More sail ideas to cut costs and emissions

For the past two years Transoceanic Wind Transport of France has been reviving local interest by chartering up to 10 sailing ships to transport premium products around the region. Among them is the 32m Dutch Fair Transport’s Tres Hombres, an engine-free vessel with an oak and Douglas fir hull that has been carrying 35 tonnes of cargo including oak matured rum sailed in from the Caribbean. Rather than being a romantic notion, the company is building the profile of wind power in readiness to build their own, larger diesel-electric/sail hybrid ecoliners.

Sauter Carbon Offset Design has developed various designs including the DynaWing Solar Hybrid Supertanker estimated to reduce power consumption from 30MW to 20MW. Half of the vessel’s power comes from LNG and the other half from solar and wind. The DynaWing boom furling sails are estimated to provide 4 to 8MW of the vessel’s power requirements.