Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has provided Splash readers with a glimpse of the enormous hard sail it is about to install on one of its bulk carriers under construction at Oshima Shipbuilding.
The huge sail, 52 m high, has been under development for the past 13 years and is known as the Wind Challenger project. The light weight FRP composite sail has a telescopic system to retract it to 23 m high when in port.
An 88,900 dwt bulk carrier due for delivery this autumn – and slated to go on long term charter hauling coal for Tohoku Electric Power Co – is now getting the hard sail installed on its prow. The additional propulsion power from wind can reduce a vessel’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by an estimated 5% to 8%, MOL, Japan’s largest shipowner in dwt terms, stated today.
MOL is also considering the use of sails on other bulk carriers, tankers and LNG carriers.
The irony of installing this on a vessel chartered to carry coal…Top level trolling from MOL!