3 ms·
I did some searching around for this (not a subject matter expert). Basically the sail area grows with length squared, but ship mass and resistance grows rough
by xmcp123 1y ago
I did some searching around for this (not a subject matter expert).
Basically the sail area grows with length squared, but ship mass and resistance grows roughly with length cubed. So propulsion gets weaker with size.
To move a full sized freighter, you would need a mast the size of a skyscraper and we don’t currently have materials that can support that.
If we did have a material that supported sails that large, it would still be a problem because you are functionally making the ship top heavy (when wind is applied) increasing how likely it is that the freighter rolls over.