Spanish automated wind-assisted propulsion system specialist bound4blue has signed a contract with Danish tanker operator Maersk Tankers to install 20 of its 26-meter eSAILs across five separate MR tankers.
The company’s eSAIL, created for both retrofits and newbuilds, works by dragging air across an aerodynamic surface to generate lift and exceptional propulsive efficiency, reducing fuel consumption, OPEX and harmful pollutant emissions.
As disclosed, four of the turnkey units will be installed on Maersk Tacoma, Maersk Tampa, Maersk Tangier, Maersk Teesport, and Maersk Tokyo. The five chemical tankers are set to be fitted with bound4blue’s wind-assisted propulsion system (WAPS) during dry dock periods in 2025 and 2026.
The estimate is that this will allow the vessels to deliver double-digit percentage reductions in fuel consumption as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per vessel.
Maersk Tankers—which first introduced WAPS to its fleet in 2018 with the fitting of rotor sails on the 109,647 dwt Maersk Pelican—identified the eSAIL as its preferred solution in partnership with green technology provider Njord, which will lead the integration, installation, and validation of the systems.
Interest in the eSAIL system has been on the rise
The contract with Maersk Tankers is one in a series of this year’s orders that bound4blue received for the eSAIL, which obtained a full type approval design certificate (TADC) from Norway’s classification society in September 2024.
Months after installing the first fixed suction sails on a RoRo ship Ville de Bordeaux owned by French shipping company Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA), namely in late October 2024, bound4blue secured two “landmark orders” from Dutch shipping company Amasus and Norwegian shipowner Klaveness Combination Carriers ASA (KCC), respectively.
Amasus signed a contract with the Spanish company for a new suction sail system onboard its 90-meter vessel that is undergoing construction at Astander Shipyard in Santander, slated for delivery in mid-2025. The company emphasized that this project will set a ‘new benchmark’ as the ‘largest suction sail system on a general cargo vessel’.
KCC, on the other hand, decided to fit its upcoming CAPU III newbuild—which has an anticipated delivery date in Q3 2026—with ‘the world’s biggest’ suction sails.
Specifically, KCC’s subsidiary entered into an agreement with Chinese shipbuilders Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding and Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding to install its ‘first-ever’ WAPS with bound4blue’s eSAILs. According to the company, the CABU III unit is the first tanker/dry bulk vessel that would feature the Spanish company’s WAPS technology.