Non fossil fuel propulsion

Yep! For the moment at least.

 

there's always wave power, pretty sure one guy at least came up with a way to harness it and drive an old sail hull along at a few knots at least.

 

Successful wooden steam-powered submarine

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/08/submarines-1.html#tp

"The thinking at the time was that it was almost impossible to run a steam engine underwater because it would use up all the oxygen and convert the inside of the ship into an oven. To overcome this, Monturiol invented a chemical furnace based on a reaction between potassium chlorate, zinc and manganese dioxide - a process that produced enough heat to boil water to run the steam engine. To complement this ingenuity, the reaction gave off oxygen as a by-product."

 

So successfull that another one was never built.

"Potassium chlorate was one key ingredient in early firearms percussion caps (primers). It continues in that application, where not supplanted by potassium perchlorate.
Chlorate-based propellants are more efficient than traditional gunpowder and are less susceptible to damage by water............ Chlorate propellants must be used only in equipment designed for them; failure to follow this precaution is a common source of accidents."


I loved the info on 'old time' cranes in the magazine.

 

Here is "Wave Powered Boat" from Japan.

http://www.ecosignal.org/?p=82

I'd try to have two inline hulls, connected by beam with a geared turbine/generator at the hinge.

I hear the problem with trapping wave-power mechanically is the wave-length keeps changing, so you'd want to be able to slide the beams in and out to different lengths.

I'm imagining hulls about 100ft long apiece and two inline connected beams about 150ft, so if fully extended (beams on last 10ft of hulls) it would be total of just under 500ft, and could be as short as 200ft with hulls touching end to end.

Would 500ft-200ft be good for making the most of most swell?

 

large ships should be nuclear powered now, just like our power stations. nuclear power is the answer to our future energy needs. ships can run for years between refueling, power stations not emitting green house gases, electric vehicles charged overnight by clean nuc power.

 

http://nucleargreen.blogspot.com/2011/05/ship-propulsion.html

 

yah know Squidly thats a good question, how large a platform would you need to really take advantage of wave energy. I suppose the larger the better.

 

Average swell reported by some radio station off SF coast is 8' and 14 seconds.

I'm guesstimating that works out to around 300'. I'd also guess to make most of a wave you want to be a 'V' or "hinged vessel" about 1/2 the total wave length.

Unlimited energy is there, so we only worry about how much the vessel captures, not how much gets away.

 

how about if we put two of those wave snakes in the place of the hulls on a cat and used a pivot or gimbol system to stabilize the cabin. Then take that energy and use it to drive a prop rather than even trying to store it. Might make a nice little transport vessel you never know

 

Somebody tried something like that...

 

did it work ?

I saw the guy with the big paddle operated one but thats about it.

 

Hamsters on a treadmill...
Seriously; some form of water powered fuel cells, it is doable just very expensive.
or there is nuclear power. remember the Savannah
or undersea cable, like a giant extension cord
or just run pulling wires like they do at Disney
or beam microwave energy from satellites
or tie a bridle to a whale and have it pull it.
or tie a bunch of politicians on deck debating onto the sails

You wanted ideas... you never said they had to be good.

 

Not really.

Other one was the Japanese dude with the cat...foils moved up and down etc. I think he made it from Hawaii to Japan at 1-2 knots...which makes me wonder how much of it was cruising on the currents.

 

OK so whats the theoretical energy available in a wave of 5 meters high and 50 meters long, moving at 5 knots. just to keep it simple. Then whats the length worm you'd need to span a few of those crests to get the best stability out of the movement.

My guess is that in the end after all the crazy calculations were in. Best you could probably do is move at some fraction of the wave speed. Which in this example I'd put at maybe 2.5 knots. Not really worth it. But who knows maybe combine that with solar and see what you get.