Page 31: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2020)

REPAIR & CONVERSION ploying its foils several times a day in rough, open seas. After steel construction.

its Wavefoil retro? t, it continues to ply a 45-minute crossing Paulsen says vessel owners are well-versed on performance as workhorse for the tiny island nation. “The captain had stars trade-offs. “They have designed and planned it and removed in his eyes, so to speak, at the ease of maintenance (and the the bow thruster (and bulbous bow) for this,” he says, adding retro? t). That’s because all moving parts are at the top of the that a large unit can weigh about 60 tons while still being out installation,” Paulsen says, adding, “You can easily lift it out of the way and easy to install. For those hoping to retro? t their of the vessel, regardless of size, for maintenance. What kind way to fuel ef? ciency and comfort, he says it’s all there in of maintenance? (On a larger vessel), the moonpool. We call black and white. “Retro? ts — we weld a box into the hull and it a moonpool. Most agree it is, but for some reason, some dis- lower the foil into it. There’s a mounting system. You don’t agree. We just mount the module in the moonpool. It’s struc- need any new documentation, it’s covered by DNV GL. We turally part of the hull.” don’t need it because of the way it’s isolated (in a vessel’s

Forged from Trondheim’s NTNU university spinoff com- bulkhead recesses).” munity in 2016, Wavefoil is starting to make waves. Apart from the Faroese ferry, The Teistin, and the ambulance vessel, Module masters

Ocean Loppa, they’re installed aboard the 130-meter, electric, More retro? ts of newbuilds incorporating Wavefoil stabiliz- whale-watching, cruise catamaran, Brim Explorer (by Naval ers are in the cards. The ambulance launch, RoPax ferry and

Dyanmics), and a sister ship is due to be delivered for Spitz- cruise ship show the units are scalable. Already, Rolls-Royce bergen whale-watching in April 2020. The ambulance is due is understood to be drawing up a ? shing vessel sporting a out in August 2020 after some delay related to public hospital Wavefoil. Fishing boat captains, like the captain of the Faro- tenders. For all these vessels — catamaran and monohulled — ese RoPax, ought to be impressed by the foil’s ability to retract pitch reduction is said to be as much as 30 percent with fuel “without the captain knowing it”. It’s push-button. On Teistin, savings of between ? ve and 15 percent, on average. the captain was understood to have asked, “What are they (the assembly crew) doing,” as the install seemed so perplexingly

Large newbuild straightforward. The captain of the Brim Explorer and the am-

As far as references go, the Faroe Islands RoPax was the bulance vessel will be next in line to deliver comment. ? rst test of a platform installed module-by-module over about Paulsen says Wavefoil expects to sell “four or ? ve modules” seven days via a custom-made “moonpool”. in 2020 in three different sizes — ferry weight 6.3 t for mono-

Wavefoil has also secured orders that’ll put stabilizers hulls of 30 m to 50 m — and two others: the catamaran ver- aboard all four coastal steamers of the new liner, Havila Kys- sion (as on the electric cruise catamaran) and the ambulance truten. The 130 m Kystruten vessels are expected to save type, which is a smaller, custom module of 432 kilograms. $330,000 a year on fuel for having the retractable Wavefoil The only thing preventing more sales, Paulsen says, is the ? ns installed. The operator will, Paulsen says, spare the envi- company’s relative obscurity in the market. “The only obsta- ronment about 2,000 tons of carbon-dioxide emissions a year. cle is that we’re quite new. But, we’re sort of the ? rst to install

For these larger vessels, payback comes in about 2.5 years on a ferry. That was the biggest thing, getting someone to try for foils of composite, ? exible material. Smaller orders are of it out ? rst. It’s (still) a conservative business.” www.marinelink.com 31

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