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Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

marineinsight.com

111–120 of 281 posts

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I plainly stated that society should not bow to my needs and that those who contribute to society and are a part of society are more important than me, what more do you want?

I know, I know. Look, I'm sorry for nitpicking. I actually agree with the idea of having a lower footprint, reducing, etc. I think you're doing a good thing, and I hope you stay safe at sea.

We all get hung up on such things on occasion, realizing it is probably better than never doing it.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#112
post #101

This ship carries 5300 tonnes of cargo. The average transoceanic container ship carries around 150,000 to 250,000 tonnes.

Use it for luxury goods! "Why _my_ iphone arrived in Baltimore on a clean cargo ship, so yeah, ..." I am only half joking. Anything luxury of vanity related, just add the fact they've gotten to the consumer on a clean ship and you'll find some people to pay extra for it. The more expensive the better. They can brag about it to each other.

Conspicuous nonconsumption of fossil fuels... Hmmmm.

I doubt Apple is lunging to do this tbh.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#113
post #84

They have a passenger service too! €3200 for France Baltimore, 13 day trip. But with that you get three meals a day, a decent looking cabin, private bathroom, private balcony, and internet service (though how solid the connection is / what surcharges there may be is a question). ~€250/d doesn't sound too bad, and you could get work done along the way. Kind of sounds nice... https://www.voilasailcoop.fr/transatlantic/…

The first thing I thought when I saw the article was, I wonder if they have passenger service.

Due to longterm conditioning from reading tech article headlines and discussions, my brain now autocompletes the word "cargo" to "cargo cult" every time it sees it in a tech context.

So I read "Largest cargo cult sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing" and was immediately intrigued...

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. If it isn’t cheaper it isn’t on the board for the next decade or two outside niche routes. The hard part is in making it economically viable. We already know sailboats work.

That’s a decision we, as a civilization, need to make. I personally hope we manage to enact transnational policies that effectively price environmental and social externalities in my lifetime. Or else witness “free market” capitalism continue to degrade our planet and the lives of millions of less privileged people.

> That’s a decision we, as a civilization, need to make. I personally hope we manage to enact transnational policies that effectively price environmental and social externalities in my lifetime. Or else witness “free market” capitalism continue to degrade our planet and the lives of millions of less privileged people.

Name one decision that the entire human civilization has ever consciously made

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you pricing in the externalities of GHGs?

No. If it isn’t cheaper it isn’t on the board for the next decade or two outside niche routes. The hard part is in making it economically viable. We already know sailboats work.

That really big question for society is how to force GHG emissions externalities to the polluters. In the current political climate it doesn't appear possible...

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#116

"World’s Largest Cargo Sailboat Completes Historic First Atlantic Crossing Using Auxillary Engine" Fixed it. I am pretty sure there is a reason why the very fast Clippers were replaced by steam engines 150 years ago. I guess we can learn why again.

Crew requirements? And we can learn that technology has change in the last 150 years so those same requirements no longer exist.

No ones suggesting building a sailing ship like they did 150 years ago. Just that the wind is still an interesting source of power.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#117
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...how do you think trans-oceanic trade was done before steam or diesel powered ships? Plenty of customers don't care about latency, just cost. No fuel = no fuel cost.

You're really missing the point. The volume of cargo carried by sailing vessels in the old days was orders of magnitude lower. Not even remotely comparable to the current global trading system. Customers care about total cost, not just fuel. There is also crew wages, maintenance, insurance, capital depreciation, etc. Sailing vessels that carry useful amounts of cargo are much slower than equivalent motor vessels so a…

> The volume of cargo carried by sailing vessels in the old days was orders of magnitude lower.

Surprisingly, no, it wasn't. I'll slightly fudge the numbers and talk in terms of proportion of world trade that was carried by ocean-going vessels (because if you double the population then it's reasonable to talk about doubling the number of ships).

The world economy was very globalised in 1913. That level of globalisation in trade wasn't matched again until the 1990s.

We're only a little more global now than we were in the age of sail.

The British navy and merchant fleet was a wonder of its era.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#118
post #40
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a dim recollection of exactly this as a VC proposal likely put to YC in the past 24 months or so. I think the notion was to fit masts to existing container ship and stacks, and I gsve it scant attention as my intuition (I once studied actual civil/mech engineering prior to jumping ship for applied math) suggested masts are better as integral parts of ships rather than bolt on after thoughts. EDIT: Wingsails to…

"suggested masts are better as integral parts of ships rather than bolt on after thoughts." It seems quite mad that we even need to debate this. Wind is free power and we have at least 2000 years of engineering to draw on how to use it. Any propulsion unit needs to be effectively attached to a ship. Screws are attached longitudinally, low down and push. Sails are a bit more tricksy. A triangular sail mounted along th…

This is all interesting, but is there a reason trianglular and rectangular sails can't be bolt on after thoughts?

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#119
post #99
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you have autonomous ships this size, like a waymo for the ocean?

What would be the point? Ships are complex machines and the ocean is an incredibly harsh and unforgiving environment. You would need crew to simply maintain the ship while underway and fix things that break (which pretty much always happens). Next, these ships can be downright dangerous for other, smaller ships. It has happened before that large cargo ships have killed people on sailboats when they didn't keep an ade…

Also if the ship is large enough to send economically feasible, the value of the cargo is so huge that a few crew won't affect the bill.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#120
post #89

They have a passenger service too! €3200 for France Baltimore, 13 day trip. But with that you get three meals a day, a decent looking cabin, private bathroom, private balcony, and internet service (though how solid the connection is / what surcharges there may be is a question). ~€250/d doesn't sound too bad, and you could get work done along the way. Kind of sounds nice... https://www.voilasailcoop.fr/transatlantic/…

I crossed the atlantic twice, each time for 650 euros the 13 days… add 250/300 euros for internet

Have long been interested in something like this. From where to where? How did you arrange the trip?
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