A lot of hot air, or is Skysails the next big thing in green shipping?

(From Lloyds List)

THERE was clearly a lack of wind on the Hamburg museum ship Cap San Diego but not of ideas on how to make use of this natural power. At a rather cramped reception, two companies celebrated what they hope will be the revival of wind power in merchant shipping, writes B'lent Erdogan.

Niels Stolberg, managing partner of Bremen-based Beluga Shipping, and his counterpart Stephan Wrage at Hamburg-based manufacturer SkySails, chose the 1961-built general cargo vessel Cap San Diego as the setting to seal a deal on co-operation over the introduction of huge kite sails.

Just a stone's throw away from the three-masted merchant sailing ship built by Rickmer Rickmers 1896, master mariner Stolberg and inventor Wrage signed the first contract to equip one of Beluga's ships with a towing kite made by SkySails.

The system will be installed after delivery of the 140 m long multi-purpose heavy lift vessel Beluga SkySails later this year. In 2007, the system will face its first test under real conditions. Then a 160 sq m kite will transmit wind power to an attachment fitted to the hull. The kite is supposed to be launched and fully recovered automatically on the port deck in the bow area. Initially, the system will be continuously monitored by a seaman.

'The feedback from the industry has been overwhelming,' Mr Wrage says. 'Moreover, the contract also has a very positive impact on our employees.'

The co-operation with Beluga Shipping marks a major step forward for the company, which was set up in 2001. So far, it has had to fight a lot of scepticism in the industry. In order to develop the system, SkySails collected some €2.9m ($3.4m) from investors and it is trying to raise another € 8m.