Welcome to Windassist

Windassist will bring you news focused on wind-assisted shipping, sailing freight and sail training. Related news on decarbonisation will also be touched on. This website and the bi-weekly newsletter are available in English and Dutch.

What to expect?

Windassist is a bilingual continuation of the Dutch ‘Zeilpost’ that started in early 2023. Zeilpost started small but has seen a growing readership. Read more about the origin of Zeilpost on our History page. Examples of subjects covered:

• Wind Assisted Ship Propulsion (WASP) with retrofit rigid wing sails, Flettner rotors and many other modern varieties of sails. We are covering the new technologies, but also economical, climate impact and environmental aspects.
• Supporting technologies like route optimization systems end weather modeling.
• Sail training and other sustainable sailing charter initiatives.
• Sail cargo using historic ships: the pioneers and wayfarers of modern wind propulsion.
• Occasionally we bring related news around decarbonisation like hybrid drive and hydrogen as energy source.

Most content is based on general news and press releases. So, mainly we act as ‘clippings newspaper’, and occasionally we publish articles based on our own research.

Why Windassist?

There is clearly a need for an easily accessible news source that reports critically and with involvement on the subjects of wind-assisted shipping, sailing freight and sail training. A well-founded assessment by the Enkhuizer Zeevaartschool (Enkhuizen Nautical College, EZS), which already provides an important contribution to the newsletter behind the scenes, is that there is also a strong need for an English-language edition. “Windassist will probably be the first international medium completely dedicated to these subjects, while the target group is growing rapidly, especially in the area of wind-assisted cargo shipping,” says director Cosmo Wassenaar.

Who we are

Windassist is brought to you by the Zeepost Foundation. Most of us are volunteers with a background as yachtsmen and chartering with traditional ships. The editor-in-chief is a professional writer. We get support drom the Enkhuizen Nautical College and interest groups around (traditional) shipping. Please find more information under About Windassist in the main menu.

Pilot

We will start simple with a pilot. WindAssist will be published once every two weeks. We are doing this mainly because it is currently by far the most labor-intensive newsletter. In addition to the fact that putting the articles together is labor-intensive, searching for and finding news sources also requires a lot of extra work: we get them from everywhere, because the news is made from Norway to the United States and from France to China.
Only when we can process more news in an accessible and workable way, we will be able to scale up. In addition to the extra costs that are already being incurred, we will have to raise additional funds for this: another task that lies ahead.

Help from readers

We could really use our readers’ help with the content. As regular readers have no doubt noticed, the news is dominated by wind assistance. Many more large merchant ships are being equipped with wind assistance than pure sailing cargo ships are coming into service. The stories about the actual voyages of sailing cargo ships are at least as interesting, and often more exciting, as are the stories of sail training ships that sail with school projects or participate in tallship races. We really would like to share more of those stories. That is why we are calling on our readers who actually sail those ships, with cargo, passengers or schoolchildren, to share their stories with us.

We also welcome suggestions for improvement. This is only a pilot version, so we are especially interested in your wishes, experiences and criticism.

Thank you in advance,
The editors.

Windassist sponsor