5 ms·
FFS, it would be easier and more environmentally friendly to use wind
by jotm 5y ago
FFS, it would be easier and more environmentally friendly to use wind
- snek_case 5y agoAssuming you mean for shipping containers, I think one issue there is that sailboats tend to tilt a lot, which you can't do if you have a lot of containers on your deck. Might be possible to design container ships where all the shipping containers are inside the ship instead.
- jdrc 5y agowhat if the sailboat is towing the containership
- snek_case 5y agoMaybe that could work. You would lose a bit in terms of aerodynamics I think though. Container ships also don't have very sleek hull designs.
- RajT88 5y agoThis company seems to think they have a solution: https://www.theoceanbird.com/ https://www.theoceanbird.com/
- a9h74j 5y agoGood, but I wonder if there isn't still a moment/torque reaction to cause some tilting, and those towers also preclude packing the deck with containers.
- chrismartin 5y agoI've seen vaporware like this since I was a kid in the 90s. Talk is cheap, slick renderings are cheap. Is there _any_ mostly-wind-powered vessel in active, revenue-generating, trans-oceanic cargo service? Container or otherwise? Maybe something like the Maltese Falcon / Black Pearl? Yes, there are also cargo ship kites, but those only work as a small adjunct to a big diesel engine.
- emilecantin 5y agoThere's the French company Grain de Sail: https://graindesail.com/fr/ https://graindesail.com/fr/
- snek_case 5y agoWhoever wants to work on a project like this should build a scale model IMO. Start with a small remote-controlled thing, then build a small ship that carries just one or a handful of containers or trucks to demonstrate the principle.