A Return to the Age of Sail?

[kentonio]

I don't particularly remember there being no go areas for sailing ships in days gone by. If the worst comes to the worst, you can tack against the wind. Failing that, limit their routes to places that can take the best advantage of the prevailing wind conditions. They didn't call them 'trade winds' for nothing you know...

Basically I'm basing this on years of sailing small boats, so it's quite possible there may be stuff about the huge ships I'm not familiar with and so I could well be dead wrong. But..

It's not about no go areas but rather about the necessity to keep moving in response to changing wind conditions. You can't just ignore a sudden wind change because the forces are easily strong enough to make the hull keel over significantly, which on a heavily loaded vessel is REALLY bad news for everyone. This isn't necessarily a huge issue (hell, we used sail for a few thousand years after all) but it does mean that you're likely to be taking a much less efficient course than if you only have wave conditions to think about with an engine.

End of the day though these guys are maritime engineers, so you'd assume they have it all worked out. I just can't get my head around how you can go back to sail without losing efficiency though.

[MOBIUS]

Well of course you're losing efficiency, but if you're transporting non perishable goods where cost and not time is the issue, then it seems to me you're onto a winner...

[MOBIUS]

There was a story about the Manchester ship canal enjoying a renaissance in trade for that very same reason.

Plans to increase Manchester Ship Canal traffic by 70%

Manchester Ship Canal sees freight 'renaissance'

[kentonio]

Yeah but asking cargo fleets to train their captains to adapt to actually sailing again seems like a bit of a tall order. Then again, who knows. Would be awesome if it actually worked.

[MOBIUS]

Can't you just be positive about stuff for a change...!?

Oh wait, you're a conservative...

Where there's a will, there's a way!

[kentonio]

I thought I was being positive.

[MOBIUS]

Maybe that's positive by your standards...

[kentonio]

I haven't been to sleep for 24 hours, right now I can't actually imagine happiness in the world.

[H Tower]

Belfast-based B9 Shipping is working on a 21st-century version of the clipper, complete with three masts backed up with a Rolls Royce engine, fuelled by liquified natural gas.

How about instead of getting a woody for sail, they worked more on a engine/ship propelled by LNG, which is supposedly cheaper at this point than oil?

[MOBIUS]

Because that is still a fossil fuel and besides wind power is essentially free.

[I AM MOBIUS]

Still a good idea!