1987 CONVERSION - This cargo vessel started life as the Ashington, registered at London in 1979. Ten years later she was re-registered in the Isle of Man (1989). In 2004 she was renamed Fjord Pearl while registered in Nassau. Then again is 2007 a name change to JP Fox and registration at Bergen. Finally in 2008 she was registered in Panama and renamed Milano Star.

The 'Wing Sail' concept emerged out of the U.S. government commissioned a study in the 1980s that went into the economic feasibility of wind assisted propulsion in response to soaring fuel prices.

This system was designed as an automated mechanism of solid, rectangular sails on a framework of cylindrical masts. They would adjust automatically to changes in wind direction and would need minimal handling.

Despite the fact that trials of the wing sail fitted aboard a small freighter demonstrated fuel savings of between 15% and 25%, the concept failed to make it big where oil prices fell so that research as to alternatives did not seem important to fleet operators - and the IMO just seem to have gone along with that.

A revival of the wing-sail concept now focuses on collapsible wing sails, rather than rigid sails, or vertical wings. The Walker wingsail system proved the concept for others to build on.

Walker Wingsail Systems plc built and sold an 8 tonne wingsail for use on MV Ashington in 1986. Collapse of world oil prices destroyed the economic case for use of wingsails in commercial shipping and the company turned to the luxury yacht markets and launched the trimaran design Blue Nova in 1990 and a smaller 43ft Zefyr trimaran design of which four were produced between 1997-2001.

These wingsail boats attract attention wherever they are seen. Inventure has been extensively modified to enable sailing by a paraplegic, with a heavily publicised story. The first three Zefyrs left the UK very soon after being sold. The fourth, Larinka, spent last winter in a very prominent berth at Portsmouth (Gun Wharf Quays) where she was a real eye-catcher.

During the 1980s and 90s, the UK media seemed hostile to wingsails, with a infamous libel case against the publication iYachting World-i. Venture capital funding appeared inaccessible and no UK boat-builders came in with Walker as partners. Investment was provided by 6,500 individual shareholders, with £12.5M invested before voluntary liquidation of WWS. One outside view was that the project needed £15-20M to succeed; another that the management and hull design were inappropriate.

Wingtek plc, the successor company to WWS plc, also tried to rely upon individual shareholders. It purchased from the liquidator of WWS the three partially built boats and moulds along with a licence for the IPR, but was compulsorily wound up (May-Nov 1999) to prevent publication of a prospectus for public subscription. Unusually, a Company Voluntary Arrangement was established (Spring 2000) to enable the company to trade its way back to solvency. This CVA relied upon an up-front loan from the customer for the next boat whose money failed to materialise.

No other customers were forthcoming, and so the CVA failed in August 2000, just as Zefyr_004 had been launched. This boat was purchased from the liquidator by James Wright and finished by Ian Page, to the best of his ability, but technical expertise was by then not available to him for some aspects of the software and control systems.

The English Board of Trade provided £207,500 in financial assistance to Walker Wingsail Systems Ltd. of Hamble, Hampshire under the support for innovation scheme before 1988, prior to the company's move to Plymouth. Grants made to Walker Wingsail Systems Ltd. under the support for innovation scheme were monitored at each payment stage. The financial assistance was forthcoming under the enterprise initiative consultancy scheme.

SAN FRANCISCO 42ft TRIMARAN 2014 - Wind & Wing Technologies testing of the green sailed vessel had gone well according to Jay Gardner. The ease and simplicity of the wing assisted 42' trimaran has been better than originally anticipated. Even the parts you think might present problems, mostly docking and departures are easy, thanks to the sails ability to feather. " It's actually has less resistance than a conventional rig" says Jay. He adds that the current testing with and without power on the 45' "Trilliza", custom trimaran, will present a study on the fuel consumption and efficiency of the winged trimaran. The wing is 350 sq ft and rotates 360 degrees on a tapered spar that is 15" in diameter. The wing Richard Jenkins designed for the Greenbird works beautifully.

Adventure Cat's Co founder Jay Gardner has been lobbying to see wing assisted ferries sailing on San

Francisco Bay and has partnered with Jenkins to build a scale model of the proposed wing powered ferry and has been testing the boat around San Francisco Bay

Jay owns a canvas shop in Napa and the were able to cut the lower panel to sit flush with the tri's existing deck. The were able to utilize Trilliza's existing mast step and only had to cut a hole through the deck to insert the spar. The wings tail simplifies s the process of sailing so much that a robot does the trimming. The robot controls only three moving parts: the elevator-like tab on the tail, the rudder, and the free-rotating wing itself.

It was by shear luck that Stan Honey caught wind of the project and introduced Jay to Richard, who was recently relocated just across the bay from Jay's Adventure Cat business at Pier 39. Jay had bee in talks with the the Navy in San Diego about an experimental wing they had designed. As it turns out Richards design was not only extremely cheaper but simpler in design.

The concept for the winged ferry is something Jay and business partner Hans Korfin had in mind since the 80's , but it was the steep price in fuel cost's that re-energized the concept. With diesel prices reaching near $5.00 per gallon on the spot market, Jay's proposal to the Golden Gate Bridge District's Jim Swindler was fortuitous in timing. "The District burns through nearly 1,000,000 gallons of diesel per year running their ferries," Says Jay, " We presented them with a 32 page engineering feasibility study done by Pete Melvin of Morelli & Melvin which showed a 42% savings in fuel probability PLUS a very large drop in emissions. With that information they were enabled to apply for grants from the Air Resources Board, which enable the project to move forward.

PressureDrop spoke with Pete Melvin about some of the design minutiae regarding the wing assisted cat aka "Hybrid Ferry". Pete confirmed that "The wing will assist even on routes going to weather, so long as it not dead to wind, and even then, the profile of the wing presents much less drag than a conventional rig. The obvious benefit being a low angle of attack. The analysis shows substantial benefit on the low angle of attack" When asked if extreme breeze would be cause for concern, Pete indicated that the self feathering mode would nullify any excess wind resistance. If power is lost the wings can be shifted to a disengage mode the the wing would feather itself. As far as government approval, Pete expects 4-6 months for approval and 1-2 years to build the boats.

Wind+Wing Technologies has partnered with Photon Composites, pioneers in innovative computerized wing technology, to develop a demonstration vessel for ferry routes on the San Francisco Bay. The vessel is a 42-foot trimaran equipped with a computerized wing, specifically designed to harness wind power to significantly reduce fuel consumption and emissions. In January 2014, the demonstration vessel will begin test sailing five days a week, for three months, on the following ferry routes from the San Francisco Ferry Building to: Sausalito - Richmond - Treasure Island - Alameda

The demonstration period will track vessel reliability, speed, and fuel savings during a varied wind season, all while replicating a realistic ferry schedule. Data compiled during the demonstration will be forwarded for analysis to Dr. Timothy Lipman, Co-Director for the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. The data will be presented in a final report, which will be made available to the public, and will document potential improvements in air quality and fuel cost savings from employing this technology on San Francisco Bay ferry vessels. This demonstration project is made possible by a grant from the Air Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) through the California Air Resources Board (CARB), with additional funding and grant administration by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), as well as Adventure Cat Sailing Charters and Photon Composites. 

COOKE ASSOCIATES

Cooke Associates aims to achieve the technical characterisation of the existing wingsail and to solve the technical challenges of fitting it to a catamaran hull with full integration, control and manufacturing feasibility.

In 2001 a preliminary review and further study of wingsails was commissioned by Anne Toms. This was conducted by Alison Cooke, who managed the staff resources, using ex-employees of Walker Wingsail Systems plc (wingsail designers), Boatek (small wingsail designer), Plymouth Composite Construction (boat-builders), Ecocats Ltd (boat-builders), The Patent Office, academics and students at Cambridge University Engineering Department, and consultants.

Like most visionary technologies, wingsails have struggled to gain acceptance despite their superior performance. But there are now a number of firms working with the technology.

WIND ROCKET

The makers of the Windrocket (above) claimed: she is probably faster than any other production sailboat! In a good breeze, as fast as the fastest personal watercraft (i.e., Jet Skis, etc.). In other words, about a mile-a-minute. 

"Our calculations indicate that the boat, in its standard configuration, should sail at about 2.5 times wind speed in winds from about 8 to 16 mph. Yellow Pages Endeavour (the current speed record boat) has sailed at slightly higher boatspeed/windspeed ratios. The speed potential of any sailboat depends on two ratios (the higher the better for both): Fh/R (maximum tolerable heeling force / resistance) and L/D (aerodynamic lift/drag). 

These ratios are quite similar for the two boats. On one of YPE's record runs, their top speed was 52 knots or 60 miles per hour. (The actual record is an average, rather than top, speed.) So we believe we are justified in calling the Windrocket 16 the "Mile-a-Minute Sailboat". But of course, only more time in the water will tell for sure."