World first partly wind-powered ship glides into Port of Newcastle

The world’s first partly wind-powered ship had a warm and wet welcome as it glided into the Port of Newcastle this morning.

The Shofu Maru is the first-of-its-kind Japanese wind-powered bulk carrier using a telescoping hard sail that harnesses the wind to power and propels the ship.

A telescopic hard sail is a huge, fixed-in-place fibre glass sail at the front of the ship which can extend and retract, rotate 360 degrees, and adjust its height and angle depending on the wind.

The sail doesn’t power the ship exclusively.

It’s expected to reduce the amount of fuel used to operate the ship and therefore greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent on the Japan to Australia route compared to a traditional ship. It took three weeks to travel from Japan to Australia.