this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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the_dunk_tank

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Honestly if they've improved the efficiency of sails then that's great, but this marketting text is still silly enough to go here.

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[–] asg101@hexbear.net 47 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Sort of like the white explorers "discovering" Machu Picchu...

[–] huf@hexbear.net 23 points 2 years ago (1 children)

yeah, except this is white explorers discovering hounslow...

[–] asg101@hexbear.net 17 points 2 years ago

hounslow

or fire.

[–] Dolores@hexbear.net 42 points 2 years ago (2 children)

i was reading about this stuff when we had a thread about hare-brained eco-schemes, what's significantly different about this technology is it's "self rigging" and computer controlled. it's a sailing ship with low enough labor costs to maybe be feasible for commercial use.

[–] context@hexbear.net 30 points 2 years ago (2 children)

it's also intended to be retrofitted onto existing cargo ships to drastically reduce fuel consumption and emissions, but they're still in the design/concept stage and have only recently announced that they're building the first full-scale prototype sail.

[–] Dolores@hexbear.net 33 points 2 years ago (3 children)

it's pretty neat and good within the acknowledged confines of the economics, tbh. still think it'd be more fun to employ 80 people rigging but c'est la vie

[–] Wakmrow@hexbear.net 25 points 2 years ago (2 children)

And sing shanties while we're at it

[–] Dolores@hexbear.net 21 points 2 years ago

the world needs more singing civilian sailors i swear

[–] SacredExcrement@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago

We'll heave him up an away we'll go

'Way, me Susiana!

[–] Shinji_Ikari@hexbear.net 17 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Young men yearn to die at the hands of the Atlantic currents

[–] Dolores@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago

dash mine drown-ed corpse against the rocks and feed me bloodied bits to the mako

[–] Philosoraptor@hexbear.net 9 points 2 years ago

The masculine urge to drown in a squall

Though experiments at upgrading sails are century old, first rotor ship was constructed in 1924 and this looks like next iteration of turbosail, tech from 1980's.

[–] Egon@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Self rigging has been around for years though, plenty of yachts have it.

[–] Dolores@hexbear.net 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

i don't think lateen yacht rigging is that transferrable to cargo, maybe someone's trying to up-scale it that way too... but looking at old clippers it seems very challenging

[–] Egon@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Oh no I meant like square riggers with fully automatic sails. Got a tour on a brig with that stuff. They don't allow the machine to trim the sails though, they're afraud it'd break.

P-liners would probably be our best idea of what a modern cargo sail ship would be.

[–] Dolores@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

damn, that sounds cool. it might be more expensive or not automated enough wrt trimming (surely they could figure this out) & that's why the op sort of thing are getting more hype

or the op type is gadgetbahn snakeoil and actual sail-powered cargo will eventually be mostly automatic clippers

[–] Egon@hexbear.net 3 points 2 years ago

It was very cool to see! Though also kinda sad, because the only reason they have made those advances in sail technology are because it allows them to cut down on labour costs. Like it's all just done to make it so they have to pay less people money. There's nothing better about the sails themselves, the ship is as fast as it ever was, it's just more money for the owners.

[–] tactical_trans_karen@hexbear.net 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Related tech, I think someone's been working on spinning cylinders as sails. They're omnidirectional or something, pretty cool. But industry dummies fret over sails on cargo ships because "muh cranes". Like bro, we've split the atom, we've put people on the moon, we edit DNA, we have quantum computing, someday we'll have nuclear fusion... And y'all say you can't figure out how to stack boxes around a freaking pole, or maybe have an enclosed deck that side loads? Just a little bit of a work around to help our planet not turn into Venus?

[–] Sickos@hexbear.net 16 points 2 years ago

Rotor ships are old tech! They existed and worked in the 1920s!

[–] SwitchyWitchyandBitchy@hexbear.net 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Let's combine ships and trains. Tug a bunch of engineless freight ships out to sea and then link them up with a ship with huge efficient sails that can tow a bunch of open ocean container barges. No idea if it's practical or not but I like the idea of sailing trains.

[–] jack@hexbear.net 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Have a really strong swimmer pull the boats

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 16 points 2 years ago

yeonmi-park They force starving swimmers to pull the train-ships

Antifa ~~supersoldiers~~ super swimmers.

[–] theturtlemoves@hexbear.net 3 points 2 years ago

I'm guessing braking without (1) causing a pile-up or (2) snapping the tow-lines will be a problem.

[–] Infamousblt@hexbear.net 28 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This cannot be real there is no marketing team this dumb.

[–] huf@hexbear.net 21 points 2 years ago (1 children)

i googled it and i did find the quote but it was from some kind of "isnt science cool?!??!?!? I LOOOOOVE SCIENCE" type shit rag, writing about the project.

[–] BynarsAreOk@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago

"isnt science cool?!??!?!? I LOOOOOVE SCIENCE"

Alex Kurtzman writing team taking notes right about now.

[–] Adkml@hexbear.net 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yea it's a great idea but the absolute lack of historical literacy to write "worlds first wind powered sailing vessel" is mind blowing. They're fucking named after the thing that catches the wind to make it go.

[–] Fishroot@hexbear.net 21 points 2 years ago

Watching training videos on how to be part of the amazon aquatic rowing fulfilment center

[–] D61@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

The Onion:

"When Boeing's airplane fuselage's all imploded, CEO's brainstormed ways to use all the left over wings. In a genius move using the now spare wings has improved efforts to reduce fossil fuel use /green house gas emissions while also adding a new revenue stream to the beleaguered aircraft company. What was this genius idea? Mounting the wings on top of cargo ships..."

[–] flan@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

forgot the word "cargo" before "vessel". Looks like they're actually building these things though so it'll be interesting to see if they work

[–] SmokinStalin@hexbear.net 20 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Most of the big sailing ships we think of in the past were for cargo so 🤷

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oldest known sailing ships were made by Egyptians around 4000 BC, and through small, they did have sails and most likely were used to carry cargo. First historically mentioned sea cargo was iirc pharaoh Cheops importing copper from Sinai.

[–] Dolores@hexbear.net 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

going back to 4k bce to organize an anti cargoship luddite movement amongst the copper ass-porters of tge sinai desert

Anticha - Anti Chalcolithic Aktion

[–] flan@hexbear.net 7 points 2 years ago

fair enough

It's also fugly as hell as if someone merged Greek triere, British clipper and tesla car.

[–] tombruzzo@hexbear.net 8 points 2 years ago

Bro read Ministry For The Future and made a startup 😂😂😂

[–] SteamedHamberder@hexbear.net 7 points 2 years ago

Reject modernity etc.

[–] Chapo_is_Red@hexbear.net 6 points 2 years ago

What do they think powers other sailing vessels?