Marine Log reports that French hospitality giant Accor S.A. has signed a letter of intent with Chantiers de l’Atlantique covering the construction of two very large luxury sailing cruise ships. The shipbuilder says “the order will be signed within a few weeks” and that the first ship, the Orient Express Silenseas, will be delivered in March 2026 and the second on September 1, 2027.
With a length of 220 meters, it is claimed the Orient Express Silenseas will be the largest sailing vessel in the world. It will feature 54 suites measuring on average 70-square-meters, and including a monumental 1,415 square-meter presidential suite (including a 530-square meter private terrace). Other amenities will include a marina, two swimming pools including a lap pool, two restaurants, a speakeasy bar and a cabaret bar.
The vessel will feature three of the SolidSail rigid sails developed specifically for large vessels by Chantiers de l’Atlantique. As we reported at the time, the SolidSail received Bureau Veritas Approval in Principle last year.
With a surface area of 1,500 square meters each, the SolidSails will be hoisted on balestron rigs on three tilting masts reaching more than 100 meters high. They will provide up to 100% of the vessel’s propulsion power in suitable weather conditions. They are part of a hybrid power solution that will combine wind power with a state-of-the-art engine running on liquefied natural gas (LNG), with plans to use green hydrogen, once the technology is approved for ocean passenger ships.
Whether the new ships will be the “largest sailing vessel in the world” is a matter of definition. At 220 meters in length, they will likely be the longest sailing vessels in the world but in terms of sail area, at 4,350 square meters, will still be smaller than the Royal Clipper and the Golden Horizon cruise ships with sail areas of 5,200 square meters and 6,300 square meters, respectively.
I sailed on the Tovaritsch in 1992. She is a 300 foot ship and she handled herself extremely well in the wide variety of sea conditions we experienced. The five sisters were the culmination of tall ship engineering and were designed to be forgiving ships as the Eagle confirmed surviving the microburst off Bermuda a number of years ago. I have been on dozen cruise ships since then including in very heavy weather. The tall ship knifed through the water with its deep hull. Cruise ships with sails as opposed to a sailing ship that cruises are two different entities. Obviously I have no knowledge of what their engineers have come up with. I have serious reservations as to how the ship will handle in heavy weather conditions after sailing on a traditional tall ship and understanding the fundamental difference between that and a cruise ship with sails.