The 3,600dwt general cargo vessel MV Ankie has made her first voyage with two eConowind Ventifoil wings installed.

The vessel sailed the North Sea from Delfzijl in the Netherlands to Hamburg and Norway and then back to Rotterdam.

The modular Ventifoil units are wings with vents and an internal fan that uses boundary layer suction to double the force of the Ventifoil, while reefing when needed. Together with the Technical University of Delft and MARIN, eConoship studied several concepts of wind propulsion, concluding the suction wings studied by Jacques Cousteau were most promising.

Ankie a effectué son premier voyage muni de ses ventifoils. Il vise ainsi a réduire de manière effective la pollution caractéristique des cargos.