Dec 3, 2024

Firstly, many of our Boating Industry Canada News Week readers will be seeing this edition over breakfast at the Boating Ontario Conference at Blue Mountain, north of Toronto. Like the Boating BC conference, there will be lots of ideas, good advice and the very valuable opportunity to talk to your peers. Trading ideas about our future is hugely important.

It’s also very valuable to have a positive outlook about the future and so we included a story in News Week this week titled, “bound4blue welcomes Daniel Mann to drive ‘new era’ of eSAIL® growth”. I love impactful new technologies! The global shipping industry is very important to us and so is our environment. The immense diesel engines used in container ships that bring us engines, parts, electronics and many other things that are used in the recreational boat business, create massive exhaust and ocean-warming pollution. The story about “bound4blue” is a good-news story about using the wind to help propel huge ships.

Bound4blue is a Spanish company that is developing automated wind-assisted propulsion systems. It uses what are called “suction sails” and they are huge columns that are installed on the deck of an existing ship to generate power.

The first significant installation was completed on an in-service short sea cargo ship, the Eems Traveler. The ship is 23 years old, measures 298 feet in length, and 2,850 dwt. It operates as a short sea cargo ship in Europe.

The bound4blue installation consists of two next-generation suction sails each standing approximately 56 feet off the deck and placed at the stern of the vessel. Bound4blue explains that they use a thick aerodynamic profile and smart suction to increase the propulsive efficiency, resulting in a system that produces seven times more lift than an airplane wing. The company predicted that in favorable conditions the sails are expected to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 30 percent. If you are interested in this very unusual application of wind power, you can read more here.

On a far more practical note – Boating Industry Canada News Week continues to offer FREE Career Opportunity postings in the News Week newsletters. This service is provided as a courtesy to the industry only. There is no cost to post a career opportunity and there is no cost to reply.

More and more opportunities are coming in now as people start planning their upcoming season. To have your Career Opportunity posted, email Elissa Campbell @ elissacampbell@kerrwil.com 

Hope to see you at Conference!

Andy Adams – Editor