Mrs Abshier, how do you come to recycle superyacht sails?
I studied journalism and later law. I started my career with asbestos removal and transport. Not exactly my dream job. Then I worked for a slot machine manufacturer and travelled a lot around the world. In Los Angeles, I met a man who raced offshore. He put me on a Farr 40 and I was in the thick of it. When I realised that the big boats were being sold, I thought, what are we going to do with them? When I found out that 97 per cent of all sales end up in landfill, it just didn't seem right.
And then they started...
Yes, I simply made it my business. Back then, when the pandemic broke out, many people didn't know where they would live and whether they would survive. So I approached some architecture firms in L.A. and asked if anyone wanted to help me with what we could do with the boats and sails we had sold. We wanted to provide shade and shelter for people on the Californian coast. I then found an office that wanted to get involved. That was five years ago. In the meantime Sail 2 Shelter my life.
Was it difficult to get the contacts?
It was very difficult to get the sailing industry behind the cause. After all, I have good relations with the president of North Sales. The problem for the industry is that there is no money in it. If you sell sails, you are not in business to sell them elsewhere. It was also difficult for yacht owners. I don't know what's missing in that area. Interest, appreciation or responsibility? But I knew I was on the right track. The Mega-Slup, a 250-footer, was my first superyacht donation. I got two sails and they went to Maui.
What dimensions are we talking about?
The sails of the "Mirabella M5" weighed five tonnes. The main alone measures 1300 square metres.
How do you move it? You have to get it from A to B somehow.
Yes, I learnt a lot about how to transport things around the world and what kind of heavy equipment and skills you need. I was lucky to get a transport allowance. The sails were taken out of circulation in San Diego. We brought them to L.A. and a shipping company for the California-Hawaii route transported the container with the two sails to Maui for me. We also needed a five-tonne forklift truck for this. Then to destroy the sails, cut them in half, just to get them into a building. That was a task...
How do you cut the sails? With large knives or rather with scissors?
With scissors. There are good ones, but they don't last long. Believe me, I've tried every pair of scissors, but after about 30 metres they become blunt. So we use a lot of them and sharpen them often. Razor blades are great too. I have a friend on Maui who has a huge backyard, the size of a football field. There we cut the sails into pieces that we could fold. That way we can also move a superyacht sail with a forklift. I still have dozens of pieces of sail material from the event.
What did you make of it?
Shadows. The Lahaina fires in Hawaii destroyed so much. So we built a beautiful wheel structure using local bamboo. We created a work that allows grass to grow and air to flow through. It's beautiful. We built a veranda, a kind of roof extension of a building as a waiting room for people to get new furniture. In Hawaii, we found that shading saves 25 to 30 per cent of energy in cooling. If you're in Maui and the sun is beating down on you, you're taking more than 20 degrees off with that alone.
So the look is also important for Sail 2 Shelter...
Yes, the owners of superyachts don't want their sails to be in a bad environment, they don't want homeless people to be there. I am committed to making our work really beautiful. I want it to be something you can be proud of.
How can costly transport be avoided?
The best place for me to use the sails is where they are decommissioned. So I try not to transport them around the world. I am currently working with yachts that we would like to organise so that they drop the sail where we need it. One yacht is going to donate a genoa to me in Hawaii. At first it said Mexico, but then I said please bring it to Hawaii because I don't have anything in Mexico at the moment. So there's a chance that I'll take the sail as soon as it comes off the yacht and I have a team on site to take it apart and reuse it locally.
Do you also obtain sails directly from shipyards or via the owners?
Ideally, I get a relationship with the yacht owner or whoever the decision-maker is. The captains are often very friendly and helpful. They build the relationships and trust for us. Ideally, we have hubs in several parts of the world. I currently have 109 superyacht sales in Spain. That's over a million square metres of material.
What would you like to make of it? And where?
Refugee camps. We have many people who are displaced involuntarily. And I can put up a very simple, basic building, for example as a dry storage room. That is invaluable in a crisis. We've worked a lot in Ukraine and in a refugee camp in Greece. I also have projects in California and Virginia. Maui was the first big installation and attracted so much attention that I've now got three more sails.
How else could you convince people of your project?
I have the feeling that people are saying: OK, that makes sense. That's better than throwing it away. But it's about setting up the organisation so that it works. You should realise that there is a disposal fee, right? And not only that, the yachts could pay a disposal fee and the sail wouldn't end up in the ground. So you bridge that gap because people think they're doing me a favour by giving it to me. But it's expensive. It cost almost 4,000 US dollars to get these sails from San Diego to Los Angeles. And if I had also paid for the transport by sea, that would have been 10,000 dollars. So the maths doesn't add up. It's so valuable what we do with it. The challenge is to find the angel who understands that. I've asked the sailmakers to give me 10,000 dollars a year, each of them.
Have you paid, or are you stuck with the transport costs?
Well, the sailmakers weren't prepared to help financially either. They wanted to give me their sails, but not a cent. Not even for the shipping costs. They said they would, but when push comes to shove, they don't do it. So I continue to write to lots of people for donations. I store a lot of sails at my expense.
What would be a dream project or partner for Sail 2 Shelter?
I would like to have one or two clients for Sail 2 Shelter, such as World Central Kitchen, Direct Relief or International Rescue Committee. Then I could work with humanitarian aid organisations that are already active around the world. I've already spoken to them and they're all willing. If only I could get to the point where I could send teams to the sales to deconstruct the sails. They need a dry warehouse and an all-round service.
There is no better recycling....
The material no longer ends up in landfill and we have helped people who would otherwise not have received any help. I believe that reuse is currently one of the most important and most underestimated economic factors. All the furniture that comes off the ships, the carpets. What a disgrace, and frankly, it leaves me speechless that people just put up with it.
Sustainability is an issue for the shipyards. All the materials or furniture that an owner has rejected...
Yes, I would like to go to the World Yachting Summit, which takes place in Monaco in mid-April. I asked in advance: What is your programme for sustainability? This led to conversations that I hope to continue in Monaco. Hopefully I can convince people that there is another way. However, we are not living in a political climate right now where we will get much help. We are only going backwards. I am convinced that people need to see how hard we have worked. It's an extraordinary effort and I'm really proud of it. I was told it couldn't be done. But it is.
