Giving superyacht sails a second life

When Angela Abshier – a self-proclaimed textile junkie – was working in sustainable fashion, it was impossible to ignore the amount of fabric waste across the industry. “We discovered that there were 120 billion dollars’ worth of dead stock material stashed in warehouses all over the world,” she says. “It could be that a polka dot was too big or a stripe too wide and the designer didn’t like it, so the fabric was stashed in warehouses. I was working on a secondary marketplace to make all that material available for purchase.” 

When she took up offshore sailing she fell hard for it. “I was in love with the whole thing – the teamwork, the camaraderie – and crucially, as a textile girl I fell in love with the sails.” When Abshier found that retired or unwanted sails were simply thrown into landfill, it lit a fire inside her. “Just before Covid, I was living in downtown Los Angeles where thousands of unhoused people were at great risk. It felt criminal that there were miles of retired sails that could become something useful and help these people.”  

Turning an idea into reality

As the world started to shut down, Abshier set to work, sending cold emails to architects and looking to find a helpful solution for discarded sails. Fast forward to today and Sail to Shelter is now an established non-profit. “The mission of Sail to Shelter is to keep the sails out of landfill,” she explains. “Nobody has really wanted to take this on before, because of the difficulties related to moving, deconstructing and stabilising retired sail material. Sails are composed of many complex materials and fibres, making it very difficult for them to ever really achieve circularity. But what they can do is become something else.”

The sails that have been donated so far have been used for all sorts of projects, providing shade and shelter for those in need. Their promise is that they work with the best architects and engineers, ensuring quality, safety and beauty. “Everything we install yields an immediate 20 degree difference – that is significant when you have lost everything and you’re living outside. It’s significant for construction crews and dry storage, it’s significant to renew vitality and extend outdoor living space. And it’s significant when you’re forced to create a new community and you can provide the ability to comfortably spend time outside or even grow a garden.”

Sails given a second life 

The first sail donation they got was from M5, the largest single masted superyacht in the world. “The main sail that was donated was nearly 13,000 square feet of material. I had no idea what I was getting myself into!” says Angela. Through a transportation grant, she got the sails to Maui where they were deconstructed, stabilised and put to use in different communities around the island.

The team work a lot with the Maui Humane Society. Helping animals is a terrific use case and Abshier also believes there is a huge opportunity for refugee camps for the involuntarily displaced. “I’d like to help through organizations like World Central Kitchen and International Rescue Committee who are desperate for materials to service communities around the world,” says Angela. “We are perfecting ways to stabilise the material and install spaces for wrap-around services like food distribution, churches, and childcare.” 

Looking to the future 

Currently, Sail to Shelter has a space in the port of Los Angeles where there is room to open and deconstruct these giants inside and on the ground, and 109 superyacht sails in a storage facility in Palma, Mallorca. “My goal is to have a few key hubs around the world,” says Angela. “The dream is that owners would contact me when they are ready to retire a sail, we would meet them at the dock, take them in, prepare them and deploy them to wherever they needed to go – or store them until they are ready.”

So far, Sail to Shelter has been funded by very small donations. Angela works alone paying labour as and when, and the organization is currently seeking funding to enable them to continue their good work. “It’s a wonderful idea. We have proven its value and established best practices, but now we are in need of proper funding. Surely there is alignment with a family office or a foundation that believes in what we are doing. This is a great opportunity for leadership in the second use economy,” says Angela. “We should all aim to make reusing retired sails endemic to sailing. I believe that there’s enough compassion in the industry to make it work.”