‘Oceanbird’, the world’s biggest sailing ship, to use plane-like wings

Big diesel-powered freighters could be challenged by an environmentally-friendly alternative. Shipbuilders will launch a 200-metre-long wind-powered ship in 2024.

After 100 years with coal and diesel as the dominant fuels for the world’s ocean freighters, Swedish engineers are planning the return of the sailing ship. indeed they are developing the world’s biggest sailing ship, with a new concept in which the sails are shaped like five huge aircraft wings. Named ‘Oceanbird’, the ship is to be launched in 2024, and its first job will be to carry cars across the Atlantic.

Currently that task is undertaken by around 450 ships that together consume some 40,000 tonnes of diesel a day. Oceanbird’s 12-day Atlantic crossing is slower than these diesel-powered ships, but the climate is spared 90% of the greenhouse gases emitted by a corresponding diesel-powered vessel.

The wind-powered ship will weigh 32,000 tonnes and measure 200 metres in length and 40 metres wide. Its special sails can be moved up and down, towering 80 metres above deck and 105 metres above the ocean surface at their highest, while at their lowest position the ship is 45 metres high, reducing the wind pressure in poor weather, and allowing the ship to pass under bridges.

The companies behind the project are Wallenius Marine, SSPA, and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. According to Wallenius Marine, the biggest challenge is to get the ship’s hull and sails to function as one aerodynamic unit that travels as fast as possible. The sails will be made of steel and composite materials, and must be able to rotate 360 degrees to make optimum use of the wind. The top speed will be 10 knots or about 19km/h. A spare engine, perhaps battery-powered, will be used when in narrow waters or manoeuvering in and out of harbours.