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As someone who knows nothing about boats, I don't understand understand why there hasn't been more breaking of tradition. Why we don't use modern materials and

As someone who knows nothing about boats, I don't understand understand why there hasn't been more breaking of tradition. Why we don't use modern materials and methods to create boats that are much more resilient to external conditions, solar power instead of sails, etc.? Edit: Thank you so much, everyone, for answering!

07d046 7y ago
Re solar power: the short answer is that wind carries far more energy than solar. Tûranor PlanetSolar is a 31m catamaran with over 500 square metres of solar panels. I think I'm right in saying that its cruising speed is slower than any regular yacht. A big racing yacht is multiple times faster. What I'd be interested in seeing is if a big wind turbine could be put on a yacht, rather than sails. One fun advantage is that it should be able to travel directly into the wind.
dzhiurgis 7y ago
I’m quite excited about possibilities of 3D printing entire hull (especially Using SLA printer). You could make it entirely of different characteristic or particularly easy to maintain certain aspects...
- RantyDave 7y ago
  I doubt the plastic would make a particularly good hull. Strength/weight ratios are a big deal in sailing.
  - dzhiurgis 7y ago
    It all depends on plastic. Most important if you can build safe enough boat for the masses for 10th of a cost - that would destroy rest of manufacturers wasting money on manual labour. Racers will keep using carbon fibre.
smacktoward 7y ago
> Why we don't use modern materials and methods We do. One of the main points in the article is that this particular yacht is old, was made using materials and techniques that aren’t in general use anymore, and thus the skills needed to maintain it are gradually dying out.
nradov 7y ago
Fiberglass, carbon fiber, aluminum, and stainless steel are modern materials commonly used in building boats. They are resilient to external conditions as long as you don't drive the boat into a rock or something. Boats don't have enough usable surface area for solar panels to propel them at a sustained useful speed (especially not at night or in a storm). Most sailboats do now have small solar panels to power lights and electronics. Hybrid propulsion systems are available, although expensive.
- dzhiurgis 7y ago
  Double sided solar panels could be a good improvement but not groundbreaking.
- spaethnl 7y ago
  There is this, though expensive, and not in production: http://www.energy-observer.org/en/ http://www.energy-observer.org/en/
maliker 7y ago
There's at least one fully-electric solar yacht on the market. At $1.5 million and a 23 MPH cruising speed, there probably won't be a lot of these built. I'm definitely curious to see if more demand for these drives the price down. [1] https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a28834625/solar-powered-yacht/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a28834625/so...
raverbashing 7y ago
They do. But sunlight sucks (UV especially) and salt water sucks even more. Rain, wind and thunderstorms also damage the boat.
jws 7y ago
modern materials: lots of fiber reinforced resin and lots of aluminum. Not a lot of hammering caulk into seams these days. That said, salt water is really corrosive and it gets aerosolized and all over everything. Fresh water boats are a lot less maintenance intensive. solar power instead of sails: A sunny day is about ½ HP per square yard of deck for a few hours. A 37 foot sailboat might get you about 15 square yards of deck if you really covered it, so < 10HP. Said boat might have a 40HP diesel for getting about. I can't say how many horsepower the sails make, but the boat I'm thinking of definitely has more sail power than engine power. (Pacific Seacraft 37). That said, if you aren't planning to survive an ocean, but rather plan to have a pleasant day on a canal or a pond, an electric boat would be an excellent choice (though I'd just use batteries instead of solar) and are available.
redis_mlc 7y ago
The short answer is that because different or new isn't always better. Modern materials like composites have pluses and minuses compared to metal or wood. One of the huge minuses is repairability and structural strength for long spans. Solar power for propulsion works for small vehicles, but not well for larger ones where energy density is important. Or on cloudy days and at night. In the boating world weight is less of an issue, but in aviation composites often end up weighing more than aluminum, especially in the first batch. They also have temperature issues over about 300 mph, compared to Mach 2+ for aluminum. It sounds like this boat restoration was ill-advised, but that really depends on their long-term goals.
yardie 7y ago
The wind is generated by the sun. It's abundant and it is efficient. And you can sail at night since the ocean is one giant solar powered battery bank. We lived aboard a catamaran with 600W of solar and it was enough to charge our banks and make water. > more resilient to external conditions The sea is really big and very powerful. If you are on it long enough you'll see some terrifying stuff. The boats being built today aren't really designed for those conditions. They were designed to be sailed smarter by using modern forecasting and satellite weather tracking. Going out blind and hoping you don't run into a tropical storm is rare these days.
- makomk 7y ago
  For context, making water is another area where modern materials and methods are often used. The better-equipped yachts have reverse osmosis setups which create fresh water from seawater by forcing it through a membrane at around 800 psi. Needless to say, the materials science and technology involved in doing this efficiently isn't trivial.
russfink 7y ago
Can we just tow a large solar array behind us, barge style? Could someone work out the drag equations for that?
- illgenr 7y ago
  Drag equations are "putting the cart before the horse". So many other issues with this scenario. Mainly the connection between vessels, but added cost, too. Could it be done? Of course. Would it be practical? Almost absolutely not.

07d046 7y ago

Re solar power: the short answer is that wind carries far more energy than solar. Tûranor PlanetSolar is a 31m catamaran with over 500 square metres of solar panels. I think I'm right in saying that its cruising speed is slower than any regular yacht. A big racing yacht is multiple times faster. What I'd be interested in seeing is if a big wind turbine could be put on a yacht, rather than sails. One fun advantage is that it should be able to travel directly into the wind.

dzhiurgis 7y ago

I’m quite excited about possibilities of 3D printing entire hull (especially Using SLA printer). You could make it entirely of different characteristic or particularly easy to maintain certain aspects...

RantyDave 7y ago
I doubt the plastic would make a particularly good hull. Strength/weight ratios are a big deal in sailing.
- dzhiurgis 7y ago
  It all depends on plastic. Most important if you can build safe enough boat for the masses for 10th of a cost - that would destroy rest of manufacturers wasting money on manual labour. Racers will keep using carbon fibre.

smacktoward 7y ago

> Why we don't use modern materials and methods We do. One of the main points in the article is that this particular yacht is old, was made using materials and techniques that aren’t in general use anymore, and thus the skills needed to maintain it are gradually dying out.

nradov 7y ago

Fiberglass, carbon fiber, aluminum, and stainless steel are modern materials commonly used in building boats. They are resilient to external conditions as long as you don't drive the boat into a rock or something. Boats don't have enough usable surface area for solar panels to propel them at a sustained useful speed (especially not at night or in a storm). Most sailboats do now have small solar panels to power lights and electronics. Hybrid propulsion systems are available, although expensive.

dzhiurgis 7y ago
Double sided solar panels could be a good improvement but not groundbreaking.
spaethnl 7y ago
There is this, though expensive, and not in production: http://www.energy-observer.org/en/ http://www.energy-observer.org/en/

maliker 7y ago

There's at least one fully-electric solar yacht on the market. At $1.5 million and a 23 MPH cruising speed, there probably won't be a lot of these built. I'm definitely curious to see if more demand for these drives the price down. [1] https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a28834625/solar-powered-yacht/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a28834625/so...

raverbashing 7y ago

They do. But sunlight sucks (UV especially) and salt water sucks even more. Rain, wind and thunderstorms also damage the boat.

jws 7y ago

modern materials: lots of fiber reinforced resin and lots of aluminum. Not a lot of hammering caulk into seams these days. That said, salt water is really corrosive and it gets aerosolized and all over everything. Fresh water boats are a lot less maintenance intensive. solar power instead of sails: A sunny day is about ½ HP per square yard of deck for a few hours. A 37 foot sailboat might get you about 15 square yards of deck if you really covered it, so < 10HP. Said boat might have a 40HP diesel for getting about. I can't say how many horsepower the sails make, but the boat I'm thinking of definitely has more sail power than engine power. (Pacific Seacraft 37). That said, if you aren't planning to survive an ocean, but rather plan to have a pleasant day on a canal or a pond, an electric boat would be an excellent choice (though I'd just use batteries instead of solar) and are available.

redis_mlc 7y ago

The short answer is that because different or new isn't always better. Modern materials like composites have pluses and minuses compared to metal or wood. One of the huge minuses is repairability and structural strength for long spans. Solar power for propulsion works for small vehicles, but not well for larger ones where energy density is important. Or on cloudy days and at night. In the boating world weight is less of an issue, but in aviation composites often end up weighing more than aluminum, especially in the first batch. They also have temperature issues over about 300 mph, compared to Mach 2+ for aluminum. It sounds like this boat restoration was ill-advised, but that really depends on their long-term goals.

yardie 7y ago

The wind is generated by the sun. It's abundant and it is efficient. And you can sail at night since the ocean is one giant solar powered battery bank. We lived aboard a catamaran with 600W of solar and it was enough to charge our banks and make water. > more resilient to external conditions The sea is really big and very powerful. If you are on it long enough you'll see some terrifying stuff. The boats being built today aren't really designed for those conditions. They were designed to be sailed smarter by using modern forecasting and satellite weather tracking. Going out blind and hoping you don't run into a tropical storm is rare these days.

makomk 7y ago
For context, making water is another area where modern materials and methods are often used. The better-equipped yachts have reverse osmosis setups which create fresh water from seawater by forcing it through a membrane at around 800 psi. Needless to say, the materials science and technology involved in doing this efficiently isn't trivial.

russfink 7y ago

Can we just tow a large solar array behind us, barge style? Could someone work out the drag equations for that?

illgenr 7y ago
Drag equations are "putting the cart before the horse". So many other issues with this scenario. Mainly the connection between vessels, but added cost, too. Could it be done? Of course. Would it be practical? Almost absolutely not.