French shipyard Socarenam has begun building a new wind-assisted offshore patrol vessel, following a steel-cutting ceremony marking the official start of construction.

The ship, designed by engineering firm Mauric for France’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Fisheries and Aquaculture, was contracted in 2024, Mauric said in a statement on its website on Friday.

It will be powered by a diesel-electric system combined with wind-assisted propulsion, making it one of the first patrol vessels of its kind.

Once completed, the vessel will be deployed in the Bay of Biscay, in the northeast Atlantic Ocean, south of the Celtic Sea.

MAURIC has completed the vessel’s design optimisation, refining sail placement, stabilisation systems and hull performance. Computational fluid dynamics studies confirmed a hybrid cruising speed of 10 knots and a top speed above 18 knots.