Short Sea Ro-Ro Returns to Service Sporting Two Rotor Sails

The world’s largest short sea roll-on/roll-off vessel has returned to service with two new rotor sails that will help reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by harnessing the power of the wind.

European logistics and short sea shipping provider CLdN announced the successful installation of the 35 meter high and 5 meter wide Norsepower rotor sails on board its 2018 built sailing vessel M/V Dolphins.

AIS data from MarineTraffic.com shows the vessel left Zeebrugge, Belgium, on Monday, marking

Norsepower rotor sails are a modernized version of the Flettner rotor, a spinning cylinder that uses the Magnus effect to harness wind power and deliver forward thrust.

With a loading capacity of almost 8,000 lane meters, dolphins is the largest ro-ro vessel in short sea shipping. Serving the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe, it is already one of the most efficient vessels in the industry. The two fully automatic and tiltable rotor sails should be economical dolphins between 7% and 10% of its fuel consumption, depending on the route.

“CLdN is the front runner among its Ro-Ro transport peers in North West Europe and produces the lowest CO2 emissions₂ emissions per tonne of cargo transported on its fleet of modern vessels,” said Gary Walker, CEO of CLdN RoRo. “By investing in technologically advanced ships and terminals, CLdN enables its customers to reduce their carbon footprint and helps them make their supply chains more efficient and resilient.”

CLdN says it will be working with Ghent University’s Maritime Technology Division to study the performance of the sails in the coming months.

Norsepower rotor sails can be installed on a range of vessel types and are suitable for both new build and existing vessels. With this latest installation dolphins is the seventh vessel to feature this technology and the third to feature tilting sails suitable for vessels navigating height-restricted routes.

“The rotor sails will maximize our fuel and emissions savings MV Dolphins and we will use this project to determine how the technology could be used on the current CLdN fleet and our newly built ships. Delphines The move to the fleet will help meet current high customer demand,” added Walker.

Previous installations of Norsepower rotor sails included the tanker timber wolf (ex-Maersk Pelican)two passenger ships, two Ro-Ros and a newly built 325,000 dwt Very Large Ore Carrier (VLOC) fitted with a record five tilting rotor sails.