This news blows.

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https://futurism.com/the-byte/cargo-ves ... nvironment

Makes sense. Faster, better by some measures, cheaper. Hopefully as fuel prices level out again sailing ships can still be cost competitive. Nice to see some pollution reduction. (Even better if we stopped shipping unnecessary crap across oceans, tho..)

Maybe this is the time that kite ships will evolve ? There were a couple companies making computer controlled kite sail systems for cargo ships a decade or so ago because at 100’ above the water, wind smooths out w/o the turbulence caused by varying levels of warm air rising off the ocean, making them more efficient than sailing ships with masts.

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Interesting.

There have been ships of up to ten thousand tons propelled by these "kites". Bigger than the 250 tons of the boat in the article, about the same tonnage as WWII Liberty ships, but smaller the the giant container ships of today (like the one that jammed up the Suez canal recently).

It would be cool if such craft were to catch on.

Chinese crude carrier with two pairs of 'sail blades':

https://www.inceptivemind.com/china-gia ... ion/27655/

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Interesting.

Ironic how carrying fossil fuels in bulk has often become the niche of sailing ships.

In the 19th steam gradually displaced sailing ships, but one the last niches of traditional sailing ships was...carrying coal in bulk to supply the coaling stations placed on remote islands in the mid ocean to keep the steamships going.

And now one of the high tech revivals of sail may well be in...powering crude oil tankers.