Renewed partnership to drive wind propulsion innovation

Initial testing suggests that BAR Technologies and Deltamarin’s new Aframax/LRII hull design improves performance by 15% compared against the current fleet.

“The opportunities moving forward with wind power are vast. Being familiar with BAR Technologies’ expert innovation in wind propulsion, we are delighted to collaborate on what both companies see as the next vital stage for wind-assisted sea travel: hull optimisation,” said Esa Jokioinen, director, sales and marketing, Deltamarin.

”So far, we have made fine progress in harnessing wind power using sails, but we are finding increased performance all the time and, with this hull design, we are witnessing a 15% improvement against our current fleet.

Making progress

The renewed partnership comes fresh from being nominated for the Next Generation Ship award at Nor-shipping on the back of their previous collaboration on WindWings.

Both partners recognise that the next frontier to be overcome in progressing wind propulsion to commerciality is to complement the work that has already been done with hull forms modified specifically to maximise wind power.

They said that there must now be more research conducted on how performance can be improved under the water’s surface.

BAR Technologies and Delatmarin’s early predictions suggest that as much as ten tonnes of fuel per day can be saved with an Aframax/LRII hull and four WindWings using a North America/ Rotterdam roundtrip, as an example.

The companies are now pooling their resources having seen first-hand that a large portion of both existing ships and newbuilds lack optimal hull and propulsion designs for significant wind assistance.

Though the project is in its initial phase, the companies said that they will work towards creating new hull forms, like the Aframax/LRII, that extract significantly more thrust in order to increase average fuel savings, the first of many ship designs specifically tailored for wind propulsion.