How to design a sailing ship for the 21st century? (2021)

These newly built traditional ships are simply insignificant in the face of the volume of goods transported globally. They are passenger vessels for people who want to experience forgotten time while also delivering some feel-good. Definitely a viable business, but it does not replace global logistics.<p>The EcoClipper in the article is said to take 500 tons of cargo, that is 23 TEUs (Twenty-foot equivalent unit) [1] by weight. Ever Given the ship that got stuck in the Suez canal carries 20 000 TEUs. That is by volume. Not all can be fully loaded by weight, but still. There is a factor of about 1000 between them. Add on the reduced speed for the EcoClipper, and you need ~4 000 sail ships to replace it.<p>Now we haven&#x27;t even gotten into cargo handling since the EcoClipper can not easily be unloaded directly by crane.<p>Simply, it is too low scale.<p>What is truly interesting is, for example, the Oceanbird program by Wallenius and Alfa Laval [2]. That is making Ro-Ro vessels aided by the wind, ensuring that you get the efficiency gains and hit the slot times in port. The Ro-Ro, Roll-on, Roll-off, part is important since that means you do not clash with unloading requirements coming from cranes.<p>The shipping industry is also looking into synthetic fuels and hydrogen since the infrastructure is relatively centralized, and they rely on the energetic density of chemical fuels. Where the trips are measured in hours rather than days or weeks batteries are being deployed.<p>A nice short film from the latter parts of the era of sail is &quot;Around Cape Horn&quot; from 1929, when the narrator worked on one of the large four-masted barques. [3]<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Twenty-foot_equivalent_unit" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Twenty-foot_equivalent_unit</a><p>[2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theoceanbird.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;orcelle-horizon&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theoceanbird.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;orcelle-horizon&#x2F;</a><p>[3]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=9tuTKhqWZso">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=9tuTKhqWZso</a>

&gt; then the EcoClipper500 would have a carbon footprint of about 2 grammes of CO2 per tonne-kilometre of cargo [...] This is roughly five times less than the carbon footprint of a container ship (10 grammes CO2&#x2F;tonne-km) and three times less than the carbon footprint of a bulk-carrier (6 grammes CO2&#x2F;tonne-km).<p>Sadly, this doesn&#x27;t seem like a lot, to be honest. Especially, for all the downsides a smaller ship has,

One thing they don&#x27;t seem to have mentioned was hydrofoils.<p>It would be more for time critical shipments, but hydrofoils can greatly increase the speed of sailing vessels, but would need proper design for the sea state (such as routes to avoid larger waves, different hydrofoil designs less for speed and more for safety&#x2F;reliability, etc.).<p>The Olympic windsurf race in 2024 will be the first one with hydrofoils. America&#x27;s Cup racers with the AC75 class are already on foils, with very high speed (~60mph), sometimes over triple the windspeed. Windsurfers on foils now can triple or quadruple windspeed in light winds.<p>This tech is much more common now, and has exploded in the last 10 years in various different water sports. It would just need to be adapted to a different need than just racing.<p>AC-75 racing class: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;OQsXDdGxk3U" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;OQsXDdGxk3U</a><p>IQFoil racing class: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=FAKfbk_kB_4">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=FAKfbk_kB_4</a>

&gt; For example, if 60 people on board the ship would take a daily hot shower – which requires on average 2.1 kilowatt-hours of energy and 76.5 litres of water on land – total electricity use per day would be 126 kWh, more than double the energy the ship produces at a speed of 7.5 knots.<p>I&#x27;ll note that those figures are for a Hollywood shower, not a Navy shower. A Navy shower uses about 11 liters of water, and I assume energy use is proportional to water use.

Somewhat unrelated, but I adore their ‘solar’ subdomain mirror that runs on solar power alone. It’s fun to see compelling commitment to the ethics espoused by the articles in the very site itself.

Off-topic but that first picture circa 1920 of the 4 sailors up on the mast is such a storm is amazing. It commands respect to the work and life of those men.

I&#x27;m currently reading a book about US submarine operations in WW2. By 1945 the Japanese had lost so many cargo ships that they started using sailing ships again.

&gt; <i>Two rowing machines could provide roughly 400 watts of power. If they are operated around the clock in shifts, they could supply the ship with an extra 9.6 kWh of energy per day</i><p>Rowing 200 watts is not exactly easy. That&#x27;s like 2:00&#x2F;- splits, &quot;ramming speed&quot; type power. Half that seems more reasonable.<p>I do like the idea, though, of a sailing ship with ad hoc erg&#x2F;rowing power.

I enjoyed watching the Netflix documentary &quot;Untold - The Race of the Century&quot; - but of course it shaped sailing ships in the 20th century: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.netflix.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;81026435" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.netflix.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;81026435</a>

More precisely, how to replicate designs from the 19th century.<p>A shame, because modern materials should allow more radical designs - for example as used in the Americas&#x27;s Cup competition nowadays.

The &quot;12 crew and 12 passengers&quot; would, as far as I remember, require one doctor on board. The number of passengers a cargo ship may take without dedicated medical staff was ridiculously low and explains why it is so much harder&#x2F;expensive to travel on board as a passenger than one would expect. (8 years ago it was $200&#x2F;day and up)

&gt; How to design a sailing ship for the 21st century?<p>Late 21st century? Put wheels on the bottom of it...

I think it’s high time these cargo ships were fully automated. At least as far as the point after which the local pilot comes onboard.

&gt; it’s more likely that a switch to sailing ships is accompanied by a decrease in cargo and passenger traffic, and this has everything to do with scale and speed. A lot of freight and passengers would not be travelling if it were not for the high speeds and low costs of today’s airplanes and container ships.<p>&gt;It would make little sense to transport iPhones parts, Amazon wares, sweatshop clothes, or citytrippers with sailing ships. A sailing ship is more than a technical means of transportation: it implies another view on consumption, production, time, space, leisure, and travel.<p>Yes, of course they beat around the bush with weasel words like &quot;another view on consumption&quot;.<p>Let&#x27;s translate this for what it is: &quot;poor people, you can no longer have luxury goods&quot;. The &quot;rethinking&quot; is always telling us that the wealth we&#x27;ve enjoyed as a high energy species should go, only to be given to our &quot;betters&quot; - because they can always afford it. But they rarely ever say this out loud because it&#x27;s an impossible sell, so they use mealy mouthed euphemisms.<p>Fuck these people, honestly. I don&#x27;t want to live in a world where, in the name of equality, we take progress from those who have it. Give it to more people.