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The initial deal agreed between K Line and Airseas in 2019 was a 20-year agreement, with options, based on the performance of an AirSeas-installed SeaWing kite on a K Line ship.

Subject to the kite’s successful performance in emissions reduction and operability, K Line has the option to roll the technology out to a fleet of 50 of its vessels.

The SeaWing kite is part of a suite of technology that automates its deployment and retrieval while also taking in data on weather and ocean conditions to suggest an optimised route for the vessel it serves.

AirSeas chief executive Vincent Bernatets said the deployment and retrieval of the 500-m² kite was done with the push of a button and that weather conditions restricted the use of the kite within certain parameters.

“It is dependent on weather conditions. It can be active in most conditions, but you need to have a windspeed of 8-40 knots, and it cannot be a direct headwind into the bow,” he said.

“We have calculated the kites will be useable on at least 50% of journeys.”

According to Mr Bernatets, the SeaWing system proposes an optimised route and will also notify the crew and captain when to unfold the system.

“The kite is a large piece of cloth which is folded and lifted through the top of a 35-m mast and then unleashed. It is linked to a winch on the deck by a long cable, 500 m long, and then it will start doing its figure-of-eight trajectory,” to tow the vessel, Mr Bernatets said.

“We don’t deviate inflections of more than a few tenths (or 161 km) from the set route,” he said.

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