Project Cerulean, China Navigation Co (CNCo)'s initiative to return sail-powered cargoships to the South Pacific, is pushing ahead with naval architects hashing out the design details.

First announced in November 2018, the project is a joint venture between the Singapore-based shipowner and Fiji’s University of the South Pacific. It plans to raise economic capacity in the outlying communities and islands of the South Pacific that are not on main line routes.

These islands and communities are almost wholly reliant on sea transport for essential imports and other vital transfers of people and goods. Sea transport, especially at the domestic level, has always presented a particularly difficult problem in finding long-term, sustainable, cost-viable solutions.

Many routes are uneconomical using conventional shipping solutions and require increasingly high government subsidies to maintain them.

Simon Bennett, general manager of sustainable development at CNCo, told TradeWinds that this is a major barrier to developing economies and social-service delivery in these remote areas. This has led to large-scale depopulation of island communities as younger members migrate elsewhere in search of jobs.

Low-cost, low-tech, low-carbon

Project Cerulean's main protagonists are Professor Derrick Armstrong (left), deputy vice chancellor of research, innovation and international at the University of the South Pacific, and CNCo’s general manager of sustainable development Simon Bennett. Photo: CNCo

Project Cerulean is developing a new class of small low-cost, low-tech, low-carbon cargo freighter, which, once proven to be commercially and operationally viable, can be scaled up to provide a solution for these marginalised communities that suffer a lack of appropriate transport.

“We want to raise economic capacity in the South Pacific as the vessel will be able to service the outlying communities in the region, which are not on main line routes," Bennett said. "This really is our way of giving back to the community as we will be building the freighter specially for the South Pacific.”

The Project Cerulean ships, which will have a cargo capacity of about 100 metric tonnes, will be powered by sail to make them cheap to operate and environmentally sustainable.

It is expected these vessels will revive copra production on the islands, which has plummeted due to the lack of a cost-effective means of getting it to market.

French naval architects are working on the design, and it is hoped the prototype will be built at a shipyard in the South Pacific.

The prototype vessel is expected to cost about $2m and take a year to build.

CNCo and the University of the South Pacific will operate and monitor the ship's performance for two years from delivery, to assess its commercial viability.

“We believe the project is massively scalable,” Bennett said.

To finance the ship, Project Cerulean plans to submit its case to a private sustainability fund.