Riding the Wind

Back to the sea with sails

The 236-ft. Japanese tanker Shin Aitoku Maru looks like any other ship as it plies the Sea of Japan with a cargo of more than 11,000 bbl. of crude oil. But when the breeze comes up, a microcomputer unfurls a pair of rectangular canvas sails and aligns them to the wind. Stretched tight by rigid metal frames, the 40-ft. by 26-ft. sails resemble windmill paddles more than the billowing canvases of a windjammer. Yet the sails enable this 20th century clipper to move at speeds of up to twelve knots under wind power.

The Japanese tanker is no old salt's dream or a science fiction fantasy but a test vessel that was launched in August and is now undergoing sea trials. Other sailing cargo ships are also being designed or built in Great Britain, Belgium and California. The new move down to the seas in sailing ships has been stimulated by the high cost of oil. Although the Shin Aitoku Maru cost its backers, Shipbuilder Nippon Kokan (N.K.K.) and the Japan Marine Machinery Development Association, some 15% more to construct than a conventional tanker, it will use 50% less fuel than a regular cargo ship.

Sailing ships have crisscrossed oceans since the Egyptians first ventured out into the Red Sea and the Mediterranean about 3000 B.C. But the last sail-powered cargo ship left the seaways in the 1950s. The development of diesel engines, cheap fuel, tight shipping schedules and the expense of large crews to handle the sails eventually ended the era of sailing cargo ships. But now the economics of transportation are changing. Marine engine fuel, which accounts for 25% to 30% of a ship's operating costs, has gone up over 400% in the past seven years.

The technology of wind-assisted transport ships is relatively simple. West German Engineer Wilhelm Prölss did major research on the subject in the mid-1960s, but his studies went unnoticed during a time of cheap energy. The new sailing ships are not entirely dependent upon wind, but rather use the breezes to cut down the work of the regular engines. Says Frank K. Schallenberger, who formed Dynaship Corp. to use Prölss's designs: "I don't see how it's possible for shipbuilders and shipowners to ignore sail-powered ships. Five percent of the world's oil supply is used to power ships."

The first new American sailing freighter will probably be the 450-ton Patricia A., which California Entrepreneur Hugh Lawrence is modifying by adding wind power to its existing diesel power. The ship's captain will control the four 16-ft.-to 50-ft.-wide Dacron sails mechanically from the bridge. Lawrence expects to be using the 170-ft. freighter on Caribbean trade routes starting in April 1981.