Commercial sail power is back with a bang – who would have thought it?
It seems we have gone full circle. Cargo ships powered by sail were lost to us a century or more ago, and to the current generation such vessels are regarded as outmoded transportation from a bygone era. But now they are back, more sophisticated and sustainable than ever. Recently I read about the Anemos, which has claimed the title of the world’s largest sailing cargo ship as she made her inaugural voyage from Concarneau, South Brittany, France.
The pioneering vessel, developed by TransOceanic Wind Transport (TOWT) was built by the PIRIOU shipyard. The delivery of Anemos represents a key milestone in the maritime industry. This cutting-edge vessel, measuring 81 meters long, 15 meters wide, and 63 meters high, is the first of eight planned sailing cargo ships. Anemos, using advanced sail technology from ocean racing and automated rigging, aims to transform shipping by reducing its environmental impact.
Anemos is a significant step toward decarbonizing global shipping. The vessel’s primary mode of propulsion will be wind power, which is predicted to lower CO2 emissions by up to 100% and drastically reduce other pollutants such as sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides. This shift to sailing promises to have a lower impact on biodiversity and ocean acidification than traditional engine-powered vessels. So, turning back the clock far from being a backwards step, would seem to be the way ahead!
Massive dual rotor floating wind power platform deployed
Well, this story certainly caught my attention. In recent years we have become accustomed to essentially one design for both onshore and offshore wind farm turbines – the single main tower, the nacelle on top to which is attached three rotor blades. The design has stuck but the structures have got gradually bigger and bigger.
So, I was rather surprised to see the latest development coming from the Chinese. China’s Mingyang Smart Energy has begun the deployment of what they have called a unique floating wind turbine structure. The design looks very different indeed. The company is calling the OceanX platform the world’s largest floating wind power platform and the biggest single-capacity floating wind platform.
Positioning of the platform began on Sunday, August 11, and was expected to take 72 hours to travel the 191 nautical miles to its offshore location southwest of Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Officials highlighted that it was a challenging navigation, manoeuvring the platform below major bridges and past busy harbours while transiting the Pearl River Delta’s waterways.
OceanX is expected to reach its operating position on Wednesday, August 14. Once commissioning is completed, the structure is expected to generate 54 million kWh annually. What a feat of engineering. Coming to a location near you soon perhaps?
World’s largest pizza party at sea breaks Guinness World Record
I know you would not expect me to let this bizarre story pass by without comment. Now I like pizza very much – just like many others – but not even I could guzzle my way through 60,000 slices in one sitting!
In what seems like a giant PR and marketing coup, guests onboard several cruise ships recently set a new Guinness World Record for the largest pizza party. Princess Cruises (based in Santa Clarita, California) became the record holder after it organised this pizza party onboard multiple ships. Passengers on the Princess Cruises ships ate over 60,000 pizza slices during the record-breaking attempt. The record attempt involved 11,445 people consuming pizza across 16 cruise ships in the Caribbean, Alaska and Europe. That’s 5.24 slices each!
I understand you will be keen to know about the ingredients used in this world record attempt. The pizzas contained over 6,500 pounds of dough, over 3,400 pounds of flour, 2,300 pounds of cheese and 1,400 pounds of pepperoni slices.
Burp, burp – pardon me!
And after the food comes the bubbly fit for a tsar
A little champagne should help to wash down the pizza from the previous story nicely, although given the age of this particular vintage, it may come with a health warning.
It seems Polish divers have uncovered a 19th century shipwreck laden with champagne and mineral water that may have been intended for the tsar of Russia. A team of divers from a company called Baltictech uncovered the wreck in about 60 meters of water in the Baltic Sea. The ship is sitting to the south of Sweden, but outside Polish territorial waters. After first discovering the wreck, the dive team was surveying the landscape around the sailing ship and didn’t initially notice the precious cargo that has been seemingly sitting in the silt for over 170 years.
Baltictech diving team leader Tomasz Stachura said, “We already know who the producer of the champagne is. We know it is a very exclusive champagne. Most likely, this champagne belonged to the tsar, so the cargo was meant to go to Russia, which can increase its value a lot.
“We also know, because we are in touch with the producer of this champagne, that this was champagne specifically produced for the tsar, which was sweeter just for him. If it turns out that those are these bottles, of course, we need to get permission from Sweden to bring a bottle out and send it to the producer so they can confirm whether it’s their product,” he added.
That’s quite enough for this month!
Mike Schwarz
