MARITIME: Maersk sells the first tanker with rotor sails
Maersk Tankers, which spearheads global shipping giant Maersk’s tanker business, has announced the decision by the Danish company to sell Maersk Pelican, according to FleetMon.
It stated: “Pelican was the first product tanker in the world that retrofitted wind propulsion technology into its framework. 2018 saw rotor sails being retrofitted into the tanker for the very first time, and Maersk claimed that over a one-year test period, the vessel showed an 8.2% drop in fuel consumption.
“Cross-checking ship registration information, we come across the fact that the vessel is now one by Indonesia’s Buana Lintas Lautan (BULL), a company that has been actively picking up idle tanker tonnage lately. Maersk Pelican has now been renamed as TIMBERWOLF.”
Tommy Thomassen, a Chief Technical Officer at Maersk said, “This vessel was special to us. While the vessel is sold with the technology installed onboard, we will continue to work with relevant parties to enable the use of wind propulsion technology onboard product tankers, just as we will continue to capitalize on existing and new fuel-saving solutions to help owners optimize vessel performance and cut CO2 emissions.”
It added: “Wind Propulsion has received much interest lately for its cost-effective nature, as ship owners around the world aim to reduce fuel consumption and decrease their carbon footprint on the way. Depending on the size of these sails, the efficiency boosts of the propulsion assistance mechanisms are generally around 15–20%. Most shipping companies are hesitant to test these technologies on relatively new builds. Each vessel costs a considerable million dollars, and retrofitting untested equipment becomes less attractive. However, this technology is bound to see increased usage in the years to come.”
