World’s first wind-powered freighter sets off on maiden voyage

[Montanan]

Video

Come Sail Away:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNZlQXBvQCk

[sailingharry]

So, the interweb tells me it's 10,500 nm from China to Brazil. The trip is predicted to take 6 weeks. This works out to 10kts.

Do freighters normally cruise this slow? How much diesel could a normal freighter save by slowing to 10kts, and how does this compare to the promised 30% savings?

[HeywoodJ]

What do all his GCaptain buddies think? Is he now a WAFI? And will there now be conversations in port about "Jim's poor sail trim" or "Salvador's crash gybe and subsequent broach"?

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by sailingharry

So, the interweb tells me it's 10,500 nm from China to Brazil. The trip is predicted to take 6 weeks. This works out to 10kts.

Do freighters normally cruise this slow?

yes, many bulk carriers have a sea speed of 10ks, although most are in the 12 - 14k range

How much diesel

ships dont use diesel in the main engine - they use hfo (heavy fuel oil)

could a normal freighter save by slowing to 10kts, and how does this compare to the promised 30% savings?

fuel saving varys with size and speed range, but an average bulk carrier of say 50,000dwt will burn say 35mtpd @ 14k. this could drop to 20mtpd @ say 10k...although the voyage will be several days longer so there is some extra consumption there

todays prce for hsfo ex singapore is us$527 per mt delivered

cheers,

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by sailingharry

So, the interweb tells me it's 10,500 nm from China to Brazil. The trip is predicted to take 6 weeks. This works out to 10kts.

Do freighters normally cruise this slow? How much diesel could a normal freighter save by slowing to 10kts, and how does this compare to the promised 30% savings?

Slow speed is a very effective means of reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions and is part of the means that the marine transport industry is realizing their mandated emissions abatements.

Reference: https://glomeep.imo.org/technology/s...n%20by%2027%25.

"SPEED MANAGEMENT

Speed management includes different aspects of adjusting and planning for optimal vessel speed and engine load.

A.k.a. Slow steaming.

A vessel’s fuel consumption for propulsion is a result of energy needed to push the vessel through the water at the given vessel speed through water. This relationship, between fuel consumption versus vessel speed, is typically an exponential one. As a rule of thumb assuming that engine power follows the cube of speed, a displacement ship with 10% speed reduction reduces the power need (resistance) and coherent fuel consumption by 27%. However, to assess the total fuel saving on a voyage basis one has to take into account the added time it takes to sail a given distance due to lower speed, yielding a total fuel saving of approx. 19%. For a selected open hatch cargo vessel at 56 000 DWT presented in Figure 1, a 13% speed reduction saved almost 40% of the daily fuel consumption."

[Montanan]

Average speed of vessels in the world merchant fleet in 2018, by ship type.

Reference:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...-by-ship-type/


These speeds may be on the high side compared to current transits because of the high price for bunker fuels and the need to achieve emissions reductions but are a reasonable reference for the broad range of speeds for different kinds of vessels.