Folks, this story is not from The Onion or any version of sarcastic media. This is very real.
To meet the compliance standards of the Paris Climate Accords and the subsequent treaty that all EU nations agreed to, they must reduce carbon emissions in freight and transit systems. They have spent thousands of hours pouring over possible solutions and will begin the test phase next month.
Bloomberg News – At the start of next year, the Ville de Bordeaux, a 154-meter-long ship that moves aircraft components for Airbus SE, will unfurl a 500 square meter kite on journeys across the Atlantic Ocean. It will undergo six months of trials and tests before full deployment.
While the industry has come up with multiple decarbonization initiatives, it is struggling to keep pace with goals set out under the Paris Agreement on climate. There’s also pressure on shipping lines from large customers who are pressing to make their own supply chains less polluting. (read more)
Yes my friends, the extremely well educated scientists, physicists, climatologists, sustainability engineers and cross functional decarbonization problem solvers for the planetary saving climate justice agenda, have invented…. wait for it….
….Sailboats!
Look at her trying to hide her face…..
Like the criminal she is
Our “woman of color” senator. The color in her case is cadaver white. She was in the Berkshires a few years ago talking to a local farmer. He had a stand with corn and I was there to buy some so I slid between her and the stand and backed her up. Well..the effrontery. She hopped in her limo and they sped away in a cloud of dust. Scum of the earth. Good riddance
Elon Musk socked it to her on Twatter
Now that Trump’s off Twatter, I relish Musk’s twits
Yea, but you should see how well the design works – on paper!!
Seven-Masted Schooner link to picture
https://postimg.cc/ctdwLt34
I haven’t read all the comments so I beg everyone’s pardon if this has already been mentioned.
That is a huge sail and all out over open water. Sails were designed to be attached to something like a mast.
Wind dies down, this sail goes in the water.
I wonder how many whales that thing can trap? How much of an environmental impact would hundreds of these have littering our oceans have?
These people are idiots.
“These people are idiots…” — yup, that’s been mentioned!! Again and again, the stupid stuff they do and say is considerably beyond anything we would have thought to accuse them of doing or saying!
That’s so true. We joke about their stupidity, and they amaze us by doubling down.
The Marxists don’t care about the environment or animals…….it’s all lip service / virtue signaling.
Their greed and power and control are the most important things
Maybe there’s a big fan on the ship aimed at the sail. I’ll bet they thought of that.
And what would power the “big fan”?
A team of genetically engineered hamsters on an exercise wheel.
Unvaccinated wheel turners.
Politicians running around in circles.
😂 that’s a lot of hot wind!
Solar powered of course.
Can only imagine how many of them will become entangled in the ship propellers and strand it in the middle of the ocean.
Yep. Fellow Hoosier here. We need to find a way to gather us all together for a beer or a fireside sanity chat.
That would be fun! A fireside chat with sane people is always welcome.
No t just that…how are they going to fill that thing when the wind does blow, have someone stand on the bow and toss it in the air ??*facepalm*
Actually what the morons are proposing is somewhat of a huge Spinnaker. But unless the prevailing wind is steady, that will easily drop into the water and be quickly overrun due to the ship’s momentum, finally becoming entangled in the propeller(s).
Hybrid ships (sail and engine powered) have long been designed and a few even built and used as floating test labs. They entail multiple masts and were originally square-rigged, but later designs included different sail shapes.
This article rang a bell in my head from a few years ago so I checked back and sure enough our buddies at CNN were “floating” this idea almost 10 years ago….
https://www.cnn.com/2012/10/12/tech/sailing-green-merchant-ship/index.html
My dad was a sailor. He attended the Naval Academy briefly and transferred over to the Merchant Marine Academy. I wish to heck he was around to chat with about this. He’d be laughing his rear off.
Thanks for the article.
Yes he would have had a really good chuckle over these morons’ fantasies.
My brother in law attended the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London CT (became an officer in the USCG) and during one of those 4 years as a cadet, he had to go out on the Coast Guard’s training cutter, USCG Eagle for 6 weeks or so. That was quite an experience. It has a significant inboard engine, but it’s not designed as a hybrid. This link provides a good overview of that ship’s mission.
https://www.uscga.edu/eagle/
She’s a beautiful ship. I saw her when she was in San Francisco years ago, 2008 as I recall.
So…how about some Real Science?…I don’t possess the education to answer this question but I DO know the question is easily answered by a/some appropriately educated individual/s….what level of solar/wind power production will be required to operate a 300,000 barrels per day oil refinery feeding heavy/sour crude reliably? …Righties/Lefties/Inbetweenies?…..I do not know but I guess….dozens of square miles of solar panels and a massive….massive beyond current capacity…storage facility….C’mon Treeps….drag it into the light…
New plan –
….green eyed lady ocean lady…soothing every raging wave that comes….(sugarloaf)
Great Hammond B3 organ solo in that tune.
I guess that music was ‘funk’?….not really sure….had a ’67 LeMans back then….blue with a black vinyl top…jacked up in the back and 260 hp on tap…fun times
😂 We’ve come full circle!
Go ahead, Make My Day!
They aren’t serious because The Plan is depopulation to 500 million per the World Economic Forum and other such bonehead globalist demonic organizations. The trillions they wish to spend is mostly for one another to fund their transhumanist future fantasies.
Our government has fallen. It’s all just a show.
Concur. Completely. Strip away their feel good rhetoric and eco-syrup, what’s left is they’re power mad thugs who want us dead.
It gives a whole new eaning to the phrase, “Go fly a kite.”
OK…so how do the refrigerators on cargo ships carrying perishables stay powered?
With global warming there will not be enough ice.
AOC should be spending time in an insane asylum if we had any………She deserves a brutal attendant.
GO fly a kite!
What about ✈?
~> 🎈 🎈 🎈
Back to the age of the sail! Let’s try sails on private jets! 😂
It does not seem like that sail has tacking abilities. 100s to maybe 1,000 year old technology had boats that could tack to 45 degrees into the wind.
Ever try and keep the spinnaker open even heading straight down wind? This is going to be a mess so big it will make the prairie schooner look genius.
I don’t think we should be so quick to dismiss this sort of thing. Quite frankly, it’s smart engineering and well-understood technology that humans have been using for thousands of years.
Here’s a design that uses inflatable sails from IEEE mag: https://spectrum.ieee.org/michelin-puffy-sails-cargo-ships-improve-fuel-economy
This is not as dopey of an idea as you might think. In the airline world, the North Atlantic Track system takes advantage of the jet stream going to Europe from the US (west to east) which provides a tail wind. The jet stream track changes frequently and there are different wind speeds at different altitudes and latitudes. Knowing this, east-bound flights use the most fuel-efficient tracks (the airplane itself acts as its own sail), and the west-bound flights travel in tracks that minimize the jet stream effects.
At sea, shipping lanes take advantage of ocean currents and trade winds. Most of the world’s shipping lanes owe their heritage to the sailing ships of old. Why would they do this but not take advantage of surface winds? Actually, they already do. All this is really about is increasing the ship’s ability to harness that which they are already harnessing inefficiently.
AOC is a ridiculous ding dong, but she has nothing to do with why the shipping companies are testing various engineering designs for sails. We might as well mock airlines for their winglets and other engineering design factors that improve fuel efficiency. Even if gas was $1/gallon, companies for which fuel is a major cost driver would be looking for technologies that reduce fuel consumption because it is one of the few variable costs that they can dial.
This has been a popular science suggestion for decades.
They just need to find designs where the mass/complexity of the sails is safe to operate and doesn’t erase the fuel cost savings. People experience this all the time, like flying LA to Philly and getting there 45 min early due to a tail wind. I drove from Flagstaff to Durango last summer with a huge tail wind…my F150 was averaging 26mpg. Usually it gets about 20mpg highway. The truck acts like a huge sail.
I don’t think anyone is ridiculing efficiencies. But did you look at the actual picture of the concept??
I never trust “artist conceptions”…it almost looks like a meme. That’s why I posted a link to an IEEE (actual engineers) report on the same topic.
Put a few bouncy-houses on their decks and strap ’em down good. They like to fly too and take people with them. MMMMMMMight work.
You’re not wrong.
I’m actually surprised that the concept doesn’t involve inflatables on the sides of the ship. To get the most efficiency, you wouldn’t fly a kite. The cables are prone to breaking and basic geometry says that if you pull up at an angle (like a kite), some of the force lifts “up” and some of the force pulls “forward”…so all the “up” force is basically wasted. If you mount inflatables on the sides of the ship, you put the force vector in the same direction as the velocity vector, and you also are putting the force vector closest to the center of mass of the ship.
Work = Force x Distance x cosine(angle) If the angle is zero, you maximize work (energy).
The kite is a silly idea. But the actual engineers are coming up with stuff that we already know works. My guess is the kite is an attempt to get more surface area to generate more force, but the end result is bigger cables, more weight, and tangled sails.
Will they have the same for semi-trucks? Would love to see those kites on the highway!
😁
Not to be snarky, but you already have seen versions of this on the highway. Any truck you’ve seen with those huge fins below the trailer and the hood over the cab…those are designed to decrease drag. They also have the effect of improving fuel efficiency during tailwinds. I’m not suggesting kites on tractor-trailers, but using the wind when you can and decreasing its impacts when you can’t is an actual thing.
Crosswinds eat my old ford ranger alive but would have driven an old tea clipper to incredible speeds….and did…some records set by the fore and aft rigged multi.masters stand to this day…
Check out windy,com…great website
I’m a snowboarder and I use windy.com daily, great site!
Yep. I have a Ford F-150. I drove from Flagstaff to Durango last summer with a strong tailwind the entire way. I was averaging 26mpg, and there were long stretches of that drive where the gas needle didn’t budget for 40 miles.
We had 70mph+ winds yesterday near my house, trucks got flipped all around the area: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/newselection2020/overturned-trucks-block-i-25/vi-AARR6fL
I know. I was really being snarky about those giant kites.
They also have these on the back of the trailers. They say it’s to save on fuel.
https://www.ccjdigital.com/business/article/14928359/crunching-the-numbers-how-to-do-the-math-on-aerodynamic-device-savings
Leftism is neo-feudalism. All leftist schemes are regressive.
The arrival of the steamship was the birth of the modern industrial mentality. Ships could promise to depart on a certain date. Industries could therefore plan their schedules months in advance.
Sailing ships had to wait for the tide and the wind, sometimes for weeks. A return to the sail is a return to the pre-industrial world.
I’m not going to dismiss this out of hand. Harnessing that availible kenetic energy- for the cost of the equipment needed- may make some economic sense. I recall, during the energy shocks of the ’70s a few experiments were made using what amounted to an aircraft wing mounted vetically on the deck, able to rotate into the wind. The “lift” of the wing transferred through its mount into forward motion. Another used a cylinder with vertical openings, creating a turbine motion which generated electic power to drive propellers. Obviously this form of sail is of no use upon approach to a harbor, but in the Equatorial trade winds it may work well (I’d be leery of using this sail in the ‘Roaring Forties’ of the southern Indian and Pacific oceans.) Recall that in the great age of sail, Yankee traders made a two year voyage from Boston to China- and got rich off that trade…..
You can’t run a just in time inventory for a manufacturing facility based on wind
Man, I’m gob-smacked every day by the rampant idiocy exhibited by the perpetually ignorant Greenies.
Cull three masts and put on three fat=head hobie style sails…skinny down the jibs and add three more…plus a spanker….all sails controlled by electric winch from cockpit….
At least it’s Airbus gear going down with the ship and not Boeing. Airbus has been screwing us in the aviation industry for years.
The world’s gone crazy! Sailboats, aye, aye captain – look, on the horizon, why, is that a pirate ship, with a motor? Oh dear, what shall we do my captain?
But motors are against the law. Oh right, they’re pirates.
If I remember right,there were large clipper ships that hauled a lot of cargo and were fairly quick for their day. Bring back the tall ships. Arg…
Your memory is somewhat faulty. Clipper ships didn’t carry a lot of cargo, they had a slim beam. They were fast tho, but not as fast as todays container ships.
My mechanical and aerospace engineer wife that works on gas turbines laughs.
Now if they would just let us manufacture the stuff here (over reg’s), we wouldn’t need these ships now would we. just sayin.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
So, their answer is the exact same method Christopher Columbus and the Vikings used to sail around.
This has to be a joke.
About those supply chain issues. How were they in 1492?
Actually, considering the cost of fuel may be soon, having auxiliary sails might not be a bad idea.
Just wait until they propose windmill cars . . .
Nah. They’ll just require people to walk or pull wagons. No animal power, ’cause that would be cruel and unusual.
How the hell are they going to control that thing?
Don’t we already have the technology to power ship with nuclear?
The anti carbon crowd also don’t like nuclear, just listen to them. They are not actually anti carbon, they are anti people.
True, and Anti-Carbon is Anti-Life, ALL life.
Humanity is saving Earth from certain death from complete carbon sequestration.
MAGA: American Clipper ships!
We could own the seas yet again!
Whomever designed this clearly is not a maritime history student nor a sailor.
To quote one of the Left’s darlings, Bill Maher: “If you say, ‘Let’s eat in the bathroom and sh—t in the kitchen,’ yeah, that’s a new idea, but I wouldn’t call it interior design.”
GIANT YARN!!
Everyone forgoes cars and trucks and utilizes bicycles and horses. This will advance societies to 18th century. Make Mao Great Again.
Not me…got a 1980 Honda
400 twin, an ’89 klr650…and an ’03 roadstar 1600…screw bammies $6 gas
That’s not “just stupid”
That’s AOC STUPID
She is definitely stupid….but that’s where marketing has gotten us…larger than a pet rock but half as smart….
…but don’t think for an instant that she isn’t a Che Guevara waiting to happen…her eyes shine the light….
tacking will make the crossing take months…….just ask christopher
why not fill the holds with lithium batteries
At this point, maybe they should just build like a giant ski lift with a windmill to power the cable. Imagine if you will massive pylons attached to the bottom of the ocean towering well above the sea surface. As you gaze at the sky, shipping containers will be swaying as far as the eye can see…
What if you do not want to go where you are being dragged? What then?
That’ll be the ride of their lives in a hurricane!!!
Kiteboarding Kerry…
?w=1024&h=670
Is Lurch taking off for Iran in this picture ?
Let’s have him kiteboard way to the next climate summit, please.
Thought for sure that the cargo sailboats graphic was from a Babylon Bee article.
Blow boats
Anyone who remembers the late 60s/early 70s well recalls ideas such as this. We called them ‘acid trip pipe dreams’ which were hatched at all night pizza & mescaline bull sessions on commie college campuses.
They were BS then, today moreso. Their originators are older, fatter, much richer, but none the wiser. But they are running things., being treacherous power mad individuals who’ll do anything for more power and money.
Yeah this is not new at all. Just a decade or so ago they were touting returning to the age of sail for the largest ships to ever ply the oceans. I remember kites for oil liners a good 15 years ago.
So for the extra funny 😄
Just came up with?
My favorite was that we were all going to defeat the energy crisis by heating our homes with wood stoves. That was their first renewable energy brainchild until they factored in air pollution and clear cutting.
If not for all their anti-nuclear demonstrations, we would be getting over 50% of our electricity from zero emissions nuclear power.
Now, environmentalists are tearing down clean hydro-electric dams all over the west for the sake of esthetics and salmon.
They’ll never make any sense.
You know, I thought the Yankee clippers of the 1800’s were replaced by steamers going across the oceans. I guess the quote that there is nothing new under the sun is dead on.
It just proves, there is nothing new under the sun. The Vikings built the great long ships for decades, all countries used sails. Then men evolved the ships. Now instead of using sails, they call it a big kite. These people are lunatics and insane. Another crusade is needed here and in other countries to stop this madness, and the insane sensitive military rules that will ruin our military.
How about oarsmen, on standby, in case there is no wind!
In the meantime, China laughs and ships its goods anyway they want to. Bunch of idiots running the show right now.
Not only that, but China will likely be the manufacturer of those large sails for the ships. AND… the sails will be shipped from China to Europe using good ol’-style tankers.
Reminds me of the time that I was in a debate with some lefty liberals who were all for eliminating the oil industry. When I pointed out that they were sipping FIJI water out of plastic bottles. I told them, “Your water is surrounded in oil. Not only in the made-from-oil plastic bottle, but also from the amount of energy burned to move water from the remote island of Fiji all the way to America… just so YOU can drink water from far away.”
They had no clue.
They never do.
They never will.
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In the 70’s several of my sailboats were outfitted with Neil Pryde sails from Hong Kong. Most of the fibers in sail cloth were from Dupont. Koch bought the fibers and most comes from their plants in China. Including Spandex for panties that people get into a knot. Investa is the brand now.
What if these giant ships with sails get caught in the Doldrums?
What are the doldrums?
The “doldrums” is a popular nautical term that refers to the belt around the Earth near the equator where sailing ships sometimes get stuck on windless waters.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/doldrums.html
and
““Historically, with the uncertainty of the fleet getting stuck in the Doldrums, it becomes very difficult for us to work out ETAs, which has a huge knock on effect for supporters and the logistics of crew both leaving and joining for later legs of the race. So, we use the Doldrums Corridor rule, which allows yachts to motor over six degrees of latitude”
https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/news/article/the-doldrums-corridor-explained
Idiots that are owned by China.