The scale of a sail needed to propel a cargo ship is really quite a bit different from what you might imagine on an old frigate, aka a “pirate ship.” Making a sail that large out of traditional materials is not feasible, and would require a ton of people to operate it. One of these monstrosities is staffed by probably less than 20 people, and labor is expensive, so this sort of solid material, computer operated sail can be both feasible and cost effective, whereas old school type sails were not
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%.
Hundreds of years of innovation in water travel, and we come back to a sail. Granted, a metal one, but still a fucking sail.
The scale of a sail needed to propel a cargo ship is really quite a bit different from what you might imagine on an old frigate, aka a “pirate ship.” Making a sail that large out of traditional materials is not feasible, and would require a ton of people to operate it. One of these monstrosities is staffed by probably less than 20 people, and labor is expensive, so this sort of solid material, computer operated sail can be both feasible and cost effective, whereas old school type sails were not
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%.