BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way

Subject: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 10:55 AM

Or "let's go fly a kite":

Giant sail technology could make shipping greener

"One of the first large cargo ships in 100 years to cross the Atlantic with the help of the wind will set off from European shores this month on a voyage which is due to make maritime history.

"When the 10,000-tonne Beluga Skysail is well clear of the land, it will launch a giant kite, which wind tunnel tests and sea trials suggest will tug it along and save 10-15% of the heavy fuel oil it would normally burn. If the journey from Bremen in Germany to Venezuela and back proves successful, it could become common to see some of the largest ships in the world towed by kites the size of football fields..."

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 12:32 PM

Good!

The clipper's day may have come again.

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 12:49 PM

A totally automated kite system! Nothing can go wrong, and there will be no need for shellbacks or shantymen.

Oh well! Maybe we'll get a song out of it. What rhymes with "Beluga Skysail"?

snail
pail
rail
fail
gale
jail
wail

Don't look good...

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 03:55 PM

Beluga
Ah-ooga

That's about all I can think of.

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 04:05 PM

Nothing can go wrong.

Famous last words.

I think they'll need the equivalent of shellbacks to try to save the day when they do go wrong. As it says in that story: "There are still questions about how the system behaves in high winds and what would happen if the kite landed in the sea."

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 04:13 PM

Hear the wild winds wail
Underneath the sail,
Watch the Super Kite
Crash and fill and fail!
See the tightening lines,
Watch the big hull list!
As the big kite sinks,
And the stanchions twist!
Hear the rivets pop,
See the sea come in,
Down to Davy Jones,
Kite and kith and kin."

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 05:23 PM

DAY OF THE CLIPPER
Steve Romanoff (Tin Whistle Music Co. BMI)

You can see the squares of canvas dancing over the horizon,
You can hear the chanty wailing to the heaving of the men,
You can feel the seas up to your knees and you know the sea is risin'
And you know the clipper's day has come again.
To the men on high the bos'n's cry commands a killing strain,
'Til every mother's son begins to pray.
With a hearty shout she comes about and she heads into the rain,
And the ship has never seen a better day.

        Sailing ships and sailing men will sail the open water,
        Where the only thing that matters is the wind inside the main.
        So all you loving mothers keep your eyes upon your daughters;
        For the sails will mend their tatters and the masts will rise                        again.

Wooden beams and human dreams are all that make her go;
And the magic of the wind upon her sails.
We'd rather fight the weather than the fishes down below;
God help us if the rigging ever fails.
As the timber creaks the captain speaks above the vessel's groans
'Til every soul on board can hear the call.
It's nothing but the singing of the ship inside her bones,
And this is when she likes it best of all.

Where the current goes the clipper's nose is plowing fields of green.
Where fortune takes the crews we wish them well.
Where men could be when lost at sea is somewhere in between
The regions of a heaven and a hell.
Well they're sailing eastern harbors and the California shore;
If you set your mind to see them then you can.
As you count each mast go sailing past you, prouder than before,
Then you'll know the clipper's day has come again.

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 05:26 PM

Haul away and make her tight
One more pull and we'll set her right

Up and aloft in a stormy night
To fix the sail and save the kite....

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 06:48 PM

Has it got one of those tails with bows tied down it at intervals? Or a steel wire 'string' with glass embedded in it for fighting off other cargo ships?

The possibilities are endless!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Greg B
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 07:51 PM

Sounds like an extension of the big kites that have pulled
recreational sailors for a couple of decades now.

If so, it's a brilliant idea--- a mast-less sail to supplement
engine power when the wind angles are right.

If there was trouble, it presumably could be jettisoned and
recovered later from the sea surface with the help of some flotation
on the perimeter.

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 11:01 PM

Amos-

You can always be relied upon!

I'm feelin' high,
Higher than a kite can fly,
Me, oh, my!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: robomatic
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 11:24 PM

Said Aubrey, "Stephen, see how yon friggin' frog frigate flies the tri-coloured French kite?"
"my dear friend," said Maturin, it is the Bonaparte sail, a tri-partite winged structure from the Continent often with a fleur de lis inscribed."
"We shall see," said the Captain, "if Sophie's honest English box shall overtake 'em!"
"Yes," said the thinner man whilst carefully surveying the countenance of his friend, "I daresay."

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Barry Finn
Date: 03 Jan 08 - 03:36 AM

Who's gonna reef it when the going gets rough?

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Jan 08 - 09:02 AM

Barry-

Most likely they'll just crank it in if the billowing winds begin their roar, maybe to the verses of some long forgotten shanty such as "Roller Bowler."

It probably a good idea not to forget to crank it in when entering some major harbor, or Neptune knows where they might end up. The ensuing result on say the Verrazano Bridge might rival a Cristos environmental art creation.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jan 08 - 09:19 AM

Charley:

A vivid image indeed!!! The Verrezano, the Golden Gate, and the Delaware Bridge all festooned with tattered kite-cloth.


An international incident in the making. Grounds for a shanty in its own right.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Jan 08 - 09:26 AM

"All aloft, me hearties! Reel that kite in!"

No, somehow it doesn't have quite the right ring to it....

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Grab
Date: 03 Jan 08 - 10:05 AM

Dunno about "all aloft", but us sailors on smaller boats have plenty of experience hoisting and stowing the "kite". It's what we call the spinnaker over here.

And yes, this looks like a smashing idea. High winds simply need smaller versions - either that, or they could have some way of rolling the leading-edge in to "reef" it.

As for what happens when it goes in the sea, that's simple - it becomes a sea anchor and you stop. Just need some way of releasing one side, reeling it in from the other side, and re-attaching it.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Sailing ships the 21st century way
From: Bert
Date: 03 Jan 08 - 10:44 AM

I keep seeing this picture of a ship stuck up in a tree and Charlie Brown standing there looking at it. "Rats!"