User:Bfree010/sandbox

A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails. The generic term covers a variety of boats, larger than small vessels such as sailboards and smaller than sailing ships, but distinctions in the size are not strictly defined and what constitutes a sailing ship, sailboat, or a smaller vessel (such as a sailboard) varies by region and maritime culture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailboat

Wind propelled vessels have been the standard in transport for hundreds of years but have been confined for the leisure sector since the invention of the steam engine. Although arcane the technology is sound and can still be used today. There still many modern applications for this ancient technology.

There is much to be gained from going back to wind technology. Aside from the obvious benefits savings and increased efficiency the global impact from ever increasing emissions could be lessened. New ways of reducing the fuel consumption of large trade vessels are being researched and one way involves harnessing wind power to reduce the consumption of fuel on long ocean voyages. Wind powered ships may be something we see more of in the future. Wind power is plentiful and cheaper than oil and German company Skysails has been refining their wind propulsion system to reduce fuel consumption on large boats by 10 – 30% by using their towing kite propulsion system. Skysails technology has created a solution using a high quality lightweight rope made with Dyneema fibre (the world’s strongest fibre) and a kite system that can be retrofitted to existing vessels. The kite is deployed off the front of the vessel using a launching system and is automatically controlled to fly in a figure 8 pattern at 100 to 300m above the sea surface to provide maximum towing power. By using a figure 8 movement the kite generates 25 times more power than conventional sails of the same size. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkySails This system isn’t widely used due to it being a new concept and the cost to benefit ratio not being as inviting necessary to drive demand in the shipping industry. The SkySails company suffers from the current economic crisis, as amounts of cargo transported around the world remain lower than before 2008 and ship owners are currently unwilling to invest the necessary funds for alternative propulsion systems. In January 2012, SkySails had to lay off half of its 80 employees. As of 2012, SkySails has failed to fully recover the venture capital invested into it.

Another type of hybrid wind powered ship is the NYK Super Eco Ship 2030 The Eco Ship will make use of progressive technologies that have the potential of being realized by 2030. The power needed to propel the ship can be lessened by decreasing the weight of the hull and reducing water friction. Propulsion power can be increased through use of fuel cells, solar cells, and wind power, all of which will lead to a reduction of CO2 by 69 percent per container carried. The current plan for the vessel is highly guarded and not openly available so this may actually be a viable venture and may soon be in production. B9 Shipping is accelerating, through collaboration, the development of 100% renewably powered commercially and technically viable sailing hybrid cargo ships. They are commercially viable today and future proofed for a 30 year lifespan. B9 cargo ship could usher in a new era of fossil fuel–free technology at a critical time for the shipping industry, which is facing the prospect of soaring greenhouse gas emissions as the global import-export market trends upwards. The B9 is the innovation of Ireland-based B9 Shipping which is part of the B9 Energy group. The rigid sail design actually existed before the Maltese Falcon; which is a scale model of one of the largest luxury yachts. The foundational technology of this ship dates back to the 1960′s. There are numerous advantages of the ship over canvas sail. Aside from durability, the electronically operated system requires no rigging lines or hand operation, and it responds quickly to changing wind conditions. It has been recorded that the Maltese Falcon has crossed the Atlantic Ocean twice and has reached a top seed using a Dyna-rig system. It also uses its sails about half of the time and the auxiliary power are provided by biogas which manufactures the cargo ship from food waste stream this is the same gas engine used from Rolls Royce. The final design of the ship will consider the flow of work in concerns with shipping industry, primarily for loading and unloading cargo. However, B9 isn’t the only ones trying to come with new ideas on how to save on energy and gas or wants to produce the world’s first commercially viable and reliable wind powered cargo ships so the more efficient the models are the closer they will be to creating the biggest cost efficient maritime there is. With this information we can concluded that there is a need for wind powered ships and the reintroduction of wind power. Companies all over the world are trying to discover and come up with better ways to save energy and fuel. With the wind power sail ships it will cut the cost of energy budget down tremendously. Being able to have a boat that transports all goods and services across the seas that is powered only by wind would be the idea means of transportation that innovators are proving to be more of a successful innovation every day. It has been demonstrated that wind powered sail ships are not a fail but can very easily be overlooked or not taken into consideration not because it is not efficient but because it has been put on the backburner for some many years. With the new innovations and concepts the re invention will soon be re introduced.