No Joke: Cargo Ships Are Now Being Fitted With Sails, Because Science, or Something

From our You Could Never Make This Stuff Up in a Million Billion Years file comes a story from the intrepid energy transition boosters at Bloomberg, headlined, “Giant Cargo Ship Gets Fitted With Sails in Effort to Cut Carbon.”

I kid you not: That’s real. Seriously. The screen shot of the landing page above proves it.

I remember lampooning this idea more than a year ago when it was first being proposed, but can’t find it now. Maybe it was two years ago - who knows? Time flies when dealing with rank absurdities like this one.

Anyway, at the time, I figured it was just so much noise, a company signaling carbon reduction virtue by talking about a concept too preposterous to seriously pursue.

Silly me. I should have remembered that no idea can ever be too preposterous for the religious adherents to the Global Church of Climate Alarm™ to pursue in their cultish obsessions over the trace element of human-caused CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere.

https://blackmon.substack.com/...ack&utm_medium=email

Going back to utilizing wind to power cargo ships has been considered for years. Long ago I recall "the next generation freighter" a massive ship with automated sails being on the front of Popular Science.

Wind powered ships for thousands of years. If they find it’s economical to do, using a mechanical operating system that saves fuel while not adding too much on the labor side, I’m all for it. That said, I’m skeptical as hell that the fuel savings will offset the cost of additional infrastructure on the ship and the additional labor over time to actual make it economical and anything more than a worthless gesture intended to grab headlines and please the man-blaming climate crowd.

If they can ensure stability and save fuel, reducing costs, makes sense. If merely for "Climate Change" it's ridiculous.

I suspect this is more about the rising cost of oil fuels rather than any "planet saving" initiative.

Don't be surprised in a few years, when we have Greens complaining about these ships "using up the wind" they need for their off-shore windmills. More "science" you know.

If it works and it's cost-effective, why complain?

The problem with wind turbines is that they're not cost-effective and have a detrimental effect on wildlife, not to mention being an eyesore.

Solar farms get torn apart by the first bad storm they encounter.

If using the power of the wind to move ships saves fuel, why would anyone complain? Do these sails harm wildlife or scar the lansdcape?

Most sail boats lean due to the force on the sail from the wind.

For oil & gas, not sure we want very large crude carrier and ultra large crude carrier class vessels leaning. That's 200,000 to 500,000 deadweight tonnes.

Then, I start thinking about the cargo ships with the conexes stacked higher than the hull height and I'm even more skeptical of those leaning. Looking at new Panamax class they're stacking conexes 10m high and the hull is only 6 m. Megamax-24 class vessels are stacking conexes 13m high and the hull height is 12m.

The risk of capsizing seems rather large. Environmental disaster for supertankers, and huge business disruption if a ship goes down with 24,000 conexes.

If they were smart they would say they are just doing it to save fuel cost and not for woke climate reasons.

quote:

The risk of capsizing seems rather large. Environmental disaster for supertankers, and huge business disruption if a ship goes down with 24,000 conexes.

Sounds like increased insurance costs would soon be more than fuel savings.

It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of a battery powered car was the laughingstock of the automotive industry. The thought that it could be powerful, with decent range was a joke, to say the least. I personally ridiculed the concept back from 2006-2011 when I was very active on a Nissan forum.

Now I drive one.

Wind power is free. I think its a great idea and honestly is a backup incase engines go down. Manmade climate change is bullshit but I think this is logical.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
Most sail boats lean due to the force on the sail from the wind.

For oil & gas, not sure we want very large crude carrier and ultra large crude carrier class vessels leaning. That's 200,000 to 500,000 deadweight tonnes.

Then, I start thinking about the cargo ships with the conexes stacked higher than the hull height and I'm even more skeptical of those leaning. Looking at new Panamax class they're stacking conexes 10m high and the hull is only 6 m. Megamax-24 class vessels are stacking conexes 13m high and the hull height is 12m.

The risk of capsizing seems rather large. Environmental disaster for supertankers, and huge business disruption if a ship goes down with 24,000 conexes.

If you look at the link it points out that these are not sails in the typical since, these are Anemoi Rotor Sails shouldn't cause the ship to lean under wind power.



The big question is can they produce enough power to overcome the extra weight of the sails, the cost and maintenance of them as well. Like Solar power on a home or EV's people often discount the actual cost of the power production units as if it's nill in the analysis of the true power costs.

Transporting cargo by ship goes back to the beginning of time. Rates are probably extremely competitive. Anything that cuts costs and risks would makes sense.

You can't fight economics with ideology in the real world.

How about submarine container ships that ride currents?

I'm guessing they will supplement the conventional power, not replace it completely.
If cargo liners could reduce their fuel costs by 20-40%, that would be a huge savings.

Update: These work nothing like I thought. This short video explains things better that anything else I found although it's not real big on details.
While they do play up the green aspect in the marketing, the green money savings are what will make this a winner or not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2jyOgg-T64

The ships will capsize and insurance rates will negate the cost savings. They put these gadgets on ships with no testing, no cost analysis and for their slovenliness, they will pay dearly.

Do I have that right, guys?

I'm confused. Are the "sails" pushing the ship like traditional sails, or are they being used to generate energy to power the propellers?

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
Most sail boats lean due to the force on the sail from the wind.

For oil & gas, not sure we want very large crude carrier and ultra large crude carrier class vessels leaning. That's 200,000 to 500,000 deadweight tonnes.

Then, I start thinking about the cargo ships with the conexes stacked higher than the hull height and I'm even more skeptical of those leaning. Looking at new Panamax class they're stacking conexes 10m high and the hull is only 6 m. Megamax-24 class vessels are stacking conexes 13m high and the hull height is 12m.

The risk of capsizing seems rather large. Environmental disaster for supertankers, and huge business disruption if a ship goes down with 24,000 conexes.

I know nothing but wouldn't a keel be necessary. I guess it depends on the effectiveness of the main sail, jibs etc. They would have to be huge, no?

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
The ships will capsize and insurance rates will negate the cost savings. They put these gadgets on ships with no testing, no cost analysis and for their slovenliness, they will pay dearly.

Do I have that right, guys?

I looked this up between first posting and it's nothing like a conventional sailing ship. I don't see this as something that causes heeling (leaning) that is experienced on a conventional sailboat.
While it used the wind to generate forward motion, it's totally different.
See the video I just posted a few minutes ago.
Here it is again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2jyOgg-T64

Cargo ships retrofited with the sails shown won't lean because they are not sailboats. Sailboats don't lean while sailing downwind which is the only direction retrofitted cargo ships will benefit from the sails shown. Without a keel, a sailboat would just be blown the direction the wind was blowing. The keel is what allows a sailboat to sail perpendicular to the wind and even less than 90 degrees to the wind.