April 3rd, 2023
A reward for innovative projects in favour of oceans preservation and blue growth.
Supported by Grand West Popular Bank and its Maritime Credit brand, the 5th edition of the Ocean Innovations Awards was organised on March 30th, 2023 in Lorient.
Diana Mesa, our Managing Director and co-founder, travelled to Bretagne for the ceremony. However, the ceremony was cancelled for reasons beyond our control.
In the absence of photos of the event, here are a few extracts from our co-founder's speech.
« I am delighted to be here tonight.
Delighted as a woman, because in the world of sailing, it is not so easy to make our mark. I am delighted as a shipowner woman, because the world of shipbuilding is not so easy to make our way, I am delighted as a sailing cargo shipowner, because sailing, even if it is in the minority, has great potential for development in the future, I am delighted to be here in Lorient, home port of the Biche le thonier (GX), which we have chartered so many times, and which I have steered so many times, the hold loaded with goods, between the Grands Cardineaux and the Teignouse, I am delighted to be here in Lorient, where our masts are made, two masts two steps from here, in fact 4 masts 4 steps from here at Lorima.mast, I am delighted to be here in #Bretagne, where for us, it all literally began.
I was born in Bogotá, which is not so near to here.
But it was in Brest that we unloaded our first goods transported by sail, MALBERT dock, in October 2011. It is also in Brest that we created #TOWT. We stuck our first labels "transported under sail" in 2012, always committed to the integrity of the claim: it's either transported by sail or it isn't... And it is in Penn Sardinn, in #Douarnenez, that we have continued our development between 2016 and 2020. It was from the Place de l'Enfer, which was so aptly named on 15 November 2017, when everything burned, that the Phoenix emerged. This #Phoenix which today gives its name to the first of the future sailing cargo ships. And it is still in Bretagne that we are building the first two ships of the fleet at PIRIOU, in Concarneau. (...)
Sailing, if it allows us to decarbonise transport, will also have to make room for us, the "witches of the open sea", and for this reason I am also delighted to raise this Ocean Innovation Award of Popular Grand West Bank. 🎶 Je vas hisser not' pavillon Qui restera haut nous le jurons 🎶 (...)
The main propulsion is wind-driven, with soft-sail rigs, which allow downwind sailing, and are best able to use the abundant, predictable, reliable energy of the wind, offshore. That's why we founded TOWT. (...)
13 years of sailing transport is the adolescence of a company that is becoming stronger and more responsible, which is also what this Ocean Innovation Award crowns tonight. I would particularly like to thank Philippe Renaudin, who has always been kind to us. (...)
Because it is together that we must succeed, our SHIPBUILDING project is to propose a solution to this GREAT challenge which is ours
Diana Mesa, TOWT Managing Director
