Heavy lift shipping and offshore transport & installation contractor Jumbo has reported the successful installation of two mechanical sails to Heavy Lift Vessel (HLV) Jumbo Jubilee.
The wind assisted ship propulsion (WASP) solution is the latest in a series of innovative technologies installed to the vessel in a bid to boost fuel efficiency and cut carbon.
“At Jumbo, we believe that every step towards sustainability is crucial,” said Jumbo CEO Daan Koornneef. “The installation of these mechanical sails on Jumbo Jubilee is a testament to our commitment to decarbonise and innovate.”
Prior to this latest innovation, Jumbo had already applied to Jumbo Jubilee an efficiency boosting propeller coating, AI powered anti-fouling monitoring system and an eco-control system.
Jumbo Technical Manager Andres Casanova said: “While not fully optimised for our vessel type, these sails will help us to gather valuable insights on real-world fuel savings and explore further optimisations that will allow Jumbo to reduce its environmental footprint even more.”
As it is claimed by the company, the relatively small footprint of the sails makes them an ideal solution for installation on a heavy lift vessel, where space is required for project cargoes.
Additionally, the sails are flexibly mounted on a customised frame engineered in-house. With this the sails can be moved, or even transferred to another vessel if additional cargo space is required.
Meanwhile, the installation of the ventofoils follows application of an anti-fouling coating on the ship’s propeller to maintain efficiency, as well as the introduction of an AI powered anti-fouling hull coating monitoring system.
This system captures a wide range of date including vessel speed, geographical position, sea water temperature and other environmental conditions and parameters. This allows the system to make predictions and provide notifications when there is a risk of accelerated fouling.
A further measure is the installation of an eco-control system to the vessel. “This can be viewed as a type of intelligent cruise control,” explains Andres. “It allows us to set a fuel consumption or maximum speed limit. With this, the eco-control system takes over and, based on RPM and propeller pitch, is continually adjusting to ensure optimally efficient performance, minimal fuel consumption and emissions.”
Its worth mentioning that Jumbo, is a family-owned company with two divisions, shipping and offshore. It operates a versatile fleet of vessels with lifting capacities of 650 to 3,000 tonnes.
Meanwhile Jumbo Offshore, operates a versatile fleet of advanced offshore transport and installation vessels, serving both the renewables, subsea and offshore energy market.
