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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

#271

Post by mmooss »

adriand wrote: post #80
BurningFrog wrote: post #72

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

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

I read about the US Navy's work on autonomous ships. One big challenge is the lack maintenance. Sailors can perform periodic and break-fix maintenance throughout the journey, and if something unpredictable happens, they can handle it.

The autonomous vessels need far higher robustness, not only to function without maintenance for months at a time, but reliably enough that few of them end up lost or stranded at sea.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#272

Post by BurningFrog »

mmooss wrote: post #271
adriand wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I read about the US Navy's work on autonomous ships. One big challenge is the lack maintenance. Sailors can perform periodic and break-fix maintenance throughout the journey, and if something unpredictable happens, they can handle it. The autonomous vessels need far higher robustness, not only to function without maintenance for months at a time, but reliably enough that few of them end up lost or stranded at sea.

Yeah, you may not need a crew to steer the ship, but it's far more effective to do maintenance while it's moving cargo than while it's doing nothing in a port.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#273

Post by NetMageSCW »

beezlewax wrote: post #179
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?

Why does that cargo all have to be on giant ships vs tons of smaller ones?

Overhead - there’s a fixed overhead to building ships, maintaining ships, crewing ships, supplying ships. If that overhead can be amortized over more cargo, it is cheaper.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#274

Post by rdtsc »

prmoustache wrote: post #236
rdtsc wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My observation is that prople interested in luxury stuff are usually those that have the least interest on their carbon footprint. It's rather more interesting to them if luxury stuff is made out of the rarest and most undangered species possible. Also diamonds mined by kids are more popular and expensive than fabricated ones.

> My observation is that prople interested in luxury stuff are usually those that have the least interest on their carbon footprint.

That's probably right. I guess I was thinking of the smaller segment who are more publicly visible and want to at least look virtuous while still bragging to their peers.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#275

Post by madaxe_again »

happyraul wrote: post #189
madaxe_again wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took the Queen Mary across a few years ago and it suuuuuuuucked and cost a frigging fortune. Their main target markets appear to be mennonites and uptight assholes.

What sucked about it? I've been considering it for a long time as an alternative to flying across the Atlantic.

It’s a Carnival cruise. If you like going on cruises you’ll probably like it. I don’t like cruising - and we went with our four year old, and there is literally nothing for kids to do on board, (there’s a “kids club” but it was closed for the duration) and they aren’t allowed into the dining room, so we ended up living off the crappy buffet and the very limited room service menu.

Our stateroom also hadn’t been cleaned when we boarded, and they had problems with the black water system so several decks just stank of shit. Our balcony had a persistent leak above it, so we couldn’t use that either.

The tickets themselves weren’t that much, but then it’s about €1,000 for internet access, and they nickel and dime you on absolutely everything, while not allowing you to have the things you already paid for - our bill on departure was about €4,000.

Oh, and at disembarkation in Southampton they destroyed two of our suitcases, and told us to go cry harder - and then it’s a three hour wait for a taxi.

Honestly, the whole experience was pure crap.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#276

Post by deepsun »

contrarian1234 wrote: post #142
deepsun wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

that doesn't really make any sense. You'd just overestimate the time and if you arrived ahead of schedule you'd wait out at sea for the "correct" time

Not so easy. Oftentimes there's no place to store the offloaded containers, and parking spaces are limited too. Probably a ship can also park "on the street" aka in open ocean, if weather agree, but I didn't see that.

Same thing with train carts that arrive to pick up the containers -- there's little place to park them to wait.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#278

Post by dhosek »

namibj wrote: post #178
dhosek wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Many freighters have space for the 12 passengers they're allowed to carry before they get reclassified to passenger ship with all the post-Titanic SOLAS requirements those incur. The first 12 however are easy, they self-select to be low-maintenance, they just get their breakfast/lunch/dinner portion from the ship's cook, and have their cabin. A little electricity, reasonable running water, and they're contend. Essent…

Yeah, I’m aware of that and I hope one day to do this myself. A somewhat isolated time like this seems super appealing to me.

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#279

Post by brucehoult »

LightBug1 wrote: post #277
brucehoult wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol. EDS at its finest. I don't like Tesla and its cars any more than you do, but SpaceX and StarLink are amazing.

[flagged]

Gosh. I hope you don't use Facebook, or an iPhone, or any product from a company backed by YC.

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages." -- Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776

Re: Largest cargo sailboat completes first Atlantic crossing

#280

Post by LightBug1 »

brucehoult wrote: post #279
LightBug1 wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Gosh. I hope you don't use Facebook, or an iPhone, or any product from a company backed by YC. "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages." -- Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Natur…

It's funny you mention those. I don't use any of them!

Listen, it's pretty simple. Where I have a real choice, I will attempt to make the best choice available. That's what money is. The very voting mechanism that drives capitalism. A bit more conceptually solid than Mr Smith's invisible hand.

And, by the way. With Mr Musk, I definitely have a choice.

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