Hamburg: The merchant shipping industry is under pressure. The EU wants the European fleet to be climate-neutral by 2050. To achieve this goal, shipping companies are experimenting with innovative forms of propulsion. These include hydrogen-based fuels, but also age-old methods such as sail propulsion. The long-established Hamburg-based shipping company Hapag-Lloyd is currently developing a container ship with sail propulsion.
Marineforum.online reported on this on 18.12.2023. Further details have now been announced and the internationally renowned sailing professional Boris Herrmann from "Team Malizia" is now a partner of Hapag-Lloyd.
Concept
The plan is to build a new ship with a load capacity of 4,500 standard 20-foot containers. According to the current design, the freighter will be 261 metres long and 43.5 metres wide and will have eight sails with a total area of almost 3000 square metres. To avoid problems with the container gantry cranes when loading and unloading the ship, the six sails at the rear can be extended and the two at the front can be retracted.
The container ship is propelled by a (methanol) engine that is supported by wind power. The support provided by the sail system depends on a number of factors, such as the speed of the ship and the local weather conditions. However, at slow speeds of eight to ten knots (approx. 15 to 20 km/h) and with the right wind conditions, the ship could also be propelled by the sail system alone. In the sailor Boris Herrmann and his "Team Malizia", Hapag-Lloyd has now found a suitable and experienced partner, says the Director of Strategic Development at Hapag-Lloyd.
Analysis
The core area of the southern cone (Conosur) in dark green. Source: CC0 1.0
Historical weather data for the southern part of South America (Southern Cone) and other shipping routes are currently being analysed to find out how this type of sailing system can also achieve advantages on other routes. Computer simulations are being used to analyse how such a ship with a sail propulsion system would behave under realistic weather conditions in a shipping area and how much energy could be saved with a sail system.
Goal
Hapag-Lloyd wants to have converted its entire fleet to climate-neutral propulsion systems five years before the industry, i.e. as early as 2045, in order to reduce the high CO₂ emissions caused by today's ships. Whether and when the new ship will be built has not yet been finalised. The only thing that is certain is that time is tighter for the Hamburg-based company than for many of its competitors.
The sailing pro
Boris Herrmann. Photo: Team Malizia
Boris Herrmann from Hamburg founded "Team Malizia" with Pierre Rainier Stefano Casiraghi (36), the son of Caroline of Monaco, in 2016. In addition to their passion for sailing, the team is also committed to protecting the world's oceans and protecting the climate. Boris Herrmanns' wife Birte Lorenzen-Herrmann is a teacher and has experienced how enthusiastic children are about sailing and has developed the international school project "Malizia Ocean Challenge" in parallel to the sailing regattas. The focus is on the oceans and the dangers of climate change.
"Teams Malizia has therefore deliberately chosen an ambiguous regatta and environmental motto:
"A race we must win" - "a race that we must win".
Together with his wife, Boris Herrmann has been speaking intensively to schoolchildren all over the world for years as part of the "My Ocean Challenge" team campaign. The book of the same name, "My Ocean Challenge - Inspiring children for marine conservation", is also used in schools internationally.
Teaching materials can be downloaded from EDUKI (teacher marketplace) free of charge or for a small fee. Link to My Ocean Challenge: 
Source: Hamburger Abendblatt, eduki
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