Interesting idea!

This is wild!

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-gigantic-high-tech-sailboat-uses-the-power-of-the-wind-to-transport-7-000-cars

Try this too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flettner_rotor

We'll see if it will catch on or not. Note that the speed for the ship in the OP is 10 knots, while the other one is 16 knots or less. That is way slower than diesel-powered cargo ships of that size. Whether shipping companies will accept running that much slower, in exchange for saving fuel costs, remains to be seen.

Of course, this is a trawler forum, so a lot of the people here think running slower is a fine thing. But even here we have participants who readily accept the increased fuel costs to be able to go faster.

Anyway, it is interesting what some people are coming up with nowadays.

Fuel cost will go down. Labor cost will go up. If fuel cost go down more than labor cost go up it will catch on. If not, then it’s dead on arrival.

Why would labor costs go up ?

Benthic2 said:

Why would labor costs go up ?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the poster had in mind, but if a boat is going slower, the trip will take longer, and the crew will thus have more working hours in, more food will be eaten, etc. So the crew cost would go up.

They are also going to have to charge less than companies with traditional diesel-powered ships. If I am an importer, and I have a choice between a company that gets my product in from China in four days versus one that takes seven or eight days, then the slower company is going to have to charge significantly less for me to go with them. I would never pay the same amount for much slower service.

So, there are a whole bunch of economic factors that go into determining if this is feasible or not.