http://www.carnetdevol.org/actualite/cargo/skysails.htm
December 2005
"The freighter and the kite". This could be the title of a plot that mixes the reintroduction of sailing into the merchant navy in the XNUMXst century, and the improvement of the latter's profitability. The heroes are giant kites, which launch and steer automatically, and reduce the fuel consumption of commercial vessels while ensuring safe arrival on time.
The first cargo veiled and should sail in the fall 2006 in the colors of the German shipping company Beluga Shipping ...
Stephan Wrage, 33, is the ambitious and resourceful boss of SkySails, the company that develops cargo kites. "At first, I was called sick or an idiot, as you wish. Today, with each new step taken, the critics readjust their salvos. But the shooting range is getting narrower and narrower ..."
The principle of SkySails is not to replace combustion engines for commercial vessels, but to complement them in order to reduce fuel oil gluttony. This hybrid of the seas will fit on the existing fleet.
The world fleet of cargo is composed of about 40 000 units. Oil prices reached levels since 2003 able to expand the ideas of owners and make them receptive to the craziest ideas. With a capital cost per merchant ship between 500 000 and 2, 5 million, open market SkySails and the potential profits are huge.
Stephan Wrage
Fuel economy
Theoretical calculations predict SkySails in navigation conditions and ideal wind (broad reach and flat sea) until 70% fuel economy thanks to a kite pulling the ship as it flies.
"Since 2001, we have been carrying out sea trials with a 1 / 226th scale model of a freighter. Eight meters long and weighing 2 tonnes, this radio-controlled craft has validated a number of forecast calculations and technical points. But it was necessary to pass a course. "
Done with the purchase in October 2004 a pilot boat Elbe, tug January Luiken, along 15 18 meters and displaying tons on the scale. It has become, over many sea trips since March 2005, a platform perfect test to resolve the imperfections of the system. And apply for patents. observed results, according MW: of at 30 35% of fuel savings on the whole of a normal navigation.
The launch and recovery of the kite was a real theoretical concern. If Jan Luiken sails with a sail 40 m2 only, it will take several hundred square meters for cargo. The calculations provide for even 5 000 m2 surfaces for larger tankers.
SkySails kites are very similar to those used by kite-surfing. Like a tire, the wing must fill its internal volume with air before it can take off. SkySails engineers have developed a mast for releasing and retrieving the kite without human intervention. The current sails are developed in collaboration with the New Zealand company North Sails and the guru of the America's Cup, Tom Schnackenberg, serious guarantee of performance. The other achievement lies in the conception of a unique listening. A kite requires two lines of commands to be steered. Those of SkySails use only one wire between the boat and the flying kite. The command center is deported in the air, between the sheet and the sail, and it is controlled by a wireless link. The movements of the ship's hull, induced by the swell, do not disturb the kite, which must perform "8" shaped movements to increase its pulling power.
A hybrid propulsion
The only concern of SkySails was finding a customer first. What owner would be crazy enough to equip a cargo of a process as experimental, is more inclined to create problems for him with the crew, customers and the rest of the profession?
Past experiences in hybrid marine propulsion are a series of mishaps fallen into oblivion. In 80 years in Japan, the coastal tanker and cargo Daioh Aitoku Shin Maru were equipped with masts and sails systems that allowed them to save an average of 10% of oil. But the fall in crude oil prices in 1985 stop to the initiative.
As for the "turbovoile" developed by Bertrand Charrier and Lucien Malavard for Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who still remembers it? Using the "Magnus effect", this system consisted of a rotating cylinder that sucked in air through slits. It promised 25 to 30% fuel economy. In 1983, Moulin à vent, a boat equipped with a turboshaft, left Tangier for New York. During the crossing, the excess windage was torn off by the wind.
Jacques Cousteau persevered in this direction. The 17 1985 June, he arrived in New York aboard the Alcyone ship equipped with two turbo-sail. But without convincing the maritime community.
Niels Stolberg, founded in Hamburg in 1995, the Beluga Shipping that connects customers and owners. Stolberg, who had heard of SkySails end 2003, was interested in the project, to invest his personal money 2005 start.
“The SkySails system works without additional personnel thanks to the integrated autopilots. But, during the first navigation, which should take place in September 2006 on our vessel the Beluga Negotiation (100 meters long), several engineers will be on board to verify that everything is going well. The surface of the kite will be 160 m2 to start. If the system allows us to save between 10 and 30% of fuel, it will be generalized on our fleet ".
While waiting for this first full-scale test, SkySails is continuing the tests. It has just acquired a 55-meter, 450-ton freighter, the Beaufort, which will be equipped with an 80 m2 kite from March 2006. "We expect to achieve profitability in 2009-2010 and equip 2,2% of the world fleet in 2015, ie 900 freighters The objective is ambitious, but the new legislation will help us to convince the market ", assures, smiling with confidence, Stephan Wrage.
The 19 May 2005, IMO (Sea World Organization) has indeed implemented Annex VI to Marpol plan that foresees a reduction of sulfur dioxide (SOx) by quotas, which will harden year by year.
There are only two solutions for ship owners: use a more refined fuel, therefore more expensive. Or think of ways of hybrid drives as SkySails.
In contact with a hundred shipowners, the company will focus in 2006 on the study of the optimal routes for the system, because of the winds: the round trip Brazil-North Sea or Japan-United States for example . Lobbying will be initiated with cargo captains to raise awareness of the benefits of reintroducing sailing on their ships, as in the 19th century. The wind is after all an inexhaustible energy, free and clean. The sailors and the romantics will not want anyone to share it.
Find more info on the site of SkySails: http://skysails.info
but good profitable in 3 years according to the "calculations" ...
