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Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

marineinsight.com

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Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#131

Post by ainiriand »

deepsun wrote: post #47
turpialito wrote: post #44

Napkin calculation: The Neoliner Origin cruises at 11 kts (20Km/h). "Straight line" on Google Earth from Saint-Nazaire to NY is about 5300 Km, so it crosses the Atlantic in 18 days. The Emma Maersk (which I am aware plies a different route, but just for comparison's sake) cruises at 25kts (46Km/h) and therefore takes about 5 days.

I worked with maritime shipping folks, and they always say "We don't care how slow it is, but we care A LOT to estimate the time it takes right". The logistical chain is long, so delaying one link breaks the whole chain, and that's costly.

This is one thing my company tries to solve!

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#133

Post by cl3misch »

JeremyNT wrote: post #85
Aurornis wrote: post #5

I love that they're trying this. It appears the more practical goal might be retrofitting existing vessels with large sails to augment the motors, but making a point with a fully wind-powered vessel is a good show. Well, it would have been fully wind powered if not for the damaged sail. Good on them for sticking with the journey, though. I hope they keep running the vessel and get a few more fully wind powered journe…

Rotor[0] retrofits already have been done on full size tankers[1]. This is probably a more reliable and practical solution than traditional sails. 0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk_Pelican

But why would you use a motor to spin a rotor instead of a submerged propeller?

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#134

Post by titannet »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #39

This seems to be a tiny vessel ... just 5000 tons of cargo. Most container ships carry more like 200,000 tons of cargo. Can sails scale to carry that much cargo? If not, I fear the economics will not work out for sails alone. Perhaps sails plus something else makes more sense?

It's a Ro Ro ship for rolling cargo. Not a big one and without the additional car decks an ocean going Ro Ro ship typically has, but for what it is the cargo capacity is reasonable.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#135

Post by Towaway69 »

moron4hire wrote: post #21

This is just an unresearched idea so no for of feasibility, but what about helical windmills to generate electricity to augment power to a motor, ala hybrid gasoline/electric cars?

It’s probably one of the best understood methods of crossing oceans, just that all the knowledge has been forgotten.

Recall how slaves were transported from Africa to the Americas.

How gold was transported from the South America to Europe and sugar from the Caribbean.

And not forgetting how opium was transported to China by the Europeans from India.

So transporting stuff by sail is definitely not “unresearched” rather it is a forgotten technology.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#138

Post by Ekaros »

cl3misch wrote: post #133
JeremyNT wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rotor[0] retrofits already have been done on full size tankers[1]. This is probably a more reliable and practical solution than traditional sails. 0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk_Pelican

But why would you use a motor to spin a rotor instead of a submerged propeller?

No mechanical linkage. Basically just installing rotor on top of the deck and some electric connections are needed. Much simpler and much less error prone. Plus keeps all the usable space on decks below.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#139

Post by titannet »

wffurr wrote: post #33
moron4hire wrote: post #21

This is just an unresearched idea so no for of feasibility, but what about helical windmills to generate electricity to augment power to a motor, ala hybrid gasoline/electric cars?

More efficient is something that directly provides thrust like a flettner rotor.

E-Ship 1 exists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Ship_1 They report fuel savings up to 25%, so it may be viable for some ships types and voyages. But a long way from propelling the whole ship.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#140

Post by krasin »

In the meantime, China is constructing nuclear cargo ships ([1], [2]) that will be able to transport 14,000 containers at full throttle (200MW) without a need to refuel for years.

Obviously, it's still not done, and yet to prove to be profitable, but their reactor design does suggest that they have a chance to make it work and replace a lot of CO2 emissions.

1. Original article, but paywall: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3331031/chin...

2. Derivative (+based commentary), but no paywall: https://www.chosun.com/english/world-en/2025/11/07/MND3QUGUT...

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