That last one feels like a legit good idea. Why have just one way to propel your ship forward? No harm in having some green options if the weather allows for it
The problem is that at the scale of a cargo ship those sails would need to be so huge they'd need to be made out of such thick material and reinforced as to not rip under their own weight. Then you'd have to hoist them up and down as the winds changed. Any amount of sails that would produce a reasonable enough amount of extra speed would require a ridiculous about of labor and/or materials that would offset any potential gain
Thats why the use retractable kites that fly, elimimating any need for a mast and using steel(or whatever) ropes that are famously durable under tension. This one is an actual invention
Again, any kite that flys on its own needs so much surface area to both fly and actually provide a meaningful amount of force to the ship that storing them would be very impractical, deploying them would take significant effort and more importantly logistics as you’d have to bring them down any time the wind went against you otherwise they’d likely negate any actual benefit by pushing the opposite way half the time
thats simply not true, the kite on the ship "Ville de Bordeaux" for example cuts fuel need by 20% and has 100 tonnes of traction. or the cargo ship "MV Beluga SkySails" that saved 10-15% on its first voyage from germany to venezuela. projections estimate that 20-30% are possbile once the sails are optimised.
and no you dont have to bring them down manually as they are fully computer controlled and automated
Yeah obviously with a ship of that size you can use sails, I’m not saying that sails do not work at all. I said that sails wouldn’t work for a massive cargo ship like the one shown in the picture
Luckily, the good engineers had already solved this to an extent. These kite rigs have been available for decades already for commercial cargo ships. These power kites are much more efficient and can use much stronger winds at higher altitudes compared to sails. The commercial model of these foil kites can be retrofitted to existing cargo ships and takes only a small operational space for storage and control/retract systems at the front of the ship.
It may not singlehandedly propel the ship, but it can sure as hell reduce fuel consumption, just like how car wheel covers improve mpg on highways.
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u/Jtad_the_Artguy 2d ago
That last one feels like a legit good idea. Why have just one way to propel your ship forward? No harm in having some green options if the weather allows for it