"A Second Age of Sail in the future?" Topic

The Quadriga will be a modern cargo vessel featuring four computer- controlled square rigged sailing masts to supplement electric diesel engines: link

Projected top speed is actually equivalent or better than current fuel-saving "slow steamer" techniques, though of course not near the top speeds of these ships.

Might be interesting to add minis of the Quadriga design to near future/ SciFi settings.

Very cool indeed! Would be fun to sign up on a modern tall ship.

How long would it take a sail-powered missile to reach an enemy man-o-war detected at the edge of radar range?

"Incoming!"
<yawn> "Yeah, those are still 30 minutes away."

:-)
- Ix

I seem to recall an ANALOG magazine story, about a post-apocalypse fight between a US based racing yacht and a WarPac submarine. The author showed that a sub wouldn't have it all it's own way with a fast 20 metre ship armed with a few depth charges . . .

Wont believe it till I see a dozen or so sailing the oceans. BTW what happened to those dirigible type airships that were going to revolutionize cargo hauling?

Yellow-

Everyone knows that missiles use kites, not sails.

I've also seen something for using kites instead of traditional sails on cargo ships, basically saving the diesels for congested waters (or when there's no wind).

In fact, kites are remarkably efficient in some applications, because they are always pulling straight downwind at maximum force. I've used a sorta kite-like device to "sail" my kayak. (And I soon discovered the kayak would not sail even one point upwind… a boat with a properly designed keel would be able to make even better use of the pull from a kite sail.)

There are also turbosails and rotor sails to consider (for ships, not missiles). Modern engineering leads to all kinds of really interesting new wind power solutions.

- Ix