Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has reached a coal transport deal with Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc., which will use a new 99,000 DWT collier equipped with a retractable wing sail propulsion system, known as the Wind Challenger. Construction of the vessel will start at Oshima Shipbuilding with the goal of going into service in 2022.
The new ship will feature a single retractable sail, mounted near the bow, which is expected to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by about 5% on the Japan-Australia route or about 8% on the Japan-North America West Coast route, in comparison with a conventional vessel of the same class.
The Wind Challenger design for retractable rigid sails began in 2009 as an industry-academia joint research project led by The University of Tokyo. MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding have been directly involved since 2018 and received “Approval In Principle (AIP)” from the classification society, Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, for the design of the rigid sail system last year.
While the new ship is designed to carry a single articulating sail, the Wind Challenger design can also be deployed on ships with multiple sails.
looking forward to seeing her under sail
Presumably this is just a test with only one mast. It will be interesting to compare the efficiency, practicality and cost effectiveness against Flettner Rotor ships
I don’t see the inverted black cone signifying that the vessel is also under mechanical power and subject to those particular colregs. They had better watch out in Belgium’s national waters where yacht skippers have been fined for that omission.
Ok, wind assisted but carrying coal. Getting there. We’ll take it. 😉
And yeah to Jean-Pierre. How many people know what a steaming light is for, really? I’ve heard them called “fog lamps,” “auxiliary anchor light.” 😀
Rick, you know anything with sails is fine with me, but what’s the cost-benefit? How much extra will the ship cost to build and how soon would the savings in fuel costs be greater than the build cost?
@Irwin Bryan
I expect that is what they are trying to deduce, not worth going for all nine* masts till you know if they are going to be worth it 🙂
The savings from one mast are significant even if they are in single digits percentages. Most sail assist designs that offer these levels of savings, project a three-year payback period. Of course, this will also depend on fuel prices, route, and a number of other factors. As Jean-Pierre suggests this looks like a trial installation of a wholly new design. Measuring performance and tweaking operating issues will be easier with a single sail.