I know it’s maybe silly to talk about sails as a new technology – and my initial response was to join the dunking. But, fuck it.
Anything that cuts the use of fuels in shipping is good and should be encouraged. If letting nitwits feel smart is the price of a better world, I’m happy to pay it.
Sails will probably survive for another thousand years, because humans are greedy and wind is free. As long as corporations can save a buck on fuel, they will.
New super-economy class of cruise ship passenger just dropped.
No money to afford a spot on the climate refugee cruise hyper-ships? Pay your way by turning the screw and paddling! Nutrient cubes included in package, so long as you stay in the tail.
Big difference is a modern sailboat like a ketch or sloop can maintain a straight course as much as 45 degrees into the wind. A Victorian era square rigger is greatly more limited with a range about 60 degrees off either side of downwind. A kite would be even more limited, probably within 45 degrees so it would only be useful when going mostly downwind. Still if it’s cheap and easy to deploy it’s free energy when it can be used. An interesting parallel is the spinnaker sail used on a typical sailboat flies much like a kite and can only be used within a similar downwind range. It’s a very powerful sail when it can be deployed.
The trouble is that it takes decades to create an effective sail captain and crew, and it’s insanely hard dangerous work. Read some accounts of how sails were actually managed back in the day, and it’s terrifying (at least for people without a head for heights, gaaah).
Maybe read the article? It’s talking about a new kind of sail that’s literally a giant kite attached at the end of a line and kept flying hundreds of feet in the air above the ship by computer control. Not a spinnaker or kite sail; something closer to a parafoil.
That’s why this is different and they aren’t talking about going back to fully-rigged sailing ships.
(Actually, who are we kidding? They couldn’t care less how hard and dangerous the work was. The real reason they like this new design because it doesn’t have masts to get in the way of loading cargo.)
Its honestly not a bad idea. When Sails fell out of fashion, canvas was the height of technology, nobody gave a fuck about emisions and tanker fuel was cheap AF.
If the owners of tanker/container fleets can see a $20,000 reduction a year in fuel costs by fitting a modern well designed $10,000 sail that costs $5000 a year to maintain. They will.
If multinational trillion dollar industries can find ways to save money AND go green at the same time. Good.
Yeah but the guy and the guy he talked to haven’t seen it and aren’t gonna see it because they’re not gonna go be out in the middle of the ocean looking at passing cargo ships, so he’s not really wrong
I dunno anything about kites but maybe the wind is always strong enough up there so that it never falls.
I would suspect that a ship with these kites has an alternative method of traversal if the kite needs to dry or whatever. If that’s even a problem at all.
In the open ocean wind is fairly consistent and predictable. If there was a risk of the wind dropping too low you’d stow the sail. Even if it did hit the water, you’d have to stop while you hauled it in but it’s not impossible.
i've no useful comment to add, but for those who don't click
Horse carcasses therefore also had to be removed from the streets. The bodies were often left to putrefy so the corpses could be more easily sawn into pieces for removal.
Add comment