Imabari Shipbuilding

It's a big gap, right? It's a big gap going from the lab to the actual implementation.

Why is it a big gap? Because the, uh, the testing facilities that were built, uh, throughout the 20th and the, uh, new facilities being built in 21st century as well, and, uh, we were at one of those, uh, at Marugame on Imabari Island, owned by Imabari Shipbuilding.

Um, it's, uh, those testing facilities, they are designed to work using something called Froude similarity.

And while the Froude similarity is able to capture, uh, the overall performance of the vessel, uh, well, and, uh, could be a good indicator for a full-scale performance, um, this similarity breaks when it comes to manipulation of a boundary layer, something that we do.

Uh, so in other words, the conditions in the towing tank cannot be easily carried to, uh, full scale operational conditions for, for the vessels, for the technology that we have.

Um, so the getting to a full scale implementation required a leap of faith- And, uh, this leap of faith, um, was demonstrated by companies like, uh, ZWA Shipping and Armo Shipping, um, later by an investment from Mitsui OSK Lines, and an investment secured from Imabari Shipbuilding.

So without, uh, the two companies that placed the first commercial orders, and without the investment from, um, Mitsui OSK Lines and Imabari Shipbuilding, we wouldn't be where we are at the moment.

So Fire Nation, we have a lot to talk about.