Antoine Grisay, best known in shipping as the co-founder of the maritime software platform Shipfix, has resurfaced with a very different kind of launch: electronic music released under the nautical artist name Handysize. The moniker borrows from a well-known class of small-to-mid-sized bulk carriers, one of the most widely traded vessel segments in the world. His first track, 14 Knots, is aimed squarely at the shipping world as well.

The track and its accompanying video are dedicated to women working at sea, with Grisay using the project to explore the gap between the professional role of an officer and the person underneath the uniform.

"This track and film are for the women at sea," Grisay told Splash. "Roughly one in fifty seafarers worldwide is a woman, and the world they work in was not designed with them in mind."

That figure is broadly in line with industry surveys, which have for years put women at around 2% of the global seafarer workforce, with most concentrated in cruise and ferry sectors rather than cargo shipping.

Speaking with Splash, he argued that much of shipping's language, routines and culture were developed around male crews long before women were routinely expected on the bridge.

"So femininity gets folded away. Softness gets read as a liability. Vulnerability goes under the uniform and stays there for the length of the contract," he said.

Grisay stressed that 14 Knots is not intended as a lament. "This is a celebration. It is for every woman who has stood a night watch and felt unseen," he said.

Streaming revenues from the track will be redistributed to non-profit organisations supporting female seafarers.

Grisay admitted that using Handysize as an artist name is something of an experiment. "It's going to be an interesting test in the music market," he said. "If anything, it has sparked a lot of curiosity, which is kind of what you want at launch."

Grisay began DJing and producing electronic music at 16, drawing influence from London, Brussels, the US east coast and later Berlin's minimal techno scene. He then set music aside for more than a decade while pursuing investment banking and building two technology businesses, SME Capital and Shipfix. Shipfix, the freight and data platform he co-founded, was acquired by Veson Nautical. Grisay is now building Aura, a technology venture for artists and fans.

As an investor, Grisay remains bullish on shipping's fortunes. "I'm still long on shipping," he said, arguing that today's market is being shaped by something deeper than the familiar seven-to-10-year shipping cycle.

"We are witnessing one of the biggest geopolitical power shifts since World War Two," he said. "Many trade patterns and shipping routes are being remapped dynamically and structurally."

That, he said, makes forecasting harder and relationships more valuable. "The winners will be those who balance predictive data with the strongest industry relationships — what shipping has always been about," he maintained.

AI, he added, will continue reshaping trading, broking and operating desks, but reliable reference data will become even more important. He even sees AIS eventually becoming secondary as Starlink and high-frequency vessel telemetry become ubiquitous — a shift already underway as satellite broadband providers expand coverage across the global fleet.

For now, though, Grisay's attention is on a different kind of signal. After 12 years away from music, Handysize has sailed again — at 14 Knots.

Source: Splash247