Kite-powered ship

empip

empip

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...The first cargo ship in the world to be pulled by a giant parachute-shaped kite set out on a transatlantic voyage yesterday in an attempt to prove that wind can once again be used as a viable and "green" source of propulsion for commercial shipping of the future.

The German-owned Beluga SkySails is a 400ft diesel-powered freighter equipped with a 160 sq metre, remote-controlled kite that can be flown 600ft above its bows, thereby cutting the vessel's fuel consumption.

The ship left the German port of Bremerhaven yesterday for Guanta in Venezuela carrying a cargo of chipboard factory parts. "The voyage will take about 18 days and we expect to hoist the kite as soon as we hit easterly trade winds south of the Azores," said Verena Frank, the spokeswoman for the SkySails company...
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8)
 
Looks like a gimmick to me. How often do you travel downwind all the way?
Looks far too small to be of any use anyway.
 
It would be a bit of fun tacking an oil freighter, wonder how much space theyd need?
 
i mentioned the idea of this on another thread.

i saw a yacht with a computer controlled aircraft type wing instead of a sail.

they could easily be put on a tanker.

parachutes power fishing boats in greece. so the theory of it works its just the scale of the thing.

trouble with these things is that everyone expects them to better exsisting technology at the first attempt. cars couldnt beat a horse at first.

i know there are economic factors in having things delivered quickly but this seems little different to having stuff delivered by canal or train over road transport.

thumbs up for trying if you ask me.
 
seen it on discovery channel though it was a few years back but it dose work and saves about 17/20% on fuel :wink:
 
Canal transport of heavy loads was found to be very economical - using a horse to lean on the tow rope - speed not being an issue...

Tractive effort for a locomotive - having greater tractive resistence than a barge - was reckoned to be around 12lbs per Ton (5.35Kg per tonne).

Tugs do not normally tow at high speeds, generally quite slowly.

Much is known about frictional resistance between a hull and the water it passes through, including forces involved, again speed is not the issue.

We shall see.
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slow down joe.
empip did mention speed and that is what makes the difference.
if a barge moves slowly the there is hardly any resistance but if you pulled it at locomotive speeds then resistance would be enormous.

no point in having another googled up facts and figures thread.

i think efforts should be made to encourage things like canal use.
i watched the video of that skysail ship in action, it said it can exert 16 tons of pulling power.

does anybody know how much push/drive/thrust a square rigger would have had? say the cutty sark or the victory.

it is the future, i wonder if summat like this would not be better than some of the big windmills around the country.
 
did you watch their video?

i thought you like green transport stuff..

the video is interesting and the idea is clever.
 
There are parts of the World where wind direction is almost static and, if you happen to be going that way, a sail seems a pretty useful idea.

If it only saves fuel on the odd leg of a trip it has to be worthwhile IMO ... Saves oil so that should keep Joe happy :lol:

MW
 
speed shouldn't be an issue either..

if the ship is up to speed with the diesel engines, and the sail is hoisted and fills with wind, then the sail is pulling the ship also, cutting the power needed from the engines, with any extra needed to maintain the speed..
 
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