Comments on: Wind Powered Cargo Ship Sails Like a Luxury Yacht

By: BB

BB — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 05:00:00 +0000

what is the dimension of this ship?

By: RobS

RobS — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:36:00 +0000

YouTube the Maltese falcon, the control and furling of her sails is quick and infinitely adjustable, it really is a nautical engineering masterpiece of great beauty.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 13:10:00 +0000

Can’t tell that much from the drawing above, but the “battens” look pretty large. They could be furling booms which would let each section roll up like a window shade.

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I was sort of right. Here’s what the wiki page says about the Maltese Falcon’s rig…

“. The DynaRig is effectively a square rig, the mast is freestanding and the yards are connected rigidly to the mast. In this case each mast supports six yards. The yards, unlike a conventional square rigger, have built-in camber of 12%. The sails are set between the yards in such a way that when deployed there are no gaps to the sail plan, enabling each mast’s sail plan to work as a single sail. The sails, when not deployed, furl into the mast. The sail is trimmed to the wind direction by rotating the mast. As there is no rigging, the yards have no restriction on rotation and this, taken together with the curved (shaped) yards, low windage and effective single-piece sail, combine to give the rig improved aerodynamic efficiency compared to a traditional square rigger.”

By: Stan Stein

Stan Stein — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 12:19:00 +0000

.Very cool…….funny how man’s early technology comes back around, with a new twist, and then due to a few new ideas, can become a competitive technology.
I do, however, question this type of sail’s ability to withstand stronger winds…asn it would seem impossible to “trim the sails” to prevent absorbing too much kinetic energy. It would be helpful to understand what means there are to to this.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 19:53:00 +0000

Reminds me of Chinese junks with the fixed battens….

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 18:16:00 +0000

If the mock up is anything to go by, it’s also quite evocative of long passed eras of ships.

By: Rahulprabhurr

Rahulprabhurr — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 11:21:00 +0000

Solar sail, and Australian based company is doing the same..

http://renewindians.blogspot.in/