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theWunderknabe t1_j8mzirk wrote

Trying to revive traditional sailing for modern commercial shipping is a dead end. It requires too much manpower (meaning: more than current commercial shipping requires) to operate these, too much maintenance and too much deckspace. Add to that the relative unreliability because the wind is not always blowing of course and it is just not economical viable.

The solution to still use the wind as a power source is to use Rotor Sails (Flettner Rotor) - these can be fully automated, require very little maintenance, have a 8x higher efficency per area and require far less deckspace compared to traditional sails.

However, if we still want our cargo delivered in the same reliable time schedules this will only always be an additional thing to the diesel main engine. It makes not yet sense to have the main engine be electric on such large ships, because the required battery capacity would require an enormous volume of batteries.

As far as sailing goes I think the rotor sail is the future.

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BlG_DlCK_BEE t1_j8sn064 wrote

Did you read the article?

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theWunderknabe t1_j8tnj4q wrote

Yes and they fail to mention alternative sailing systems and technologies alltogether and instead follow the example of the Ecoclipper, which does not present a suitable method for mass freight transport using wind powered or -assisted systems. It is a nice showpiece, but a 19th century solution - not a 21st one, as the articles headline promises.

A true 21st century sailing ship solution would offer comparable performance as a standard ship and have significant advantages in efficency, ultra-low maintenance and low cost when compared to a traditional sailing set up.

They end with the note that a (traditional) sailing ship transport economy would require a drastic cut down on the amounts of cargo and/or passengers that get transported, or a massive increase in the number of ships and crew required which is a understandable conclusion - but it is made only under evaluation of the Ecoclipper (and similar) example which represents obsolete technology.

With actual current day technology the transport volume can stay the same or even grow - while decreasing costs. Rotor sails could offer lower costs, higher effectivity, lower maintenance and more unobstructed deckspace to add solarpanels and windturbines. With that in mind the conclusion would be much different - namely that wind powered or rather wind- (and sun) assisted shipping while keeping modern requirements for speed, costs, power consumption etc. is totally feasable.

This article seems to be like an argument "Well computers are nice and all, but producing them is really terrible for the environment. Perhaps we should return to calculating by hand on paper and accept that it is slower - but that would be so much more environmental friendly!" Which would be unworldly naive. Humanity never ever downgrades on such things. Instead it finds solutions that offer the same or better performance at lower costs. It will be the same with transport.

Or perhaps you should elaborate what you think I got wrong.

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