Spiny Norman said:
On 15 October 2026, LD Armateurs confirmed the installation of six 35-metre Flettner rotors aboard Spirit of Toulouse, a RoRo vessel built for Airbus transatlantic operations.
By early November, approximately 120 large commercial ships were equipped with wind-assisted propulsion systems, carrying at least 250 units across different technologies, according to the International Windship Association.
The scale of adoption is becoming significant. The more demanding question is how much of the projected fuel saving survives routine commercial operations. A vessel cannot alter course simply to find favourable wind. The Master has traffic to negotiate, weather to avoid, charter party obligations to meet and arrival windows that rarely accommodate the ideal operating conditions of auxiliary propulsion.
Every change in heading or speed alters the apparent wind available to a rotor. Even where the technology performs as designed, its contribution must be assessed against the vessel’s actual trading pattern, electrical demand and operational restrictions. These considerations become increasingly important as installations move from isolated projects into regular commercial service.
“The Master has traffic to negotiate, weather to avoid, charter party obligations to meet and arrival windows that rarely accommodate the ideal operating conditions of auxiliary propulsion.”
Thank you, Mr. Obvious.
It should be noted that all of those considerations apply to ‘conventionally-powered’ vessels, too.
You won’t find ‘ideal operating conditions’ for conventional vessels, either i.e. perfect weather and calm seas all the way, no other traffic to avoid, engines that can go flat out non-stop across the ocean and not consume more fuel than the vessel can carry, or engines that can be relied on to never have problems.
Charters are made for conventional vessels, with nominated arrival windows. Big surprise; those arrival windows are not always adhered to, Flettner rotors or not.