Hundreds of years of innovation in water travel, and we come back to a sail. Granted, a metal one, but still a fucking sail.
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
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There's a reason they quit, though. It's slow and doesn't let you go in every direction. The midline area of earth has winds that move mostly towards west, while the north and south portions blow mostly east.
For those curious, these sails save 12 tons per day. The average cargo ship uses around 200,000 tons per day, so around 6% better fuel economy.
The 12 tons are a best case and they represent 37% of this ship's fuel consumption, that would be ~32.5 tons a day, on average it saved 3.3 tons, ~10%.
Looks like this only works for bulk haulage and wouldn’t be compatible with intermodal freight (shipping containers)
Why wouldn't it? Those sails are 37m tall. I found stacked containes to be at max stacked up to 25m.
Imagine reinventing sails and thinking you’re innovating.
You'll be shocked to find that electric cars have been invented 50 years before Benz came around with what today is considered the "invention of the automobile" by slapping an internal combustion engine on it.