bound4blue installs world’s largest suction sails on juice carrier
Atlantic Orchard now sports four of bound4blue’s largest sails
Spanish firm bound4blue has completed the installation of four 26-metre tall eSAIL suction sails on the MV Atlantic Orchard, marking the largest such installation to date. The vessel, a juice carrier chartered by Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) and owned by Sweden’s Wisby Tankers, underwent the retrofit during a scheduled ten-year survey stop at Astander Shipyard in Santander.
The sails were fitted in a one-stop process, with each unit installed in under a day. Originally built in 2014 and converted from dry bulk to juice carrier in 2020, the Atlantic Orchard is now expected to see fuel and emissions savings of around 10%, depending on route, while benefiting from EU regulatory incentives including CII, EU ETS, and the FuelEU Maritime Wind Reward Factor.
The project was selected following a comprehensive evaluation by LDC’s shipping decarbonisation team, with Lloyd’s Register providing a third-party assessment. The system, chosen in late 2023, is fully autonomous and replaces the vessel’s original deck cranes.
