Ship on course, Sails hoisted
Some 30 project members were sailing through the project work packages and their progress reports for a couple of hours, drifting away from their daily routines. But our dreams abruptly ended after a few closure incantations were spoken and all of us clicked on the “Leave” button again. And suddenly we find ourselves back in our chairs behind our desks. What is left are the impressions of slides with sail supported ships and the reported humps and hollows to get there.
I feel proud of being part of this team of skilled and passionate professionals that break barriers to show the world that sail supported ships are not a relic from the past nor a mirage of the future. But that we are realizing them today. And that we can optimize, not only the subsystems as sails, engine room and hull lines separately, but that we can take them together, all systems that are strongly coupled. And that we do this not only for one design condition and multiple off-design conditions, but that the meaning of design condition has changed into that of a continuous spectrum of operational conditions. This is the ambition!
And now, half way through the project, we feel the challenge to demonstrate that we can!
One reason to be proud of the team working on the project is to see the progress that is being made on modern sail support systems: On the Anemoi rotor sails by Anemoi Marine, the Ocean Wings sail system by Ayro and the Solid Sail system by Chantiers de l’Atlantique. The first two of these systems are already in operation on seagoing ships, the third sail system is undergoing prototype endurance trials on its land based set-up.
Another reason to be proud of the team is to see that workflows for the holistic optimization of the ship with Wind Assisted Ship Propulsion are being developed and demonstrated for this bulk carrier, this tanker and this cruise vessel. Much of the work on the optimization for operations is being done at Rise (formerly SSPA) in Gothenburg and MARIN in the Netherlands.
A third reason to feel proud is that we do not stick to technical solutions only, but that economic scripts have been developed to compare the various options that the operator has to choose from. Because there is little data and experience available for sail supported ships, it is imperative that the operator gets guidance on defining economical conditions for which the ship is to be designed.
And the final reason to feel proud is our program on the dissemination and exploitation of results. The COP28 Conference that was held early December 2023 clearly showed that not all people and parties involved are yet ready to embrace new solutions for our fossil fuel addiction. Whereas the scientific reports leave little or no doubt for the risks that we are facing if we don’t drastically adjust to other sources of energy. Demonstrating to the industry and society that realistic options are available for stilling our hunger for fossil fuel is of equal importance.
We have one and a half year to go. All men and women are on deck to ensure that we are sailing in the right direction with the best possible sail setting. The spirits are high!
Tom van Terwisga (MARIN)
