The Maritime Club of Santorini and the non-profit organization SailMed invite you to the event that will take place at the Tomato Industrial Museum on
Wednesday, June 26 at 8:00 p.m.
Captain Loukas Gourtsogiannis will present the project Aegean Cargo Sailing – Ecological sea transport of products in the Aegean by sail and wind, and there will be time for questions and discussion.
The sailing vessel Avrora of the SailMed organization, captained by Loukas Gourtsogiannis, will be in Santorini from the morning of Wednesday, June 26, as part of the circular route of this year’s round of the sailing transport of Aegean products, which passes through 18 islands. The boat’s crew will tour local production units, with the aim of informing local producers and promoting trade links with other islands and foreign markets.
The non-profit organization SAILMED.ORG revives “AEGEAN CARGO SAILING”, an innovative inter-island service that honors the Aegean tradition of sails and wind. The group has already been implementing this clean way of commercial, cultural connection and transportation of goods on the islands since last summer. In addition, in winter it transported products of the Aegean to Italy and France only by sail and wind. The land routes, where this is possible, are done by bicycle or electric car (with solar charging), while from this year a wooden bicycle, sponsored by coco-mat.bike, is traveling with the boat, which is used to transport the products on land.
Greek products are of high quality and are transported to and from the Aegean islands at almost zero ecological cost, since no environmentally harmful fuels are used, but the power of the wind. Ecological maritime transport without fossil fuels strengthens the Blue Economy in the Aegean and the Mediterranean. On board there are solar panels that run the refrigerators, so that perishable products are kept cool and fresh during the voyage. Because they are transported in this way, they acquire a greater ecological value and are placed on special stands at the cooperating points of sale.
The ultimate goal of the project is to establish on a permanent basis and on a real scale the Sailing Transport of Products (and people) in the Aegean, as well as the facilitation of a mild ecological form of tourism on the islands, focused on sailing and local, small-scale ecological production. The effort is sought to be harmoniously linked and to be based on the real needs of producers, traders, local authorities, ecological, cultural and maritime associations.
The sailing transport of products from SailMed to Santorini