French company Airseas has developed the Seawing, a kite to help propel cargo ships, which it says could cut their carbon emissions by an average of 20%.
Its honestly not a bad idea. When Sails fell out of fashion, canvas was the height of technology, nobody gave a fuck about emisions and tanker fuel was cheap AF.
If the owners of tanker/container fleets can see a $20,000 reduction a year in fuel costs by fitting a modern well designed $10,000 sail that costs $5000 a year to maintain. They will.
If multinational trillion dollar industries can find ways to save money AND go green at the same time. Good.
Yeah but the guy and the guy he talked to haven’t seen it and aren’t gonna see it because they’re not gonna go be out in the middle of the ocean looking at passing cargo ships, so he’s not really wrong
In the open ocean wind is fairly consistent and predictable. If there was a risk of the wind dropping too low you’d stow the sail. Even if it did hit the water, you’d have to stop while you hauled it in but it’s not impossible.
I dunno anything about kites but maybe the wind is always strong enough up there so that it never falls.
I would suspect that a ship with these kites has an alternative method of traversal if the kite needs to dry or whatever. If that’s even a problem at all.
Its honestly not a bad idea. When Sails fell out of fashion, canvas was the height of technology, nobody gave a fuck about emisions and tanker fuel was cheap AF.
If the owners of tanker/container fleets can see a $20,000 reduction a year in fuel costs by fitting a modern well designed $10,000 sail that costs $5000 a year to maintain. They will.
If multinational trillion dollar industries can find ways to save money AND go green at the same time. Good.
You’re not going to see any boats pulled by giant kites across the ocean.
They’ve been doing just that since 2008.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Onego_Deusto
Yeah but the guy and the guy he talked to haven’t seen it and aren’t gonna see it because they’re not gonna go be out in the middle of the ocean looking at passing cargo ships, so he’s not really wrong
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Doesn’t seem like the fuel savings are quite as significant as they advertise (5-15% Vs 10-35%) but still a worthwhile achievement.
Interesting. So that one ship has done it for 15 years, and no one else huh. It must be a huge success!
There are several others.
Its not exactly difficult to find. https://newatlas.com/marine/new-aden-supertanker-sails/
Maersk has also had one ship fitted with rotor sails: https://maersktankers.com/newsroom/norsepower-rotor-sails-confirmed-savings
I like how you think I care enough to try finding any others
Yeah how the fuck would you get the kite up initial?? And what happens if the wind dies and it lands in the water…
You could probably launch it using a airgun or something.
In the open ocean wind is fairly consistent and predictable. If there was a risk of the wind dropping too low you’d stow the sail. Even if it did hit the water, you’d have to stop while you hauled it in but it’s not impossible.
Yeah but what about after it hits the water. How do you dry it before loading back in?
I dunno anything about kites but maybe the wind is always strong enough up there so that it never falls.
I would suspect that a ship with these kites has an alternative method of traversal if the kite needs to dry or whatever. If that’s even a problem at all.