• aesopjah@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Are the kites potentially a next level of efficiency for sail? Not in an overall sense, but as a supplement and in the sense that you can still design boats for maximum hauling.

      Gotta wonder how much a kite would add in terms of lowering the fuel usage really though, doesn’t seem like it would make much of dent. Nor are the ships designed to take that weird force angle presumably

      • Tangent5280@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ships designs are good for a variety of strains - they’re built to get tossed around in storms after all.

        Also about the sails comparison - I think the kites are retractable and redeployable, ending up with a variable, lower ship profile.

        Water also has super high drag forces - it sounds efficient to counteract the constant water drag using constant air drag instead of constantly burning fuel.

      • mookulator@mander.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Also the kite in the photo would only be able to pull the ship as fast as the wind speed. The idea behind a proper sail is that you can go faster than the wind speed if it comes at you sideways.

        • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          This isn’t accurate. The kite is typically moving in the air, generating drag. This can easily surpass wind speed. You see the same effect in kiteboarding (both water and land varieties.)

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Gotta wonder how much a kite would add in terms of lowering the fuel usage really though, doesn’t seem like it would make much of dent.

        The article says 20%. It’s even included in the excerpt copied to this thread…

    • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      Cargo ship with sails are also being developed and built.

      The difference I imagine is that be a kite can be retrofitted into an existing ship. Or on a new ship without too many modifications.

    • Delphia@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • natarey@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I know it’s maybe silly to talk about sails as a new technology – and my initial response was to join the dunking. But, fuck it.

    Anything that cuts the use of fuels in shipping is good and should be encouraged. If letting nitwits feel smart is the price of a better world, I’m happy to pay it.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Sails will probably survive for another thousand years, because humans are greedy and wind is free. As long as corporations can save a buck on fuel, they will.

  • rm_dash_r_star@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Big difference is a modern sailboat like a ketch or sloop can maintain a straight course as much as 45 degrees into the wind. A Victorian era square rigger is greatly more limited with a range about 60 degrees off either side of downwind. A kite would be even more limited, probably within 45 degrees so it would only be useful when going mostly downwind. Still if it’s cheap and easy to deploy it’s free energy when it can be used. An interesting parallel is the spinnaker sail used on a typical sailboat flies much like a kite and can only be used within a similar downwind range. It’s a very powerful sail when it can be deployed.

  • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    The trouble is that it takes decades to create an effective sail captain and crew, and it’s insanely hard dangerous work. Read some accounts of how sails were actually managed back in the day, and it’s terrifying (at least for people without a head for heights, gaaah).

    • baked_tea@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The good part is you can program a computer to manage the whole system, with human in the loop.

      • 667@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Depends on the kind of sail. If they’re using any kind of spinnaker or kite sail, it requires human hands.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Maybe read the article? It’s talking about a new kind of sail that’s literally a giant kite attached at the end of a line and kept flying hundreds of feet in the air above the ship by computer control. Not a spinnaker or kite sail; something closer to a parafoil.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s why this is different and they aren’t talking about going back to fully-rigged sailing ships.

      (Actually, who are we kidding? They couldn’t care less how hard and dangerous the work was. The real reason they like this new design because it doesn’t have masts to get in the way of loading cargo.)

      • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        To be fair, a lot of the work can be automated or remote controlled with today’s technology

  • eltimablo@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    ITT: people getting mad that someone tried modernizing an old idea in an attempt to do something good.

  • Greenknight777@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Hey everyone…listen…hey…I got the greatest idea ever. We attach…listen… we attach the kite to a pole on the boat.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      New super-economy class of cruise ship passenger just dropped.

      No money to afford a spot on the climate refugee cruise hyper-ships? Pay your way by turning the screw and paddling! Nutrient cubes included in package, so long as you stay in the tail.