Seatrade Maritime is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

MOL hoists new sail design

MOL hoists new sail design
The theory of shipping’s return to sail powered vessels gained traction today as MOL demonstrated a new sail design, the “Power Assist Sail”.

Land-based testing of the sail began at Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding company’s Oita Works in June. The prototype, researched and built by MOL, Akishima Laboratories and ClassNK, is large enough to use on an actual vessel.

The sail, consisting of an aluminum alloy main unit and a steel mast and hydraulic drive system, weighs around 60 tonne, with an overall height of 27.5 m and a surface area of 200 sq m.

Vessels will have varying numbers of sailing rigs depending on size and fuel consumption requirements. The sail’s design targets reduction in CO2 emissions of 2-5% while not conflicting with the vessel’s design, and can be stowed in adverse weather conditions – so as not to cause risk to the ship - or calm conditions - in order not to produce unfavourable aerodynamics.