Industry Insight: Is Shipping Really Such a Conservative Industry?

At almost every shipping meeting, seminar, conference I hear the mantra: "Shipping is a very conservative industry."

Really?

Didn't shipping initiate global trade? Create the world as we know it through exploration, colonisation and exploitation. Don't ships epitomise adventure? The Polynesians in their druhka, Vikings in longboats, Charles Cook, Walter Raleigh, The Pilgrim Fathers, Vasco de Gama ... none of that is very conservative. Check out the Flying Cloud, the sailing cargo ship that held the world speed sailing record from 1854 until 1989. Built in response the gold rush this ship set standards no one could match for more than 100 years.

If the industry isn't careful conservativism will become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

At the Ship Efficiency conference in London in Oct 2014 Lloyds Register's Dimitris Argyos provoked the industry to think beyond efficiency. He referred to renewable powered solutions as 'exotic'. The very next day a University Lecturer described wind propulsion solutions as 'exotic'.
I'm sure we all like a bit of exotica, but wind, exotic? Can I refer you to the examples above - all achieved under the power of the wind. I grant you some of those voyages relate to exotic destinations but the means of propulsion itself was the only way to make significant ocean journeys before the industrial revolution.

And in today's world of rising fuel costs it's looking a lot like it could have its time again.

We need to talk about language.

The main selling point for using wind to augment propulsion on ships is simple: there are no plans to alter the price of wind anytime soon. It is an infinite, if intermittent, free fuel supply. Sailing and wind-assist devices deployed today will use 'fuel' that costs exactly the same for the vessels' whole lifetime. Fixing a significant proportion of fuel cost allows greater certainty in operating budgets giving flexibility in other critical areas.

21st century industrialised sailing ships are reliable, designed to deliver to the same schedules as any conventional ship - if the wind doesn't blow there's an engine to ensure logistics commitments are met. If the wind does blow sailing hybrid vessels increase speed to reduce overall fuel use along any given route. Smart weather routing systems devised for offshore yacht racing, and now adapted for the commercial sector, support optimum course decisions to minimise fuel use whilst maintaining schedules.

Future Automated Sailing Technology rigs, FAST rigs for short, are smart bits of kit. When we think of sailing vessels, maybe we think of square riggers of 120 years ago, we immediately associate them with uncertain delivery schedules, dangerous handling capability and filthy on-board conditions. Things have changed.  FAST rigs, being automated, are operated from the bridge by means of push button controls.

The technology, based on 1960s solution developed by the German, Wilhelm Prohls, as the dynarig, has been developed and proven on the super-yacht The Maltese Falcon. She uses sail propulsion alone for more than 60% of her time at sea. She crossed oceans, manoeuvred in and out of ports across the world and can be sailed straight off the dock (a very cool piece of seamanship captured on You Tube). The joke is she needs 3 sailing crew, one to push the buttons, one to do the navigation and the other to fetch the coffee.

Industrial Sail Systems

To industrialise this sail system loading and force analysis is undertaken on the best materials to use to create a robust, workaday solution for a merchant vessel rather than a money-no-object system that is a necessary element of a superyacht DNA. The FAST rig combines steel and composites in a novel but straightforward and manageable way to secure the optimum techno-economic balance between strength, light-weighting and cost.

The sails themselves are like roller blinds, each individually fitted into the rig system via a cassette mechanism. This offers several advantages; when all the sails are fully deployed the propulsion effect is similar to a fixed wingsail but in varying weather conditions when the wind can be behaving differently at the top and the bottom of the masts various combinations of soft FAST rig sail can be employed allowing maximum optimisation of available wind.

In the event that a sail blows out it is easy, safe and cheap to replace. This happens in port. The mast is tubular and will contain, on the inside, a safety ladder developed and approved for use in wind turbines. The crew clips out the old cassette and the new one in. 

The FAST rig, as a consequence of automation, has no lines and rigging on deck meaning access to holds is considerably more straightforward than on the old traditional clipper ships and crews aren't forced to be on deck on foul conditions hauling on ropes and risking life and limb.

Reliability is key in 21st century logistics systems and industrial sailing hybrid vessels have usual engine propulsion systems available ensuring schedules are maintained. Because these engines are used less often it ensures longer life and lower servicing and maintenance requirements.

Whilst there are several obstacles to overcome in slotting sailing hybrid ships into 21st century logistics systems none are insurmountable.

Certain cargoes are more suited to early adoption of wind at sea and smaller dry bulk vessels are proving to be most promising first movers. Commercial ship designers and naval architects are figuring out how cargo can work around structures on deck, looking at self loading/discharge solutions and interfacing with existing automated computerised cranes.

There are various ways of deploying wind on ships, the most basic is as a principle source of propulsion on smaller vessels by way of a 21st century automated square rig. Smaller vessels are inherently less efficient, unable to benefit from economies of scale, and are more vulnerable to vagaries in bunker prices. The proportion of operating budget on small ships attributable to fuel has risen from 10% to 60% in the last decade. Sailing hybrid ships, where 50% of the propulsion comes from 'free fuel', make economic sense. This financial prize is what drives the world's greatest designers and naval architects to work alongside the dry bulk sector to create workable 21st century industrial sailing ships.

History Lessons

With the implementation, and enforcement, of the Emission Control Area getting closer we see increasingly worrying predictions of increases in fuel costs for low sulphur options. One estimate predicts MGO consumption will increase by 50m mt, equivalent to 3% of total global middle-distillate consumption. In 2004 and 2010 when there were similar spikes in demand we saw a 20% increase in US highway diesel prices. If the past is any indicator of the future, shipping could face 20% increase in MGO price in response to the hike in demand. Adding this 20% to today's (May 2014) price averages would see an 83% premium on LS MGO over HSFO in Rotterdam compared to today's 52% premium.

If we don't pay attention everything could change.

In 1846 the US owned 640 whaling ships. Whales contributed oil for lighting, perfumes and raw materials. In 1880 it was the fifth largest sector of the US economy. Innovations like faster, larger whaling barques and better harpoon and winch technologies gave US whalers competitive advantage. Then petroleum arrived. Fifty years later whaling in US was all but gone. The whaling fleet was decimated by the arrival of 'new' oil'. In 1859 the US produced 2000 barrels; forty years later that was 2000 barrels every 17 mins.

The parallels to the current status of shipping are plain. The industry faces the twin challenges of rising bunker prices and increasing environmental legislation driven by science-backed societal concerns.

Innovation is key, collaboration is crucial. By bringing together designers, naval architects, academics, ship operators, owners and financiers we stimulate what I refer to as 'the knowledge multiplier'.  What we learn from history is that nothing ever remains static. Change is the only constant. We also know shipping is one of the most pioneering and least conservative industries. Without it, the world we know wouldn't not exist.

Shipping needs to respond positively and it will profit in our fast changing world.