Largest wind-assisted shortsea roro returns to service – Splash247

Luxembourg-headquartered CLdN is bringing back its roro
Delphine into service following a successful retrofit of two tilting rotor sails.

The 2018-built vessel is the first in the CLdN fleet to be fitted with the system and will return to service from Zeebrugge, Belgium, as from February 27.

Delphine, which transits between the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe, is the largest shortsea roro with a cargo capacity of over 8,000 lane meters. It is also one of the most fuel-efficient in its class with 28 grammes of CO2 emitted per tonne of cargo shipped per km travelled.

Fitted with two 35 m high and 5 m wide Norsepower rotor sails, the ship is expected to furter reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 10%. The performance of the sails will be studied in collaboration with Maritime Technology Division at Ghent University in the coming months, CLdN said.

“The rotor sails will maximise our fuel and emissions savings on the Delphine and we will use this project to help determine how the technology could be deployed on the current CLdN fleet and our new-build vessels,” said Gary Walker, chief operating officer of CLdN roro.