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| At Vigo Hospital |
After eighty years of good health, I have now recently found myself in hospital twice in the space of one month, first with a bit of a stroke and then a bad ‘flu, which left me in isolation for five days. I am grateful to my engineer son John for in the meantime writing up the Gannetsway Project from an engineer’s point of view:-
Anna M Sail-Electric Demonstrator
A real-world testbed for low-carbon propulsion and energy autonomy at sea
Anna M is a 13.6-metre wooden schooner with a long history of offshore sailing, marine research, whale watching, and Atlantic passage-making. She was designed by John Illingworth and built in the Chantier La Seyne, Toulon, France, in 1969. She was bought by her present owners in 1999, used for dolphin and whale-watching in South-west Ireland, as a platform for whale-watching and making the film The Return of the Humpback Whale in the Cape Verde Islands, on trips to the Azores, the West Indies, the Orinoco River in Venezuela, Ibiza and Rome in the Mediterranean, to the Channel Islands and the English West Country, to Brittany, Galicia, the Rio Guadiana between Spain and Portugal in the south, to Scotland and up along the West coast of Ireland visiting islands with Nutan to make a photographic book, The Islands of Ireland, After an extensive ten-year renovation, she is sailing again from her current base in the Ría de Vigo.
The next ambition is simple to describe, but technically interesting:
Can a traditional sailing vessel like Anna M operate without routine dependence on fossil-fuel propulsion?
We are looking for research, technical, industry, and local partners who would like to help answer that question in the real world.
We are also open to discussions with people, institutions, companies, foundations, ports, universities, public bodies, and other entities that might wish to acquire Anna M, commission the project, or place the vessel within an organisation whose mission would support this work.
(Joe Aston adds:- ‘At a point in history which has seen massive warships ‘outgunned’ by drones costing a small fraction of their price, and global civilisation held to ransom by the cost of oil, surely it is worth someone’s while to make a very small investment in researching alternative ways of ‘keeping the seas’!’)
The idea
The aim is not simply to remove a diesel engine and replace it with an electric motor.
Anna M is first and foremost a sailing vessel. The wind already provides most of the energy needed to move her.
The challenge is to develop an integrated system that provides the additional energy needed when sailing alone is not enough – for example, manoeuvring in harbour, travelling through calms, motor-sailing when necessary, or maintaining a safe reserve for difficult situations.
The demonstrator would explore how best to combine:
electric propulsion;
batteries and energy storage;
regeneration through the propeller while sailing;
onboard solar generation;
shore charging;
intelligent energy management; and
if necessary, an appropriate low-carbon range extender.
Rather than assume the answer in advance, the project would measure what the vessel actually needs, test different approaches, and build the energy system around real operating experience
.
The central question
What is the minimum practical energy system required for a seagoing sailing vessel to minimise – or potentially eliminate – routine fossil-fuel propulsion?
This immediately raises useful research questions.
How much power does a vessel like Anna M actually require for harbour manoeuvring, motor-sailing, adverse conditions, and emergency use?
How large does the battery really need to be?
How much energy can be recovered through the propeller while sailing, and what effect does regeneration have on sailing speed?
How much can solar generation contribute?
How should the skipper manage stored energy so that sufficient reserve is always maintained?
And once these questions have been answered, is another energy source actually necessary?
If it is, the project can then evaluate options such as a small generator, hydrogen, methanol or ethanol fuel cells, or other emerging technologies against a clearly defined operational requirement.
Why Anna M?
Many new low-emission vessels are designed from scratch around their propulsion system.
Anna M offers a different challenge.
She is an existing, substantial, ocean-going vessel that must be retrofitted.
That makes her relevant to the thousands of existing sailing vessels, heritage craft, fishing boats, research vessels, and small working boats that cannot simply be replaced by new vessels.
She also brings some unusual advantages as a demonstrator.
The vessel has been comprehensively renovated and is sailing again. The former diesel installation has already been removed. Her electrical systems have recently been renewed. She has decades of operational history, and her owner has extensive experience of sailing her offshore.
Most importantly, she can provide something laboratories cannot:
real operating data from a real vessel at sea.
What could partners investigate?
The demonstrator could support work in several areas.
Propulsion
Determine the most appropriate electric motor, controller, propeller, battery capacity, and installation for a vessel of Anna M's size and operating profile.
Regeneration under sail
Measure how much electrical energy can realistically be recovered through the propeller at different sailing speeds and in different sea conditions.
Energy management
Develop approaches that balance propulsion, domestic loads, charging opportunities, weather, passage plans, and the need to retain a safety reserve.
Renewable generation
Measure the practical contribution of solar and other onboard renewable-energy sources over extended periods.
Range extension
Use actual operational data to determine whether additional energy generation is required and, if so, compare possible technologies objectively.
Retrofit design
Understand the practical challenges of installing modern propulsion and energy systems into an existing traditional vessel.
Replication
Translate the lessons from Anna M into guidance that could be useful for other sailing and small working vessels.
What does Anna M offer a partner?
This is not simply a request to finance the conversion of a private boat.
Anna M can provide a working research, development, and demonstration platform.
A partner could gain:
access to a full-scale vessel without having to build a demonstrator from scratch;
real-world testing of propulsion, storage, charging, and energy-management technologies;
measured data from coastal and offshore operation;
experience of retrofitting an existing vessel;
opportunities for university research, student projects, publications, and technical studies;
a platform for testing commercial or emerging technologies;
visibility through public demonstrations and Atlantic passages; and
a strong practical case study in the transition away from fossil fuels in small craft.
The intention would be to make the results useful well beyond Anna M herself.
A two-year demonstration programme
1. Understand the vessel
Galicia – late 2026 / early 2027
The first step would be to measure and model Anna M's actual energy requirements.
This would include propulsion requirements, typical operating conditions, domestic electricity use, available space and weight, existing renewable generation, safety requirements, and charging opportunities.
The outcome would be an Anna M energy and propulsion model and a specification for the first demonstrator system.
2. Install the sail-electric system
Spring 2027
Install the electric propulsion system, battery bank, charging equipment, regeneration capability, energy-management system, and research instrumentation.
Where possible, the system should remain modular so that different technologies can be evaluated or replaced during the programme.
3. Sea trials in Galicia
Summer 2027
Conduct structured trials in and around the Ría de Vigo.
Measurements could include:
power required at different vessel speeds;
harbour manoeuvring;
battery endurance;
motor-sailing performance;
regeneration at different sailing speeds;
the relationship between regeneration and drag;
solar contribution;
domestic energy use;
charging performance; and
energy-reserve management.
This creates the first substantial real-world dataset.
4. Atlantic operating trials
Late 2027
Use Anna M on longer passages and compare actual performance with the original modelling.
This is where the system encounters real wind, waves, currents, calms, harbour approaches, passage planning, and human decision-making.
The question becomes not simply whether the technology works, but:
Does the complete system work as part of a real sailing vessel?
5. Improve the system
Winter 2027/28
Analyse the results and improve the design.
At this point the project would also determine whether an additional energy source is required.
Instead of asking generally whether hydrogen, methanol, another fuel, or a small generator is best, the project would now know exactly what remaining energy gap needs to be filled.
The Gannetsway Demonstration
Galicia – Brittany – Ireland
The second year would culminate in a demonstration voyage along the Gannetsway – the Atlantic maritime connection between Galicia, Brittany, and Ireland.
Along the route, Anna M could visit universities, maritime research centres, ports, boatbuilders, marine-technology companies, coastal communities, and sailing organisations.
The voyage would continue the technical testing while also demonstrating the system publicly.
It would turn the project into something people can see, understand, and engage with:
a traditional Atlantic sailing vessel using the wind as its primary energy source, supported by a modern low-carbon propulsion and energy system.
The wider ambition
The objective is not to prove that every vessel should become an Anna M.
It is to use one real vessel to answer a broader question:
How can we make much better use of wind, electricity, renewable generation, and intelligent energy management to reduce the dependence of existing small vessels on fossil fuels?
The result could ultimately be a practical Sail-First Retrofit Framework showing owners, designers, researchers, and technology suppliers how to assess and design low-carbon auxiliary propulsion for existing vessels.
Why now?
The technologies are developing quickly, but much of the challenge lies in bringing them together into practical systems that work at sea.
Anna M offers an opportunity to do that at manageable scale.
She is renovated.
She is sailing.
She is based beside one of Europe's important maritime research and shipbuilding centres.
And she has a skipper who has spent decades crossing these waters and wants to see whether an old schooner can help explore a new way of travelling through them.
The next step is to bring together the people who can turn that question into a serious demonstration project.
Obvious local partners
The most natural starting point is the maritime ecosystem around Vigo and Galicia.
Potential partners could include:
the Port of Vigo and other Galician ports;
the Xunta de Galicia and relevant regional innovation, maritime, environmental, and tourism agencies;
the University of Vigo, especially marine engineering, naval architecture, oceanography, renewable-energy, and data-research groups;
the Galician Maritime Cluster and local shipyards, boatbuilders, naval architects, and marine electricians;
marine-technology companies based in Vigo and Galicia;
fishing, aquaculture, pilotage, harbour-service, and maritime-training organisations;
local sailing clubs, maritime museums, heritage-vessel organisations, and coastal communities;
research centres working on batteries, hydrogen, alternative fuels, renewable energy, and marine systems;
local energy companies, electricity distributors, and shore-power providers;
foundations and companies with environmental, maritime, or regional-development programmes; and
municipalities along the proposed Gannetsway route.
These organisations could contribute in different ways: technical expertise, workshop and yard access, berth and shore-charging facilities, instrumentation, student and research capacity, public funding, sponsorship, communications, or access to wider European programmes.
The project could also be particularly relevant to organisations that want to demonstrate that Galicia is not only a centre of traditional maritime activity, but also a place where practical marine decarbonisation can be developed and tested.
Who might buy or take ownership of Anna M?
A further possibility is that Anna M could be acquired by an institution or organisation that wants to make the vessel a permanent public, educational, research, or demonstration asset.
Potential owners or commissioning bodies could include:
a university or consortium of universities;
a maritime research institute;
the Port of Vigo or another public port authority;
a municipality or regional public body;
a maritime museum or heritage organisation;
a foundation dedicated to oceans, climate, education, or cultural heritage;
a marine-technology company seeking a long-term demonstrator;
a shipyard, energy company, or engineering group wishing to establish a flagship project;
a sailing, youth, or maritime-education organisation;
a coastal tourism or destination-development body;
a consortium of local companies and public institutions; or
an impact investor or philanthropic owner willing to place the vessel in a non-profit or mission-led structure.
Ownership would not necessarily mean turning Anna M into a conventional commercial charter boat.
The vessel could instead be held by a foundation, university, public-private partnership, or special-purpose organisation whose purpose was to operate her as a research, education, heritage, and demonstration platform.
An acquiring organisation could choose to:
fund the complete sail-electric conversion;
provide the vessel to a research consortium;
establish a permanent base and workshop in Vigo;
make the vessel available for student training and public education;
host visiting researchers and technology demonstrations;
support annual Atlantic voyages;
develop open technical data and retrofit guidance; and
use Anna M as a visible flagship for a wider maritime decarbonisation programme.
This could make sense for an organisation that wants not merely to sponsor a project, but to own a tangible, operating platform with a long-term public purpose.
Possible partnership structures
There are several ways the project could be organised.
Sponsored demonstrator
The current ownership remains in place while partners provide funding, equipment, expertise, or services for the conversion and trials.
Research consortium
Universities, public bodies, technology companies, and maritime organisations jointly define and fund the programme, with Anna M serving as the shared test vessel.
Institutional acquisition
A university, port, foundation, public body, or company acquires Anna M and establishes the demonstration programme as part of its own activities.
Public-private partnership
A group of local institutions and companies jointly support the vessel through a formal operating structure, combining public-interest objectives with industrial research and demonstration.
Mission-led foundation or trust
The vessel is placed within a non-profit structure dedicated to maritime heritage, education, research, and low-carbon transition.
Technology flagship
A company or group of companies acquires or sponsors Anna M as a long-term platform for developing, integrating, and publicly demonstrating marine technologies.
The appropriate structure would depend on the partners, funding, ownership objectives, and desired public benefit.
A two-year demonstration programme
1. Understand the vessel
Galicia – late 2026 / early 2027
The first step would be to measure and model Anna M's actual energy requirements.
This would include propulsion requirements, typical operating conditions, domestic electricity use, available space and weight, existing renewable generation, safety requirements, and charging opportunities.
The outcome would be an Anna M energy and propulsion model and a specification for the first demonstrator system.
2. Install the sail-electric system
Spring 2027
Install the electric propulsion system, battery bank, charging equipment, regeneration capability, energy-management system, and research instrumentation.
Where possible, the system should remain modular so that different technologies can be evaluated or replaced during the programme.
3. Sea trials in Galicia
Summer 2027
Conduct structured trials in and around the Ría de Vigo.
Measurements could include:
power required at different vessel speeds;
harbour manoeuvring;
battery endurance;
motor-sailing performance;
regeneration at different sailing speeds;
the relationship between regeneration and drag;
solar contribution;
domestic energy use;
charging performance; and
energy-reserve management.
This creates the first substantial real-world dataset.
4. Atlantic operating trials
Late 2027
Use Anna M on longer passages and compare actual performance with the original modelling.
This is where the system encounters real wind, waves, currents, calms, harbour approaches, passage planning, and human decision-making.
The question becomes not simply whether the technology works, but:
Does the complete system work as part of a real sailing vessel?
5. Improve the system
Winter 2027/28
Analyse the results and improve the design.
At this point the project would also determine whether an additional energy source is required.
Instead of asking generally whether hydrogen, methanol, another fuel, or a small generator is best, the project would now know exactly what remaining energy gap needs to be filled.
The Gannetsway Demonstration
Galicia – Brittany – Ireland
The second year would culminate in a demonstration voyage along the Gannetsway – the Atlantic maritime connection between Galicia, Brittany, and Ireland.
Along the route, Anna M could visit universities, maritime research centres, ports, boatbuilders, marine-technology companies, coastal communities, and sailing organisations.
The voyage would continue the technical testing while also demonstrating the system publicly.
It would turn the project into something people can see, understand, and engage with:
a traditional Atlantic sailing vessel using the wind as its primary energy source, supported by a modern low-carbon propulsion and energy system.
The wider ambition
The objective is not to prove that every vessel should become an Anna M.
It is to use one real vessel to answer a broader question:
How can we make much better use of wind, electricity, renewable generation, and intelligent energy management to reduce the dependence of existing small vessels on fossil fuels?
The result could ultimately be a practical Sail-First Retrofit Framework showing owners, designers, researchers, and technology suppliers how to assess and design low-carbon auxiliary propulsion for existing vessels.
Why now?
The technologies are developing quickly, but much of the challenge lies in bringing them together into practical systems that work at sea.
Anna M offers an opportunity to do that at manageable scale.
She is renovated.
She is sailing.
She is based beside one of Europe's important maritime research and shipbuilding centres.
And she has a skipper who has spent decades crossing these waters and wants to see whether an old schooner can help explore a new way of travelling through them.
The next step is to bring together the people who can turn that question into a serious demonstration project.
We are therefore looking for partners in:
marine engineering · electric propulsion · batteries and energy storage · renewable energy · naval architecture · maritime research · vessel instrumentation and data · energy management · alternative fuels · shipbuilding and retrofit · universities and research centres · ports and shore-power infrastructure · public authorities · foundations and impact investors · demonstration funding
We are also open to conversations with organisations or individuals who may wish to acquire Anna M, place her within a suitable institution, or help establish a permanent mission-led structure around the vessel.
The starting point is deliberately open.
We are not looking for somebody who already has all the answers.
We are looking for partners who would like to find them with us – aboard Anna M.
John Aston (astoneco.com)
In the Beginning from Joe Aston.
For many of the eighty years which I referred to at the head of this post, I have been reflecting quietly to myself on the Faith that I profess in the Credo at Sunday Mass. I have not succeeded very well in transmitting it as one should, even to my own family. It occurred to me, in my hospital bed, that before the irrevocable silence of the grave closed over me, I owed it to them and indeed to young people everywhere, especially to the likes of those who turned out in their hundreds of thousands to greet the Pope in Paris the other day, to attempt to give a more personal account of what the Creed means to this old man, despite its inevitable inadequacy! Here goes:-
‘In the Beginning was the Word;
And the Word was with God
And the Word was God.’ (1,Jn;1)
These opening words of St John’s Gospel carry the clear implication that ‘in the Beginning’ there was no distinction to be made between Matter and Spirit. We may glimpse such a situation today in, for instance, the sea, a great piece of music, a beautiful cathedral, a tree or even a wooden sailing boat. So that in His love we may be capable of enjoying such wonders, God gave us the gift of freedom and the power of choice, but death came into the world as a result of our prioritising our own wills above God’s. Matter and Spirit were separated.
In the fullness of time, the Word was made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and hence in the person of Jesus Christ. He came ‘into His own’, to lead us out of the mess we had got ourselves into, yet ‘His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did accept Him, He gave power to become children of God.’ (1,Jn;12) Among other beautiful things, He thereby initiated the restoration of the harmonious unity of matter and spirit in His resurrected body, in His Church and in the Eucharist through which He makes Himself both physically and spiritually available to us.
Meanwhile, our lives are lived out on this warp and weft, with God and His Holy Spirit becoming accessible, and therefore matter capable of redemption, by virtue of Christ’s incarnation and resurrection, which are what make the Holy, Catholic Faith unique and salvific for all who accept it. If one does not, what is one left with but matter alone? And what happens to matter without spirit?
Humanity on the other hand is built up by those whose clothes are woven on the warp and weft of spirit and matter, with the latter transformed for those who perceive in it the presence of the Word of God from the Beginning and forever. Such is the only viable, enduring basis for all human flourishing, creativity, language and civilisation, as well as for transcending our limitations to participate in the timeless dance of the Holy Trinity.
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I welcome feedback.... Joe