engineering

SolidSail

SolidSail is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand SolidSail rather than just read about it. In short: SolidSail, sometimes referred to as Solid Sail or SolidSail Mast Factory (SMAF) in reference to the eponymous subsidiary, is a wind propulsion technology designed for large vessels, developed by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, France. This system is based on rigid sails made of composite materials and a tilting gaff rigging, enabling hybrid or primary wind propulsion for commercial and cruise ships.

Key takeaways

SolidSail belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect SolidSail to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of SolidSail from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

SolidSail, sometimes referred to as Solid Sail or SolidSail Mast Factory (SMAF) in reference to the eponymous subsidiary, is a wind propulsion technology designed for large vessels, developed by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, France. This system is based on rigid sails made of composite materials and a tilting gaff rigging, enabling hybrid or primary wind propulsion for commercial and cruise ships. It is also the name of the subsidiary created by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in 2023. Three SolidSail units are currently used for the propulsion systems of the longest sailing ship ever constructed (as of 2026), the Orient Express Corinthian, which is able to rely exclusively on its wind-powered propulsion in optimal conditions.

History

Project genesis The development of SolidSail is part of the Ecorizon program, launched in 2007 by Chantiers de l'Atlantique and dedicated to energy and environmental efficiency for ships. After preliminary studies, a first sailing concept ship named Eoseas was presented in 2009. It was a pentamaran passenger ship 305 meters long equipped with five masts supporting 12,440 m2 (133,900 sq ft) of sails, capable of sailing under wind power alone in strong winds. The technology was the subject of two patents filed in 2009 (Eoseas patent) and 2017. The project accelerated in 2014 with research and development funding from ADEME (French Agency for Ecological Transition) as part of the Future Investment Program. The project was led by engineer and former sailor Nicolas Abiven.

Technological development Between 2016 and 2019, a series of tests conducted in various conditions confirmed the viability of the concept. Chantiers de l'Atlantique then embarked on the development of an adapted rigging system, resulting in 2019 in a solution known as Solid Sail/AeolDrive. The SOLID SAIL 2.0 research program, conducted between 2018 and 2020 by ENSTA Bretagne in collaboration with Chantiers de l'Atlantique, G-Sea Design, and Multiplast, created a fluid-structure calculation chain to precisely dimension the composites and optimize the sail geometry. This Breton consortium, certified by the Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantique and the EMC2 cluster, brought together four main partners and five subcontractors (Awentech, Capacités SAS, Incidence, Mer Vent, Ocean Data System) for a total budget of €994,000. The program was co-financed by the European Union (ERDF) and the Brittany Region. The work, coordinated by Alain Nême (associate professor at ENSTA Bretagne), resulted in the creation of a predictive numerical model validated by tests on a 1/5th scale prototype, both on ENSTA's MASMECA platform and in Pornichet. The results of this work were published in January 2022 in the international journal Ocean Engineering under the title "Efficient jib-mainsail fluid-structure interaction modelling – Validations with semi-rigid sails experiments" by Antoine Morvan, Matthieu Sacher, Alain Nême, Jean-Baptiste Leroux, and Christian Jochum from the Institut de Recherche Dupuy de Lôme (IRDL), as well as Nicolas Abiven from Chantiers de l'Atlantique. A second research program, called JIB SEA, succeeded SOLID SAIL 2.0 and ran for 18 months until December 2021. It aimed to finalize the full-scale design model by taking into account additional parameters such as the influence of the jib on forces transmitted through the mainsail and UV aging. ENSTA Bretagne contributed experimental expertise and extensive knowledge on fluid-structure interactions, enabling modeling of stresses experienced by rigid panels forming the sail to predict deformations and propulsion forces.

Testing program Validation of SolidSail technology took place in several successive phases. A first 1/10th scale prototype with a surface area of 50 m2 (540 sq ft) was tested in 2016 on a small J/80 sailboat in Pornichet Bay. The following year, in 2017, the upper half of the sail at 1/2 scale was tested on Jean Le Cam's 60-foot IMOCA monohull. These tests achieved 85% of the boat's speed capacity, a result considered positive given the sail's weight. Between 2018 and 2019, the 88-meter three-masted vessel Le Ponant operated by Ponant was equipped with a 1/2 scale prototype with a surface area of 300 m2 (3,200 sq ft) on its foremast during its technical stop in Marseille on 25 October 2018. The ship tested this sail for one year during transatlantic crossings to the Caribbean and Cuba, under various operating conditions. Jean Emmanuel Sauvée, president of Ponant, stated: "When Chantiers de l'Atlantique proposed collaborating with us on this rigid sail technology, we were immediately interested. Le Ponant, our historic sailing ship and the company's origin, remains more than ever a flagship of our fleet, and wind propulsion is undoubtedly an energy of the future." Simultaneously, a 1/5th scale prototype was installed and tested for two years on a jetty in Pornichet port. These tests validated the numerical models developed by ENSTA Bretagne.

Full-scale demonstrator In February 2022, a full-scale prototype was installed at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique site in Saint-Nazaire. This demonstrator, costing €18 million with 50% public funding, comprised a 66-meter composite mast (for a total height of approximately 73 meters) and a 1,050 m2 (11,300 sq ft) rigid sail composed of ten panels that fold onto each other. The assembly weighed approximately 20 tonnes and constituted one of the world's tallest self-supporting composite masts. The mast was assembled in less than six months, showcasing French expertise in composites. The demonstrator was tested for over two years before being dismantled during the night of 24–25 April 2024. It was then installed on the first sailing cargo ship of the Nantes-based shipowner Neoline, the Neoliner Origin, a 136-meter vessel under construction at the RMK Marine shipyard in Turkey. In March 2022, the SolidSail/AeolDrive system received an Approval in Principle (AiP) from Bureau Veritas, a French classification society. This validation was issued in accordance with Bureau Veritas technical rule NR 206 relating to Wind Propulsion Systems (WPS), published in 2021. Frédéric Grizaud, Senior Vice President of Chantiers de l'Atlantique, emphasized that "the Solid Sail concept is the first of its kind, and constitutes the most advanced and innovative wind propulsion solution on the large ship market."

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with SolidSail

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what SolidSail claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to SolidSail before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about SolidSail ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of SolidSail

In research: SolidSail appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses SolidSail in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: SolidSail is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Boat building, Cruising (maritime), French inventions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for SolidSail outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study SolidSail in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what SolidSail means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain SolidSail out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is SolidSail in simple terms?

Why does SolidSail matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study SolidSail?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on SolidSail.