Odfjell Pairs Weather Routing with Suction Sails

Odfjell has initiated a deployment of Syroco’s weather routing platform on two of its vessels, the Bow Olympus and Bow Optima.

The two vessels are part of Odfjell’s Hudong-class chemical tankers, flying the Norwegian flag. Both built in 2019, the 183 meter vessels are each equipped with 33 stainless steel tanks and operate primarily on trans-Pacific routes.

In early 2025, the Bow Olympus will be fitted with four eSAILs, bound4blue’s suction sails. As an add-on to optimise the sails' effects, Odfjell will deploy Syroco’s digital weather calculation tool.

Leveraging precise weather and sea data, Syroco uses a digital twin of the vessel, driven by data, machine learning and naval architecture principles, to calculate optimized routing at any time. The proposed route, updated as often as necessary, takes into account operating constraints including arrival time, seakeeping, safety of navigation and cargo-specific operational parameters.

CFD studies and artificial intelligence, the digital twin accounts for all characteristics of the vessel: hull, windage, appendages, propulsion systems, including the wind assistance devices when present.

Advanced analysis capabilities allow the operator to fully understand the impact of their decisions.

With specific models for bound4blue’s eSAIL included in the digital twin, Syroco accounts for the specific energy needs and propulsive power created by the wind devices when computing an optimized route. In addition, the solution measures the specific savings brought by the sails and helps confirm the return on investment of the installation.