The Oceanbird has been created by the KTH Center for Naval Architecture, maritime tech developer SSPA and Wallenius Marine, which is capable of carrying 6,000 vehicles. From 2019 to 2022 the Swedish Transport Administration agreed on funding for the project.

The carriers are not going to travel as quickly as car carriers of today. The wind driven vessels are expected to require up to 12 days instead of taking seven or eight days to cross the Atlantic.

“Thousands of years have passed since we learnt to harness the wind. The wind helped us discover our planet – now it can help us preserve it. Oceanbird is about revolutionizing technology that will make cargo vessels in maritime transport truly sustainable. The wind is back,” the Swedish consortium announced.

Teams in Germany and France are also designing their own sail-based car car carriers, but with much less carrying ability than on the drawing board in Sweden.

Maritime Business World