Skysails – First Ocean Voyage A Success

Discoverer user mateMB has pointed us to news of Beluga shippings Skysails project to cross the atlantic with the use of a kite. In yesterday’s press release Beluga Group tells us;

M/V Beluga SkySails has successfully completed her maiden voyage on Thursday, 13th of March 2008, when finishing a double transatlantic passage after an about 12,000 sea miles long journey. With 8,000 tonnes of general cargo loaded on board, MV ÒBeluga SkySailsÓ safely reached her port of destination in Mo-I-Rana (Norway), having crossed several areas of adverse weather with winds of up to twelve Beaufort beforehand. In the first phase the vessel had shipped modules for a chipboard plant to Venezuela.

During the premiere of commercial operation that started in Bremen on 22nd of January and via Guanta (Venezuela) and Davant (USA) finally led close to the arctic circle, the 160 square meters large towing kite has been released as often as possible to fly for periods of between a few minutes and up to eight consecutive hours. ÒWe can once again actually sail with cargo ships, thus opening a new chapter in the history of commercial shippingÓ, said Lutz Heldt, master of MV Beluga SkySails

Here is video from the voyage:

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1910909238288190289[/googlevideo]

Stay tuned for more information from California based kite sails developer KiteShip. In the meantime be sure to take a second look at our previous post:

Skysails – Plus Top 10 Green Ship Designs