Parlevliet & Van der Plas has signed a purchase agreement with Hamburg-based manufacturer SkySails for the world’s first towing-kite wind propulsion system to be installed on a fishing trawler.
SkySails propulsion is scheduled to be placed in operation early next year aboard the Maartje Theadora fishing trawler. “We are looking forward to significant fuel savings by using the SkySails-System” says Diederik Parlevliet, CEO of Parlevliet & Van der Plas, “while at the same time enabling us to reduce enormous amounts of CO2 emissions and make a big contribution to safeguarding the climate.”
At 141m in length, the Maartje Theadora is Germany’s largest fishing vessel and the ship has two MaK main engines that produce a total of 8,640 kW of power. The vessel will be fitted with a 160m² SkySails propulsion system. Parlevliet & Van der Plas and SkySails will be evaluating if and in what way the wind propulsion system needs to be modified for use on fishing vessels onboard the Maartje Theadora as part of a pilot project funded by the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) and the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The SkySails-System consists of three main components: a towing kite (made of high-strength and weatherproof textiles) with rope, a launch and recovery system, and a control system for automatic operation.
Instead of a traditional sail fitted to a mast, SkySails uses large towing kites for the propulsion of the ship. The shape is comparable to that of a paraglider.
