Sailing cargo ships are coming back

[Norm L.]

I lost the link to the latest one so you could see the photo. It is a barque rig but the sail rigging is interesting. All of the new sail rigs are familiar. They are square and triangular.
Everything is self-furling or folding. Masts can be telescopic.  Everything has to be out of the way to handle cargo. Shore cranes, container cranes, grain elevator spouts, all need room.
 
You will never see all hands running out of the focsle to change sail or to tack. It will all be done from the airconditioned wheelhouse (where they are no longer wheels. I guess they could be called tiny tillers.) You don't need a salty captain and a bucko mate. All sail shapes are controlled by a computerized system. It reads local speed and sea condition and local weather along with satellite input data coming in from professional weather routing companies. Sail material covers all kinds of synthetic "cloth" or molded shapes.

While some of these look really cool, I'm thinking forward visibility, human or radar, is restricted. Since sails are only wind assistance, engines are running so there is no sail advantage in the Rule of the Road.

Some are making money because their shippers are paying high rates for the use of such a ship. They get it back in PR, marketing and ESG points.

If I find the link again I'll post it. You can find photos of the modern versions, many retro fitting, but few that still look much like an older sailing ship.

[Wayne Howard]

This company?

https://www.sailcargo.inc/

[Norm L.]

That is one of the earliest. I posted something about them years ago when all they had was the keel and starting on ribs. I sent them some money. They still have a long way to go before it floats. They are doing it as it was done 150 years ago so it is slow.

I found the picture. This is the barque rig. 160' with a battery bank that is charged via sailing (in water turbine?) to power electric propulsion when needed. It will be used for commerce in the Marshall Islands.

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This is one of the other ends of the science. This is Michelin's inflatable sail system. In the first photo it is full use. In the second partially deflated so it can pass under bridges. It can be fully deflated so it is lower than the deckhouse.  Michelin also has an inflatable main sail for yachts, at least in the testing stage.

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Some of the closer to normal sails are done with a new rig whose name I can't remember. One of you will. It's the sail boom that pivots on the mast and is like a lug with part of the sail ahead of the mast. This is simple as apparatus in the mast can allow the watch in the wheelhouse adjust the angle. Although a computer will be constantly trimming the sail angle.


I did have a thought on visibility with sails. They can have radar and modern day/night optics on the bow.