessel Estelle in Øresund


Last night around nine o´clock the Finnish Fair Trade vessel Estelle sailed northwards in the Sound on its way from Helsingborg to Varberg. The Estelle, which is a certified ocean-going merchant vessel, is an interesting project: 

Estelle is a steel-hulled 53-metre ship originally built for North Sea trawl fishing. Before being converted into a Fair Trade vessel, she spent about fifteen years hauling gravel from Vuolahti to Helsinki.

On June 2nd, 1997 Estelle was certified as a Finnish merchant vessel. At the same time, she was issued papers on a special-purpose basis (training vessel). Afterwards, she has done campaign and transport work in the Baltic and North seas.
On June 29th, 1999, Estelle was certified for ocean-going traffic, i.e. as seaworthy for all the world's ice-free waters.
Uusi Tuuli (New Wind), the non-profit organization, which has renovated Estelle, describes  the project on its home page in this way: 
Our vision is to create equal and environmentally sustainable relationships with North and South.
Our most visible tool is sailing vessel Estelle which we use for transporting cargo with wind power. We organise campaign events and -tours in harbours of Europe. The ship functions as an open space that gathers people, organisations and ideas all around the world to encounter each other. Estelle is also used in training volunteers to sail, thus upkeeping the ancient tradition of sailing.

A few minutes later, the Estelle was overtaken by another interesting ship, the Fehn Coast - a small German cargo ship, which in 2009 was chartered by Greenpeace, and used to drop large  stone blocks in the Lilla Middelgrund area of the Kattegat:


PS
According to local newspater reports, Estelle seems right now to be operated by "Ship to Gaza" - an overtly political project, which I will abstain from commenting on here. 

PS 2 (October 7)
According to information on Estelle's former home page the ship has been sold to "Ship to Gaza Sweden"

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