Sci-Fi boats anyone?

Sailpower - why not? streamlined bipod mast (on hinges) fitted with a crab claw hanging between the 'shears'! single wire to winch as head stay! haul away up comes the mast, sheet home the single crab claw and your off! Wanna dive? Slip the hook on the head stay, controlled lower on the shear legs, the whole lot drops on deck, hatch closes over the top, dog down dive! Shouldn't be to hard to devise and streamline the system.................now there's a thought!!!!!!!




Straight of the top of my head!

 

I would suggest that if the polar ice caps continue to melt that the salt content of the seas would get lowered, which would effect the buoyancy of any future boat design.

Attention to tiny details can help the affect of the overall story, right?

I'm thinking along the lines of some kind of compensator.

Also the craft would be 100% rototic and not manned at all.

 

If its not manned whats the point?

 

What's the point of any of us?

The big question begs the big answer.............and the adventure begins.

 

Damned if I know - but hell it's fun finding out eh!!

 

>>crab claw hanging between the 'shears'! single wire to winch as head stay!
um... are you teasing the landlubber? got a picture of what youre talking about?

>>effect the buoyancy
possibly, but i'm supposing that while sea levels have risen and many glaciers have disappeared 2065 will not be a conveyor-shutoff scenario, something which I imagine would happen long before the aggregate buoyancy of the worlds oceans would change significantly.

>>What's the point
yeah, back to my scenario, the point is to board pirate/pirated ships with soldiers and robots cant even walk yet. Lets characterize the scenario as advanced conventional, or near-future sci-fi. mk?

 

Perfect for robots, dangerous reconnaissance missions that UAV's are doing today.

As far a "walking", I'm sure they (robots) can out walk (or dance) us in 58 years.

And as far as you know, I could be a robot right now (or a dog).

If you want to know whAt the military will be using tommmorow, look what they are willing to fund today.

SBIR/SITIS
http://www.dodsbir.net/

Current Solicitation(s)
http://www.dodsbir.net/solicitation/default.htm

 

Sci-Fi boats anyone

God, Kach...you sound just like my wife...only she makes it more personal...

 

Sus, we're brain-storming here, there's no such thing as 'ridiculous' in a brainstorming session, and anyway, I like the drawings.

I'm not a great fan of nuclear (even if it does actually work). It's been used in so many novels as some sort of wonder power system that can do anything and therefore doesn't need to be technically sound - it can do anything just because it is nuclear, the authors haven't constained their usage to even the theorhetical limits of nuclear (which must exist).

Bare in mind I have no techincal background in this field, I offer my opinion as a would-be reader only.

 

They use nuke power on military vessels now, why not in the future? But Fusion power plants, not the current fission type (very big difference, if you do not know the difference you will have to look that up for yourself). But making it small, compact and efficient means you will have a large amount of power at your disposal for all kinds of uses, including energy weapons? They will have small fusion power packs available long before they ever make hydrogen batteries compact and efficient (I have studies them both), at least not without a technology break through with batteries. Fusion plants (not fission) yeild clean power without waste and uses low risk readily available fuel from heavy sea water (not radio active BTW).

Forget the sails, they have NO USEFUL function on a military vessel unless your intent is to camouflage it as a pleasure yacht. Come to think of it that might be an interesting idea, and the only reason it would have sails at all, especially if the purpose is to hunt pirates and smugglers. Think of how bad guys might react when they think they will be overtaking and sacking a wealthy guy's pleasure yacht, and it takes off on foils powered by a fusion powered turbine, and comes back around to bite them. What fun.

You could not have a vessel (or a mission) like this by an unmanned vessel, there are too many important on-the-spot decisions that have to be made. Particularly if you have hostage situations, or risk civilians (human shields).

But there would be a good reason to have a number of specialized remotely piloted subs to go inspect things, take pictures, sabotage drives, etc. You could have a whole inventory of these kind of devices. Make sure you make realistic limited power/batter life for such craft, with appropriate range and practical telemetry control distances.

And make it bit bigger, like 60 to 70 feet. That way you can have a small squad of weapons and special ops personnel, as well as several different mission specialists and tech types on board. If it is a cat or trimaran then it need not have to have a deep hull. In fact looking at the Italian Hydrotere it almost looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. It is awsome.

 

Why is everyone so anti-sails?
What about if your Fussion (hey, I just invented a new technology, not a typo) plant packs up - it happens in all the best stories at some point or other.

I like the idea of camouflaging as a pleasure/merchant ship, but still think we can come up with a futuristic sailplan - maybe a kite even?
Of course Murphy's Law says that if you do loose all other forms of propultion - it'll be on a day that you're becalmed anyway

I was thinking about a small, 2 man?, rapid response craft carried on board [I've got a nice sketch here on my desk I just made, but no scanner ] - think Avrocar launching off the aft deck.

 

Wave powered boat!
http://www.tsuneishi.co.jp/english/horie/index.html
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19719

 

If the fusion plant "packs up" there would be no left alive to sail it anyway.

If there is no power at the power plant you switch to battery drive, and solar recharge. Of course the futuristic pleasure yacht sail boat "decoy" would always have the "wind drive" back-up.

 

>>crab claw
im liking the sound of safewalrus idea. i just wouldn't know where to begin with a collapsible mast on rotating joints, can you help me understand whats necessary to make her sail? It doesn't have to be the best of all possible race sails, in fact as a backup system it should favor simplicity over performance, though i'm concerned if we have this big metal boat its gonna be too heavy or require many people to operate.

>>and special ops personnel
yes, ok after proteus I'll be needing a production version which will be larger and have marines quarters... yes and angry little robot submarines too XD

>>fission.. why not in the future?
its not a matter of why not, i'm not here to examine every possibility, a small nuke is feasible but problematic in whys my protagonists wish to avoid. on the other hand the combustion engine is tried and true and if we can make a fission 80 footer we can damn well make a rechargeable gas tank - imagine fast breeding algae that ferments itself... even if it takes a day or two to recharge its bio-diesel on demand

>>fusion
its future is far from certain and is being pursued on is ecological-alternative potential

>>fussion
yeah, i heard of that, very cool stuff, except the part about juggling baby geese... that just wasn't funny

>>wave action
lol

>>camouflaging
its interesting yeah, i've been focusing on various forms of ambush from both sides - this isnt a conventional war after all

>>that you're becalmed
the doldrums cant last forever, as an emergency system a sail would reduce a life-threatening situation to an annoying one

the strongest argument against a sail function is it might never be necessary, but as long as power systems are complex or require refueling things can go wrong.

 

Hi, Sus,

Great project! It sounds like you're working up a concept for a boat to be used in a story you'll be writing. I'll proceed on that assumption. I think it's a good concept, as there is much discussion in naval circles about efforts to combat threats from small but extremely nasty nations and/or groups, so a great focus on littoral operations. You'd be right in the mix.

A few comments: Fusion (and it's deadly cousin, fussion ) has been mentioned, and criticized as not feasible for you near future world. I think fusion is a good option. Near future writing has unique hazards; your concepts can be overtaken by sudden advances in technology, so what was cutting edge or innovative becomes dated in a few years. An example that comes to mind is "Choosers of the Slain", (Yes, Max, the title is from Kipling) an excellent novel of naval combat written in the late 1990's and set around 2030. A "futuristic" naval destroyer fights off attacks by a power bent on taking over Antarctica to exploit secretly discovered oil reserves. The book was a best seller, and became a series. The ship is described as far advanced beyond anything conceived in the late 20th Century, but her major elements, i.e. all electrically operated systems, stealth design for a low radar profile, main engines which are direct drive electric motors mounted outside the hull with the props and pivoting for enhanced steering, small stealthy helicopters with miniaturized air-to air missiles carried in internal bays, all became standard equipment in some naval and even commercial ships within 2-3 years of publication. The author himself admitted that he was amazed at how rapidly technology had overtaken his imagination. Another element was pure bad luck. The ship was named Randal Cunningham, named for the US Navy's first fighter ace of the Vietnam War, and one of the most highly decorated pilots of that era. No way the author could have known, of course, but Cunningham later ran for Congress and pleaded guilty a few years ago to soliciting millions in bribes in return for awarding government contracts.

So don't name your vessel after any living public figure, and go ahead and be free with your imagination. Compact fusion plants even power armored hovercraft "tanks" in military future fiction, so why not fusion for a multi-role small combat ship operating independently?

If she's really going to carry military type equipment and the crew to operate it while surviving Drake Passage storms and submerging now and then, I think it would be more believable if she were a bit larger, around 150 -200 ft. That's small enough to not require a huge crew, big enough to be conceivable as a seagoing carrier of exotic equipment, also small enough to be made of exotic composite materials.

Last thought for now. Someone mentioned an unmanned primary vessel. Bad idea. The best fiction makes the genre and setting secondary to the conflict, which must have believable characters. An artificial intelligence could be a central character, but it would have to have humanlike traits. Arthur C. Clarke's Hal of 2001: A Space Odessy fame, became memorable only when it went insane and tried to murder the crew. Robots can be there, but you need likable human characters to drive the narrative. Choosers of the Slain is still a good read despite the dated "advanced" technology, because of the well developed characters.

OK, a fusion powered seagoing patrol boat/small ship, with a bipod-mounted rigid foil sail rig, capable of submerged ops. With ample power from the fusion plant, why not throw in a rail gun and/or plasma cannon (sort of a mega-laser) for defense or for the odd chasing and bashing of pirates and Third World warlords? On the subject of bipod sails, Brian Eiland, a member here, has a few designs for a bipod mast that looks like it could be folded easily. Use the search function here with his name and you'll get access to some neat design illustrations.

Have fun!