French tyre maker Michelin has won approval from DNV for the first inflatable and retractable automated wing sail for ships and signed up to transport its products across the Atlantic with sailing cargo carrier Neoline.
Michelin’s Wisamo wing sail system has been given approval in principle by the classification society, and a 100-square-metre unit will be tested on the 1,690-lane-metre Compagnie Maritime Nantaise ro-ro cargo vessel Pelican (built 1999).
The system has previously been tested on a yacht but will now be used on the Pelican, which operates under charter to Brittany Ferries between Poole in southern England and Bilbao, northern Spain.
The sail is retractable for access into ports and under bridges.
Gildas Quemeneur, initiative leader at Michelin, said the experience of using the sail on the ro-ro will contribute to build a larger Wisamo wing sail.
Michelin also announced it has signed a letter of commitment to transport pneumatic tyres on Neoline’s service between Halifax in eastern Canada and Saint-Nazaire /Montoir de Bretagne in France as soon as its first cargo sailboat is commissioned.
Neoline’s decarbonised shipping service relies on the wind as the main propulsion for its 136-metre cargo ships with 4,200-square-metre sails.
The aim is to start operating its transatlantic line this year and to deploy a second vessel in 2024.
Michelin said it will gradually entrust Neoline with at least half of its containers transported on the service.
