In 2020, we posted that China Merchants Group had signed a contract with Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC) for two Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) each with four rigid wing sails to provide wind-assisted propulsion.
The first of the two ships, the New Aden, has now been delivered and features four wing sails, each approximately 130 feet tall, totaling nearly 13,000 square feet of sail area, made of carbon fiber composite material. The sails are trimmed by a fully automatic system to maximize their efficiency. The new ship is 1,092 feet long and 300,000 DWT.
The New Aden is not the first VLCC to be equipped with wind-assisted propulsion. In 2018, China Merchants took delivery of the New Vitality, a 300,000 DWT tanker with two rigid wing sails. The sail-assist provided on the New Vitality must have been successful, as the new ships have double the number of wing sails of their near sister vessel.
According to DSIC and its parent company CSSC, the vessel’s design was designed for operations between the Middle East and the Far East. “The New Aden pays more attention to the optimization of the ship’s operating performance, reduces the ship’s operating fuel consumption, and enhances the ship’s sailing performance in wind and waves,” said CSSC. They estimate that the tanker in operation will achieve an annual fuel savings of 9.8 percent and more than 2,900 tons of carbon. The vessel is also fitted with the latest SOx and NOx technologies to reduce emissions, meeting the EEDI and EEXI standards.
Well well here we go again good luck in transitting the Singapore Strait !!
This beauty makes sure the OOW is unable to see from the wheelhouse and must go out on the Bridge wing to see at all. No doubt he/she is sitting in the OOW Bridge chair at the centralized controls.
However that’s okay as he/she is most likely fast asleep after long cargo duty followed by Bridge Watch, in a comfortable chair, due to minimum crew manning in the first place. So it goes in the new world of shipping and a complacent IMO.
How nice one is long retired and no longer involved in training crew for seagoing.
Maybe after all it is safer on these High Seas to have unmanned ships !!
Good Watch (if that computer understands that)
Further to my Post this morning contacts with Pilots showed considerable uneasiness at the possibility of having to handle these vessels. It would be interesting to have their opinions published, if possible.
Traffic safety will most certainly be a serious issue if these methods of powering ships is allowed to continue. Pollution being a major concern with tankers, particularly of this size.
Good Watch
I would hope that there are cameras in the bow somewhere where they are not going to be inoperable after the first bout of heavy weather.