This week’s episode is about performance sailing and how innovation in yacht racing can be transferred to maritime shipping, making it more efficient and cleaner.

We are delighted to receive John Cooper, who is the CEO of BAR Technologies, a company that is at the forefront of maritime innovation. 

Cooper joined BAR Technologies as CEO In October 2019, swapping automotive technology for marine technology. At the end of 2020, Cargill announced a promising partnership with BAR Technologies to combine world-class yacht racing design and technology using wind propulsion to reduce carbon emissions. 

BAR Technologies is invested in becoming a key player in cutting emissions in the marine industry and has resulted in the development of their WindWings technology. WindWings combines wind propulsion with route optimization and depending on if the installation is a retrofit or combined with a fully optimized newbuilt hull, it could increase the fuel efficiency of vessels in excess of 30%. BAR has already secured 2 signed contracts for work on new vessels using WindWings.

BAR Technologies has also patented FOSS (Foil Optimisation and Stability System), which combines hydrofoil technology with hull hydrodynamic optimization. The resulting system achieves significant hydrodynamic efficiency gains while actively improving handling and sea keeping. Join us as we discuss methods of achieving significant fuel savings and optimization for all types of vessels.

We are back this week to welcome Martina Reche Villanova, a naval architect and maritime engineer, with a special focus on aerodynamics, green shipping, and digitalization. Though originally from Spain, she finished her Master’s degree at the Denmark University of Technology in Wind-Assisted Propulsion Systems. 

Villanova currently works at North Sails in Denmark, an international sailmaker and sailing wear company that designs, engineers and manufactures sails for racing and cruising sailboats. Here, she is developing the group strategy to get into the wind assist technology market. She is also pursuing a PhD on wind propulsion for commercial ships and details the objective of this endeavor and what she hopes to prove. Join us in our discussion with a bright and motivated young mind and listen in on what she believes is the most promising sail assist technology on the market. 

In this week’s episode, we welcome Miles Keeney-Ritchie and Satchel Douglas, the founders of ALOFT. This startup champions wind propulsion and was founded in 2021. They aim to retrofit current ships with wind propulsion and optimize operations to significantly reduce shipping supply chain emissions. 

Our guests are creators and well-experienced in the technical field. Satchel is a naval architect and professional engineer. He has built sailing yachts, crewed on oil tankers, and engineered retrofits for numerous commercial ships. He also recently led the integration of the largest battery-electric ferry in the world. 

Miles has built mobile autonomous robots and worked in industrial process automation. He is an expert at integrating technology, with a decade of experience in mechanical design, hardware development, and project management.

Their shared passion for decarbonization and solving challenging problems gave rise to Aloft where they try to make maritime shipping cleaner and more fuel-efficient. Currently, their retrofitted vessels reduce emissions per shipment by 50 percent; however, in the future, they will be emission-free.

Michelin, among a group of 12 European cargo owners, has made a call to bid for a tender to move 1,000 TEUs weekly, from Europe to the US on wind-powered vessels that reduce CO2 emissions by 50%. This is an exciting opportunity for Aloft:  Miles and Satchel will detail their bidding process with us. Tune in to hear about their proposition and future plans for making maritime shipping cleaner using wind propulsion technology. 

In today’s episode, we are delighted to host James Rhodes, the Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder of Magnuss, a maritime technology firm. Rhodes brings over 30 years of experience in maritime shipping, renewable energy, investment banking, and management consulting. Magnuss delivers onboard systems that reduce fuel consumption and emissions for today’s global shipping fleet. Rhodes joins us to talk about a technology called the Magnuss VOSS™  which stands for Vertically-variable Ocean Sail System. 

The Magnuss VOSS is a mechanical sail that converts wind into forwarding thrust thereby augmenting ship propulsion. Similarly to the  Flettner Rotor, the Magnuss VOSS relies on the Magnus Effect,  which states that a rotating cylinder in a wind stream produces a force perpendicular to the wind direction. When wind hits the rotating cylinder it sets up a high and low-pressure difference and creates thrust roughly ninety degrees to the wind direction. A vessel sailing with the wind on the beam is therefore given maximum forward thrust from the spinning VOSS. 

The idea is to have the sails act as a supplement to the ship’s installed engine power. This will increase fuel economy and reduce harmful emissions by harnessing the wind.

Join us to learn about how the VOSS addresses major issues in the shipping industry, namely energy consumption and environmental impact, and the mechanisms available to help ship owners finance the retrofit.

Magnuss is running until June 28 a funds raising campaign on Start Engine. 

We are delighted to receive today one of the early partners of Wind Support NYC,  Guilhem Gaillarde, calling from  Utrecht in the Netherlands. 

In today’s episode, we are delighted to receive Ami Daniel, the co-Founder, and CEO of Windward: a maritime data and analytics company. Daniel is an entrepreneur and a driver of technological change and is the recipient of the Israeli President’s Award for Social Activism and The Ilan Ramon Award for Leadership and Excellence.

Windward is a Predictive Intelligence company that is digitalizing the global maritime industry. Their technology allows other ship owners & operators, banks and commodity traders access to real-time information about the maritime ecosystem to make predictive and financially secure decisions.

The company has recently launched the Data for Decarbonization Program which is a hub for sharing data and technology to predict and reduce maritime carbon emissions. The goal is to create large datasets gathered from all stakeholders in the marine trade industry to build AI models that will accurately predict the carbon emissions of any vessel voyage and optimize the whole pre-fixture process.

This technology will aid in solving the rush to wait issue. Did you know that shipping businesses lose an estimated 18 billion USD annually due to “Rush to Wait?” This happens when vessel operators, wanting to ensure their vessel arrives on time, rush their arrival and speed up the journey. This leads to a lot of fuel waste, increased CO2 emissions and is incredibly inefficient. Windward’s AI offers a way to share information that will improve operational vessel efficiency. 

Join us to learn more about their unique data collection process and find out what makes Windward’s approach different than other maritime innovators. 

This week we take a step back from our usual topic of wind propulsion and decarbonization of the maritime transport to promote a fairly new documentary: “Maiden.” 

This documentary tells the story of the first all-woman crew to race around the world on a sailboat named Maiden and how they challenged the male-dominated world of sailing. This endeavor begins with Tracy Edwards who recruited a 12-woman crew to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race – now known as The Ocean Race. 

Dawn Riley, who was one of the crew members on Maiden, joins us on this episode to describe the documentary. She details the incredible story of how the underdogs of a world-renowned competition went on to win 2nd place overall in their class.

On May 18th, the Hudson River Maritime Museum will be the venue for screening the documentary. In addition, between June 8th to the 11th, Maiden will be at the Hudson River Maritime Museum docks and we encourage our listeners to visit. This program is free and open to the public, but donations are encouraged.

For our listeners in New York City, Maiden will also be making a stop at the Brooklyn Marina from June 1st to June 8th. Check out their website for more information on their stop-over schedule and on the Maiden Factor. 

This week we welcome Dr Harilaos Psaraftis, a professor at the Technical University of Denmark. 

He completed his undergraduate studies in Greece and received a diploma from the National Technical University of Athens. He later received two M.Sc. degrees from MIT, the first in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and the second in Shipping and Shipbuilding Management. Shortly after, he acquired his Ph.D. in Ocean Systems Operations Research from MIT and went on to work as an Associate Professor at the institution for a decade.                                                                

Psaraftis also served as CEO of the Piraeus Port Authority in the late ’90s to early 2000s. During this period, ports faced new challenges as international regulations for shipping were shifting. Psaraftis shares his experiences with us and provides commentary on changes he thinks we can expect to see in the way ports operate in the future. 

His latest European Union project is AEGIS, which stands for Advanced, Efficient, and Green Intermodal Systems. It is a three-year project, and its objective is to design autonomous ships that will aid mainly intra-European maritime transport and short sea shipping. It will also design Europe’s new sustainable and highly competitive waterborne logistics system. Not only does this initiative help Europe to move shipping from the roads to freight but it also serves as a model for other countries to follow suit and mobilize towards clean shipping. 

In this episode, we discuss a variety of topics ranging from climate change to the role carbon taxes have in internalizing environmental externalities. Join us and get an insider on what a maritime shipping expert believes it will take to achieve a zero-carbon fueled shipping industry.