Our Products

FastRig is an innovative, retractable, rigid wing sail, designed to be easily retrofitted to existing commercial vessels with available deck space – bulkers and tankers. Some 40,000 of these ships are suitable for conversion to sailing hybrid. The FastRig provides propulsive thrust from wind, with the purpose of reducing fuel consumption, GHG emissions and operating costs on commercial vessels. It is designed and manufactured in the UK from 100% recyclable materials.

Latest design verified to save up to 30% per annum fuel/emissions

Limited deck space needed. Easy to install/deinstall

Intelligent, autonomous,
easy to operate

Robust &
comes with maintenance as standard 

Fully retractable to improve efficiency, ensure safety, enable port operations

Can realise at least 30% fuel and greenhouse gas emissions savings Find out more

  • Retract to allow standard loading and unloading processes

  • By working with shipping we ensure all safety, visibility and all operation and maintenance concerns are addressed

  • Intelligent FastRigs need no additional crew to operate it

  • Work in harmony with FastRoute software solution to make route-planning for wind optimisation simple and quantifiable

  • Need no port-side infrastructure changes

  • Are designed to be recyclable to make best use of scarce and valuable resources

FastRoute

Is SGS’s proprietary wind-assist fuel and GHG savings prediction and optimisation tool.

Note that our FastRoute software is currently only available to view on desktop.

Quantifies the value of using the wind on any ship on any route.

Ensures the most fuel/GHG savings on any route whilst meeting arrival times.

FastRoute combines artificial intelligence with high-performance computing to calculate fuel savings from FastRig wing sails on any global route. The software uses a scientifically verified method developed throughout 5 years of academic research to deliver accurate predictions with statistical certainty.

You can now interact with our FastRoute software. Simply select your desired route, ship type, number of sails and ship speed and FastRoute will calculate your expected annual fuel savings. Toggle the weather routing selection to see optimised weather routes and to understand the additional fuel-saving benefits of combining FastRigs with weather routing software. You can also browse through our graphs to easily observe fuel savings at a range of ship speeds and the expected wind conditions on each route.

Interested in a bespoke assessment? We provide detailed FastRoute studies for all ship types and sail configurations on any route, including an in-depth evaluation of key metrics such as the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII), Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) and FuelEU.

How Does It Work?

FastRoute calculates robust fuel-saving estimates using a scientifically verified four-step method:

  • FastRoute integrates FastRig performance data from Humphrey’s Yacht Design (HYD). The data uses aerodynamic modelling to estimate how much power FastRig sails produce in any given wind condition.

  • FastRoute calculates the fuel savings from FastRigs on the shortest distance route between two ports, also known as the great circle route. To achieve this, the software combines the sail data with the environmental data at many waypoints along the route to calculate the fuel consumed by a ship with and without FastRigs. The difference between these two ships represents the savings from FastRigs.

    The software also uses artificial intelligence algorithms to calculate weather routing, which represents an optimised weather route. This allows the ship to alter its route and speed to search for beneficial weather, increasing power from the sails.

  • The software uses global wind data from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (EWCMF), alongside ocean current data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The data is historical hindcast data between 2018 and 2023, describing conditions that occurred in the past.

  • FastRoute investigates three ships: a Handymax, Panamax and Capesize.

    The software performs historical simulations for each ship, calculating fuel savings from 52 departures per year between 2018 and 2023 at ship speeds between 9 and 13 knots. This approach results in over 1,000 simulations per ship type for each route, requiring high-performance computing to process millions of calculations. By running such large volumes of simulations, FastRoute enhances statistical certainty, ensuring that our historical analyses reliably predict future performance.

By combining these four steps, FastRoute delivers accurate predictions of FastRigs on any route, offering customers confidence in the fuel savings from wind.

a frictionless, de-risking customer proposition. SGS’s wind-as-a-service solution will accelerate uptake - reduce shipping costs and emissions simultaneously

Our FastReach proposition is:

  • Lease financed FastRigs

  • Enabled by FastRoute for full optimisation

  • All operation and maintenance support

  • Insurance against the wind not blowing as predicted