First Commercial Installation Awarded for Michelin’s Inflatable Wind Sail
France’s Michelin Group confirmed the recent awarding of its first commercial contract for its innovative inflatable wind sail for shipping. The first installation will be on a new patrol boat for France.
The new vessel will be built by the Socarenam shipyards with designed by French naval architecture firm. Mauric. The contract for the design and shipbuilding was awarded in December 2024 by the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Fisheries and Aquaculture (DGAMPA) which is responsible for maritime surveillance on the French Atlantic coast. The tender was launched in January 2024.
With a length of 54 meters (177 feet), the offshore patrol vessel is designed for extended 12-day missions. Capabilities for extended missions and energy efficiency were key to the design. The vessel will employ a diesel-electric hybrid system with wind-assisted propulsion. It is designed to provide the vessel with a maximum speed of 17 knots and a range exceeding 3,600 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 12 knots.
Michelin was selected to provide the wind propulsion deploying its WISAMO (Wing Sail Mobility) project. The wingsail will have a surface area of 170 square meters (1,829 square feet). Michelin reports a fuel consumption reduction of approximately 15 percent is expected through optimizations of the design and the vessel’s operational profile.
The WISAMO concept consists of a telescopic, inflatable wingsail. It includes an intuitive, automated control system and a simplified interface that greatly reduces the challenges of vessel integration. The system is based on three key components, including a self-supporting telescopic mast that is fully retractable and a durable lightweight fabric envelope that is inflated at low pressure to form a symmetrical wingsail profile. A fully automated control system manages all sail functions (hoisting, lowering, adjusting, maneuvering, reefing, and protective stowage according to environmental conditions), eliminating the need for additional crew workload.
Mauric reports the vessel's design with a steel hull and an aluminum superstructure places paramount importance on seakeeping and crew comfort. It will carry a crew of 20 and the design integrates an anti-roll stabilization combining active fins and passive free surface tank, to ensure optimal operability in all sea states.
Construction will be carried out at Socarenam's shipyard in Boulogne-Sur-Mer, with delivery scheduled for the second half of 2027. When completed, it will replace the approximately 40-year-old patrol vessel Iris. The new ship will be based in La Rochelle and operated along the Atlantic coast, particularly in the Bay of Biscay. Its mission is maritime surveillance and regulatory enforcement of fisheries, as well as navigation monitoring, maritime pollution control, environmental law enforcement, and search-and-rescue operations.
Micheline first unveiled its wingsail concept in 2021 highlighting the opportunities to support maritime decarbonization. The sail concept received design approval from DNV and in 2023 the first trials were conducted in 2023 aboard the MN Pelican demonstrating the endurance of the system.