True British Resourcefulness - A Birthday Card For Alec.

Photo by Stephan.

If you happen to need to move your boat, all 24 tons of her, and you are a real West Country man, it's simple enough. You just get your hands on an old motorway sign-post gantry at the scrap yard up the road, along with a few old wheels and jacks, and you make a trailer. Then you just have to get your hands on a big lump of a tractor, which you do by swopping it for a fine compressor that you had picked up cheap.

The particular specimen of that disappearing race to whom I refer happens to have wound up in Portugal, and he is none other than our one and only Alec. The poor old 'Whirled', that he built himself 15 years ago in Brittany, has for the moment been sadly reduced to his caravan, a somewhat unwieldy one it has to be said, which he is moving to a cheaper site. We are also in the process of moving all his kit into the new HQ, Yellow Windows. He is conscious that his time as an all-purpose marine Mr Fixit is coming to an end; together we are setting up a business that will enable him to use his head more and his limbs and muscles less, as befits his 54 years, and to do our bit to save the World while we are at it!

So many people in this world would have freaked out at the prospect of just making a trailer like that. They would have wanted some kind of engineer on the job, who had done all sorts of sums and drawings. Well I've nothing at all against engineers, but I do love that solid West Country approach of just doing it. It is however curious how the cobbling, make-it-up-as-you-go-along approach lets the English down when it comes to politics and the country's leadership.

Nebulous incoherence is by no means limited to the present incumbent of No.10 Downing St. For instance I have always been puzzled as to how all those subjects of Her Majesty suddenly started calling themselves citizens. There was no such nonsense back in the day when I had a fine dark blue passport, with a great big coat of arms on the front and something about Her Majesty's Government requesting and requiring that I be allowed to pass without let or hindrance on the inside. Did I miss something while my back was turned?

It sounds like a revolution in toothpaste to me, that's the kind we generally can rise to these days, but if there was some kind of serious revolution back in the 70s or 80s while I was totally immersed in fishing and rearing children, it evidently didn't satisfy the present crop of rabid revolutionaries. I was forced back into taking an interest in British politics by the Brexit vote, and found to my amazement that the nice vicar's daughter who had just become P.M. was full of fiery revolution in her speech at the time, to the Conservative Party Conference of all things! 'The roots of the revolution run deep', she averred, 'Yet within our society today, we see division and unfairness all around'.

For some reason, under her inspired leadership, The Referendum, like 'the Revolution', has acquired some kind of quasi royal authority. The people have spoken, albeit by a slim majority in a flawed campaign, and their will must be done. Never mind that the issues have become so much clearer since; in this version of democracy, debate is a waste of time; there is no such thing as gradually finding one's way and painfully building a consensus, taking a shared responsibility. That's surely real citizenship, but evidently the sort of thing that  may be left to those misguided Europeans!

However, ‘if you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere. You don’t understand what the very word ‘citizenship’ means.’ What would Mrs May have us 'rootless cosmopolitans' be, cabbages? Actually, human beings come equipped with feet, for moving around, but let’s allow also, like monkeys, for climbing in trees. Then at least we would know where to look for roots. Let us imagine we are sitting on a branch of the great Tree of Life. It would for a start be wise not to cut off the branch that we are sitting on. Then we could go downwards, and find where our branch becomes part of a bigger one, and that one turns into the trunk, and then we may find some decent roots.

Mrs May prattles on about her desire to 'unite the country', while in fact it is becoming ever more divided under her leadership. 'Struth, Mr Junker's nebulous is too kind a word, but she is looking in the wrong direction for unity - at the clouds maybe? Never mind, the Tories are going to fix it, and apparently it all depends on Brexit! ‘Britain – the Britain we build after Brexit – is going to be a Global Britain.’ Meanwhile, everyone with a smidgen of coherence, from the Pope and the Secretary General of the UN, via David Attenborough and most scientists downwards, are telling us that we shall be very lucky if the Globe has not gone into catastrophic decline a few short years hence.

If only one could be confident that there was any other, more coherent, leadership on offer in England! It would be nice to forget about the whole circus in Westminster, as well as the violence in France, but the thing is, we none of us can avoid their effects; the world is indeed a global village now, whether we like it or not. Where does this Brexit leave us English people who have moved on, becoming Europeans of one kind or another (though perhaps with a deeper appreciation of England for that)? Sooner rather than later, Messrs Farrage, Johnson, & Co as well as their friends across the Atlantic have to be faced down - we cannot afford to just wait until they die off, or everyone will go with them!

Meanwhile, thank God for the odd Englishman who, precisely because he is firmly planted in physical reality, realises like the birds that there is more to the world than England, and also has the imagination to realise that there are other ways of relating to the rest of it than by mere exploitation or domination!

A Call to Action - The Nazaré Project

‘We are heading into one of those historical moments when the different facets of life come together – in a time of extreme physical, environmental, technological, social, economic, political, spiritual and, for each one of us, personal turmoil, crisis and transformation. To at once escape denial and to avoid falling into destructive violence or madness, it is imperative to find some way, however small and insignificant it may seem, of responding with creativity and love.’

This is me expressing my current state of  mind, that I hope will find a response in yours too, dear reader. For too long we have tended to keep our inner thoughts and feelings about such matters under wraps, afraid perhaps of raising issues that we just cannot cope with, as we struggle to keep our relationships together, rear our children and generally keep the show on the road.

I am back in Nazaré now, at its bright and sunny best, but I have been at home lately, while Alec and I were communicating closely nonetheless, across the 800 miles or so of this lot:-

The result is that we are ready to go with

The Nazaré Project

The key features of the Project are 3 S’s - sustainability, subsidiarity (local participation) and solidarity. These entail objectives such as meeting the challenge posed by the climate crisis, bringing new life to the entire European project by empowering people within their local communities and redefining the relationship between capital and regular people.

Dependence on oil, besides hastening us to self-destruction, is putting us in the hands of a shadowy and unaccountable elite. Not alone do we require a transition to electric power, but also to ‘power for the people’; and I do not mean merely some probably spurious political power, but the actual ability to participate in powering their own world, indeed to inherit their own lives.

The Project is developing with differing strands. It started in practical terms with the Anna M. Every sailor knows the sense of blessed relief that comes with stopping their engine, when the sails take over and once again the dominant sounds are those of nature and the way of their boat through the water. Now the whole world needs such a moment, leaving dependence on oil and internal combustion engines behind, and indeed this does seem to be coming to pass! Moreover, an ocean-going sailing boat is a very apt ‘entry point’ for addressing the challenge of making our world sustainable. She is a whole life-support and transport system, running on her own power.

Those of you who have followed this blog will also know - and the story is here for all to read - how I myself arrived at this point, aboard such a sailing boat, the 13.6m wooden schooner Anna M.  She was designed by the English designer John Illingworth and built in the South of France, 50 years ago. Fiona and I bought her 20 years ago, at Horta in the Azores.

I had just retired from 26 years as a commercial fisherman. I had embarked on that career partly in order to immerse myself in the problematic relationship between technology, capitalism and nature, in order to try to see the way out of that destructive phase of history that caused me to witness, for example, the reduction of a fine fishing ground off NW Ireland to a fish desert, and whose global consummation we are now about to witness. I meanwhile followed the fortunes of the Glencolmkille Cooperatives in Co. Donegal, and was subsequently Chairman of the West Clare Development Coop at Carrigaholt for several years.

Anna M leaving on IWDG cruise
 to the Cabo Verde Islands. 

I had been brought up sailing, and now wanted a boat big enough to take sailing trips, focussed on dolphin and whale watching. Besides doing so off SW Ireland, I went filming humpback whales with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group in the Cape Verde Islands, and in the course of continuing around the North Atlantic, sailed 40km up the Orinoco River in the Venezuelan rain-forest. Anna M has sailed many, many miles in the company of whales and dolphins, and in a sense I now try to emulate them. It changes one, to look those creatures in the eyes and to hear their haunting songs beneath the waves.

Since 2012, with a welcome pension, Fiona and I have settled down to living on Sherkin Island and cruising the ‘Gannetsway’. This is what I call my ‘home ground’, where the gannets fly, from Scotland to the South of Spain. Anna M spent winters further and further south, and finally on the Rio Guadiana, between the Algarve and Andalusia.

In June 2016, I was sailing north up the Portuguese coast with two friends, but had to take the decision that it was unsafe to proceed, because despite considerable effort at remedy, the 50 year-old boat was leaking too much. I put her on the concrete at Nazaré, and there serious problems were found. Enter a remarkable boat-builder and marine engineer of 30 years’ experience called Alec Lammas.

Alec laminating a frame.

Alec and I soon found much in common, in particular a shared interest in electric drives. We cleaned out Anna M's hull, taking out the engine and fuel tanks, and discovered that many of her frames were cracked and rotten. Since I was now committed to a project way beyond my personal means, I decided we would somehow manage to 'go the whole hog', since the chance was there but would never come again, and fit a self-regenerative electric drive. Alec and I decided to set up a company in order to design, manufacture and install such systems, while Anna M will become a research vessel, test bed and demonstration ambassador for them. We are calling this company:-

Aston-Lammas Electric Propulsion Lda (ALEP).

As such, we have just agreed to rent a premises some 6 km inland from Nazaré in Portugal, just off the A8 motorway. It is in good working condition, with plenty of room for a fully equipped workshop, storage, office and design space and also for accommodation space. It only needs to be cleaned out and then we will be ready to go.

'Yellow Windows' - ALEP's premises.

We have also just submitted an application to the EU's Portugal 2020 scheme for 50% funding of our research and development program, and we have established a relationship with Professor Carlos Fereira of the I.P.L. de Leiria.

The motors will be supplied initially at least by Lynch Electric Motors, for which Alec has the concession for Portugal, Spain, France and Ireland. Our innovation will mainly lie in the systems’ abilities to recharge the vessels’ batteries, using the power generated by their propellers when the boat is sailing with sufficient force through the water.

There are already 3 boat-owners interested, and further installations are being planned, such as purely electric systems for locally built GRP dayboats that will be recharged with shore power. The company’s interests will not be confined to the marine industry, but applied also to transport on land. There is huge scope for the production of simple low-cost electric vehicles, which are essential to the rejuvenation of rural and urban communities alike. Flashy high-end electric vehicles are all very well, but are quite beyond the means of those trying to live simple lives in the country.

There is a beautiful village a little further inland from our premises, with a derelict ceramics factory for sale in it, which we would love to buy and use for our own purposes. Nearby there are several run-down old houses for sale and a closed-down school. It is a story replicated everywhere. With affordable vehicles and their own means of producing power, this community and countless others could be rejuvenated.

Nazaré itself provides a splendid opportunity for the application of electric vehicles. Near our workshop there is a new industrial estate that the local authority is currently equipping with services and access roads. It would be an ideal place to provide a ‘charge and ride’ facility, where drivers could pull in off the motorway and leave their car to be charged, preferably with solar panels that would also provide shade, while being left into Nazaré, thus relieving it of the traffic that gridlocks its narrow streets in busy times.

Immediately speaking, in the New Year, we intend to be able to provide accommodation and food to helpers, as we get the new workshop organised, complete with office and living quarters. Down the line, there will be opportunities to participate both at sea and on land, and your input on business or technical matters, as well as physical help, will be much appreciated. You will be able to follow what is happening on this blog. Email gannetsway@gmail.com to join our mailing list.

Our organisation is still very much in its infancy, and it should be emphasized that this is a personal blog rather than a mission statement. However, I think it best to be up front about where I am coming from. Of all things I deplore hidden agendas, that motivate people while they avoid engaging in honest, meaningful and robust ways with issues as they arise. However, it is not just that I am an old man in a hurry. Heaven knows it should be obvious by now that the Planet needs our haste. Sound and deeply rooted motivation is required if we are going to turn around this present, destructive way of going on, in which the usual flannel most often peddled by politicians and the media is proving woefully inadequate.

Unfortunately we cannot afford to delay in raising funds. We suddenly found that our application to Portugal 2020 had to be in by the end of November, or we would miss the chance to apply for a Research and Development grant for another whole year. It only went ahead thanks to a friend's generosity and that of Mierlog Consulting, who are still owed Eur2500. We also need to spend some money on rent and kitting out the new premises, though this will be done as simply and cheaply as possible. When we get an office to work in, we'll have some chance of organising ourselves properly.

Eventually your contributions will become formal shares in ALEPlda. If you let us know what you are most interested in, this will help us to shape our priorities. Of course you can always make smaller contributions too, and you do not need to be a shareholder to follow and participate.

Please lodge funds with the Gannetsway account -
BIC-BOFIIE2DXXX

IBAN-IE17BOFI90295239637885

The Madonna is for me right at the heart and foundation of European civilisation, and for my part, the Project is under the patronage of Nossa Senhora da Nazaré*. I count myself answerable to the ethos and values of the Catholic Church, without however excluding anyone for holding to a different tradition. Alec for instance is a Vegan. In the end we believe all genuine traditions and values point in one universal direction, whereof the implications for today are best worked out in practice. It is by working together that we learn to trust each other!

Joe Aston.


*https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-nazareth.html