Car transporter powered by sail

A Swedish consortium is building a wind powered cargo vessel after extensive studies concluded that boats can be propelled by wind.

 

Here is an article about it -

Sjöfartstidningen | Wallenius Marine develops wind powered vessels https://www.sjofartstidningen.se/wallenius-marine-develops-wind-powered-vessels/

And an intro on the Wallenius homepage -

Oceanbird - Wallenius Marine https://www.walleniusmarine.com/our-services/ship-design-newbuilding/ship-design/wind-powered-vessels/

With some more info here -

https://www.oceanbirdwallenius.com/

They say :
"The 200 metre long and 40 meters wide cargo vessel will be able to cross the Atlantic in 12 days. The wing sails are all of 80 metres tall, giving the ship a height above water line of appr. 105 metres, but thanks to a telescopic construction they can be lowered, resulting in a vessel height above water line of appr. 45 metres."

 

I'm assuming the humor here was intended, I laughed anyways.
If they can override the bean counters who insist that time is money, and the intense scheduling of port dockspace and unloading, often arranged weeks in advance and down to the minute, this could work. Whales and others would enjoy the mechanical propulsion silence, the less liquid tire bunker oil burnt, the better.
I wondered about this

as in what is the concept? It surely can't be the concept that boats can be propelled by wind. Everything shown in the picture has been done before, the 'concept' must be somewhat theatrics.

 

No building yet. No orders taken yet. Just developing the design, and it is not obvious how much exists design work has been done beyond basic conceptual studies and generating images.

The design will be ready for orders in 2021 and we are aiming for a launch in 2024. Oceanbird - Wallenius Marine https://www.walleniusmarine.com/our-services/ship-design-newbuilding/ship-design/wind-powered-vessels/​

 

And the irony ... this non-fuel-burning ship will be filled with ... fuel-burning automobiles.

 

concept will be that it is once again profitable VS oil burning, due to new improvements in engineering and automation.
yeah, probably threatrics, certainly for first builds and while oil is cheap.

I'd like to see something that reduces cost of such sailing rigs by shocking amount while still be low labor and durable.

Big problem I see is they say this ship is considerably slower at 10knots AND its specialized to carry cargo that depreciates rapidly due to marketing hype (brand new cars). And the market for new cars and where they are going across oceans is always in flux for all sorts of odd-ball reasons, so its not like you can design a sailing ship perfectly tuned for one route's winds. Good wind means spray, and cars don't like salt spray so I hope they seal up the cargo holds real good. Cars that live in near coast in sunny CA but never go within 1000ft of shore still rust rapidly.

 

This would be a fun reverse engineering project. Let's assume the concept is legit.

Assume the sails have a 30 year life expectancy -

What is the weight and CG of the sail system? What are the structural changes to the hull required to handle the global torsion and local stress changes.

Performance - What are the side force, drive force, heeling moment, pitching moment, and aerodynamic center of rig? What is the relative contribution of each of the four sails?

Controls - What are the control rates for the first four items above?

Side force resistance - lets call it 50 tons - Where does it come from? (Thrust vectoring from the diesel propulsion system? Voith propulsors? Keels?)

Transverse righting moment - lets call it 3000 ton-meters additional - Where does it come from? (Fin stabilizers and water ballast. I'm pretty sure the contribution from form stability would need to be about zero with that kind of VCG. Deployable sponsons might be an idea - lift water filled side and lower air filled side - so 100ish cubic meters of movable, ballastable sponsons each side?)

Maneuverability issues - How do you crash stop a sailboat?​

I have to say that a low density cargo vessel wouldn't be my first choice for a prototype. A crude carrier would seem to make more sense.

What would be the expected diesel/sail power split for a transatlantic route?

What would the power density of the sail system be compared to a diesel, including the diesel's fuel for a transatlantic crossing?

If you want a single design point to be a reference case, lets say an average sail loading of 2.0 psf based on plan area. I think the RM issues would preclude it from being much higher than that. But 40 meter beam sections aren't something I have any real feel for.

 

Now I'm confused...cry or laugh, laugh or cry...slow clap maybe...

 

More confusion...

 

I would think at least a half assed propulsion system would be required for braking and maneuvering into port.

The sails would be solid and automated, so I suppose the crew numbers would be the same.

I read where a limiting factor of larger size cloth sail boats was the sails become too large and dangerous for humans to handle. Winch loads and reefing become impossible.

 

Yes it was an attempt at humor Sam. But I actually like the idea. I hope they get past the drawing board with it.

 

It certainly has a massive amount of RM to be close hauled with no heeling

 

The idea is also explored by the "Chantiers de l'Atlantique" shipbuilding yard, they built a 1200 m2 solid sail prototype with which they are testing the core functions : to trim, to reef, to lower the mast :


And this one is said under construction in Dutch Neptune Shipyard for a delivery in 2022, to carry elements of the Ariane rocket from Europe to Kourou (French Guyana), with the sails concept by VPLP design dedicated subsidiary, AYRO.
The Vessel CANOPEE WILL BE BUILT BY NEPTUNE Shipyard - Jifmar Offshore Services https://www.jifmar.net/the-vessel-canopee-will-be-built-by-neptune-shipyard/
AYRO : Front Page | AYRO https://ayro.fr/