14 ms·
Pretty sure you don't need a tail-wind. Regular old sails as well as kites can be used at various angles to the wind. See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poi
by frederikvs 6y ago
Pretty sure you don't need a tail-wind. Regular old sails as well as kites can be used at various angles to the wind. See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_sail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_sail
[edit] P.S. from my understanding of the mechanism, I'm not so sure these Flettner rotors are useful in a headwind. They work by creating a pressure difference, but in a headwind, you could only create a pressure difference between the port and starbord sides, not the front and back. Unless there's some mechanism I'm missing?
- mannykannot 6y agoIf, by headwind, you mean sailing directly upwind, then no, they cannot do that, but they can beat to windward like a sailboat (the direction of the rotation must be reversed when tacking.) According to Wikipedia, the rotor ship Buckau could sail within 20-30 degrees of the wind, though I suspect that is a misreading of the supposed source of that data, and that 50-60 degrees is a more plausible figure. Similarly, I suspect the claim that they can sail closer to the wind than conventional sailing vessels is in comparison to square-rigged ships. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship#Pioneers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship#Pioneers https://books.google.com/books?id=9lqwg3iZyH0C&pg=PA656#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=9lqwg3iZyH0C&pg=PA656#v=on...
- odonnellryan 6y agoI would be surprised if a kite system could get much closer than 90 degrees to the wind.