[HN Gopher] Largest Cargo Sailboat Completes Historic First Atla...
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Largest Cargo Sailboat Completes Historic First Atlantic Crossing
Author : defrost
Score : 34 points
Date : 2025-11-08 19:57 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.marineinsight.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.marineinsight.com)
| aerostable_slug wrote:
| > The 136-metre-long vessel had to rely partly on its auxiliary
| motor and its remaining sail after the aft sail was damaged in a
| storm shortly after departure.
|
| Well, that's a bummer. That said, this does seem the way of the
| future. We just need to either figure out maintenance robots
| and/or find a way to keep human crew happy on long, slow voyages
| across the Pacific.
| rdl wrote:
| The rigid aerofoil sails seem more maintenance-free. Some of
| those are inflatable as well.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Apparently late 19th to 20th century wind cargo ships had their
| crew essentially subsidized by the fact that some countries
| (IIRC in Scandinavia?) required commercial sailing experience
| to get a pilot's license. For bulk cargo (e.g. grain or guano)
| the economies worked out.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron-hulled_sailing_ship
| Aurornis wrote:
| > or find a way to keep human crew happy on long, slow voyages
| across the Pacific.
|
| The few people I know who pursued jobs on boats did so because
| they liked being out at sea, away from land.
|
| Combine that with the modern availability of high speed
| internet via Starlink and entertainment is not a problem.
| waltbosz wrote:
| > find a way to keep human crew happy on long, slow voyages
| across the Pacific.
|
| Makes me think of Rory Sutherland's ideas for getting
| passengers to be ok with a long ride duration on the Eurostar
| https://www.instagram.com/reel/C98_wbssLjG/
| nradov wrote:
| You've got to be kidding. Using a fully sail powered cargo
| vessel is a PR stunt, not the way of the future. Regular
| motorized cargo vessels will probably use some form of sails to
| slightly reduce fuel burn on downwind legs but it's physically
| impossible to move huge volumes of cargo purely by sail power
| in an economical way. There just isn't enough energy in the
| wind.
| Aurornis wrote:
| 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 journeys.
| defrost wrote:
| 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 reduce cargo ship fuel consumption_ (April
| 2023)
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35426482
| I'm Joseph, and along with Arpan and Bailey we are the founders
| of OutSail Shipping. We're building a sail the size of a 747
| that rolls up into a shipping container.
|
| https://outsailshipping.com/
| https://www.linkedin.com/company/OutSail-Shipping/
| When deployed, it will generate thrust from the wind to reduce
| the fuel consumption of a cargo ship. An array of these devices
| will reduce fuel consumption on ships by up to 20%. These sails
| are easily stowed and removed to cause no interference with
| cargo operations. Here's a short video showing our
| prototype:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUpVqzpym54
|
| Not quite as I remembered .. kite sails, et al. are a good
| idea, I'm still a bit torn by the physics of a container
| deployed boom extension sail and the thrust transmission to the
| ship. Still, I haven't modeled it, so take my thoughts with a
| grain of salt.
|
| EDIT2: Both links appear dead, so I guess that was a swing and
| a miss. Still, good to see such ideas pursued.
|
| EDIT3: Also related
|
| _350 tons of of chocolate and wine arrive on world's largest
| cargo sailboat_ (April 2024)
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40022801
| tengwar2 wrote:
| This is an area I have some peripheral involvement with. For
| retrofitted sails on bulkers, the figure of 10% saving in
| fuel is the usual one mentioned rather than 20%. However
| given the long life of ships, there is much more interest in
| retrofit than in new build.
|
| You mention container ships. I haven't seen anything explicit
| on these, and I think the reason is probably that they cruise
| much faster than bulkers and tankers, which means the
| potential savings from sail is smaller. I would have thought
| 20% optimistic even for a new-build.
| defrost wrote:
| Retro fit is clearly a preferred path for a new approach
| given ship life spans and size of existing global transport
| fleet.
|
| My gut objection to the container approach taken above in
| the first link was existing container locking mechanisms
| for ships can struggle in severe weather to keep the boxes
| on the boat .. additional forces from a sail (in good
| weather) might well mimic the forces that break stacks in
| bad weather.
|
| Your point is well taken, I might suggest that container
| ships could be segregated into fast and slow cargo and that
| might help somewhat with total fleet fuel consumption.
| (pure spitball notion).
| barbazoo wrote:
| Made me think of this a couple months back
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/11/shipping...
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