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This is interesting. Not sure about the economics of this though. Sailing seems like slow way of transport and may have higher cost because of more human crew.

This is interesting. Not sure about the economics of this though. Sailing seems like slow way of transport and may have higher cost because of more human crew. Why would any business opt for this service unless there are no alternatives? Am I missing something here? But I see the appeal as a tourists. I would love to travel in one of these beauties.

fulafel 6y ago
Fuel costs will increase as we transition away from fossil fuels, so the competition may be against other forms of non-fossil fuels changing the equation somewhat. (Unless we decide to give up on mitigating the climate crisis, in which case global unrest will probably make it a moot point)
rvense 6y ago
Slow is the wrong word, I think. Big container ships don't necessarily move a lot faster than sailing ships, since speed = fuel usage, which is a big cost in shipping. A big modern container ship might cruise at half it's maximum speed for this reason. The main thing is modern container ships are much, much bigger than any traditional sail ship, which drives down the cost per shipped item. This particular article shows wooden ships with (I assume) comparatively big crews as you say, and I don't think those will be taking over international shipping again this side of a major economic downturn, but that doesn't mean that sail as a method of propulsion can't have a role to play in sustainable shipping. You could construct sail ships with modern materials, and it's certainly possible to automate them to keep crew sizes down. I imagine you'd need a lot of fabric to move the Emma Mærsk when carrying 11,000 20' containers! But sail doesn't have to mean traditional methods and materials. It might not be practical to make ships exactly as large as with fossil fuel propulsion. But if we're serious about efficiency and sustainability, in this and many other cases, we need to take a serious look at using renewable energy directly, rather than converting to electricity for storage and then back to kinetic energy.
jabl 6y ago
Seems most businesses in this space don't compete on price for bulk goods. They compete on sustainability, similar to e.g. people buying Fairtrade coffee even though it's more expensive than "normal" coffee. Also sometimes they have other non-freight income, such as only a few of the people onboard lift a salary, the rest are trainees paying for the privilege of working on a sailing ship, or even passengers. You can of course claim that this is just a daydream of hippies, and it can never scale up to provide anything near the cargo carrying capacity of the current shipping industry, and you're probably right. So what?

fulafel 6y ago

Fuel costs will increase as we transition away from fossil fuels, so the competition may be against other forms of non-fossil fuels changing the equation somewhat. (Unless we decide to give up on mitigating the climate crisis, in which case global unrest will probably make it a moot point)

rvense 6y ago

Slow is the wrong word, I think. Big container ships don't necessarily move a lot faster than sailing ships, since speed = fuel usage, which is a big cost in shipping. A big modern container ship might cruise at half it's maximum speed for this reason. The main thing is modern container ships are much, much bigger than any traditional sail ship, which drives down the cost per shipped item. This particular article shows wooden ships with (I assume) comparatively big crews as you say, and I don't think those will be taking over international shipping again this side of a major economic downturn, but that doesn't mean that sail as a method of propulsion can't have a role to play in sustainable shipping. You could construct sail ships with modern materials, and it's certainly possible to automate them to keep crew sizes down. I imagine you'd need a lot of fabric to move the Emma Mærsk when carrying 11,000 20' containers! But sail doesn't have to mean traditional methods and materials. It might not be practical to make ships exactly as large as with fossil fuel propulsion. But if we're serious about efficiency and sustainability, in this and many other cases, we need to take a serious look at using renewable energy directly, rather than converting to electricity for storage and then back to kinetic energy.

jabl 6y ago

Seems most businesses in this space don't compete on price for bulk goods. They compete on sustainability, similar to e.g. people buying Fairtrade coffee even though it's more expensive than "normal" coffee. Also sometimes they have other non-freight income, such as only a few of the people onboard lift a salary, the rest are trainees paying for the privilege of working on a sailing ship, or even passengers. You can of course claim that this is just a daydream of hippies, and it can never scale up to provide anything near the cargo carrying capacity of the current shipping industry, and you're probably right. So what?