Kite-Driven Beluga Skysail Completes 12,000 Mile Journey and Proves Concept

[bananas]

http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/kitedriven-beluga-skysail-comp-002956.php



Kite-Driven Beluga Skysail Completes 12,000 Mile Journey and Proves Concept

Beluga Skysails completes 12,000 mile voyage

“We can once again actually ‘sail’ with cargo ships, thus opening a new chapter in the history of commercial shipping”

Thus is the verdict from MV Beluga Skysails captain Lutz Heldt upon completion of the vessel’s 12,000 mile round-trip maiden voyage. The crew and vessel were at sea for nearly two months, giving the “skysail” concept ample opportunity for testing and tweaking.

The journey took the ship from Germany to Venezuela, the United States, and then to Norway, arriving on March 13.

We’ve been keeping an eye on the ship’s progress here at Triple Pundit, from initial concept, sea trials, and now the round-trip completion of her first commercial voyage using the hybrid auxiliary power kite system installed on the Beluga Skysails.

Deployment of the 160–square-meter towing kite offset up to 20% of the engine’s power (and carbon emissions), saving an initial $1000 per day in fuel costs.

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[tridim]

1. Nifty! I used to fly stunt kites and was amazed by the power they generate.

There should be other ways to harness all that power.

[independentpiney]

2. I wonder why you couldn't do the same thing

with a more traditional sail rigging.

[kristopher]

3. This mimics a spinnaker (sp) except it is able to capture higher winds

even across the ocean, the effect of friction as the wind drags across the water surface slows the winds below 30m substantially.

[independentpiney]

5. Yea , 1st thing i thought was a spinnaker

And I can see the advantages of being outside the friction effect of the water surface on the winds. I guess what I don't see is why conventional sail power doesn't seem to be getting more of a look as an alternative. There's been alot of advances in the technology since it was last used commercially.

[cbayer]

9. It might be that the amount of sail needed

would require a prohibitively massive mast.

[Ready4Change]

4. Plus

You can pull this down and stow it in the face of severe weather. A set of tall masts and the supporting lines can be trouble in open ocean severe weather, even when the sails are brought down.

Further, this ship used the sail in addition to it's conventional drive system. (Diesel I think.) So, when faced with a direct headwind, down comes the kite and they drive on in. Again, with traditional sails and masts, the masts empty masts would create drag in a headwind, increasing fuel burn.

[independentpiney]

6. You have a good point about the drag and storm dangers

from traditional masts and rigging. I would think though that could be reduced with engineering and newer materials. Any wind power needs to be in conjunction with a conventional drive system to be commercially viable- for as long as fuel to run the system is available at a bearable price. It all comes down to cost-benefit I suppose.

[malakai2]

7. What about telescopic masts?

You could trim the height substantially in foul weather. Not sure how the joints would impact resilience and strength, though.

[independentpiney]

8. I'm sure that could be done

It's used on some recreational boats. And there's lightweight high- strength materials for masts, sails and rigging that can serioualy reduce over all drag compared to conventional materials.

[One_Life_To_Give]

13. Several reasons come to mind

A traditional rigging would get in the way of loading and off loading cargo.
Fully laden many of these ships are at the upper limits of the dredged depth of shipping channels they use. Most modern sailboats require a weighted keel to effectively balance the forces on the sails/mast.
A 1000ft freighter may have a crew of only 12. So the system needs to be fully automated.
Modern freighters travel in excess of 20kts. Slowing them down to the speed of conventionally rigged ships would cost the owners more in lost revenue than they would save in fuel I suspect.

[happyslug]

16. The Max speed may be 20+ knots, but average speed is way lower.

Some freighters even have slower top Speeds.

For example the Ti Asia, and the TI-oceania max speed is 16.5 knots fully laden:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI_Asia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI_Oceania

As are the USNS Mercey (A hospital Ship converted from a Super tanker:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Mercy_%28T-AH-19%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Comfort_%28T-AH-20%29
List of tankers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tankers

Container ships tend be a bit faster up to 25 knots MAX Speed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savannah_Express
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSC_Pamela
List of Container Ships:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Container_ships

For comparison look at to the Liberty Ships of WWII, which did 11 to 11.5 knots:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship

Through another class of freighter built during WWII (The Victory Ships) could do 15 knots:
http://www.usmm.org/victoryships.html

Through the tanker built during WWII did 16 knots:
http://www.usmm.org/tankers.html

Again the 11 knots was MAX speed, given that most Liberty Ships traveled in "Slow Convoys" that had were set to go no faster than 3 knots, the extra 7.5 knots was for maneuvering in port and other areas were greater speed was needed. The same with today's ships, they rarely go anywhere near their max speed, the fuel consumption is excessive, but at 3-5 knots the fuel consumption is reasonable and that is about the speed where sails can be used.

Prior to WWII (and during WWII) it was common to run a Freighter with a Barge. The two vessels would be about the same size, but the Barge had no engine and thus could carry more oil. This also permitted them to be built to the max limit of the Panama Canal. THe Barge would be maneuvered into the lock by the lock tender after the ship itself had already gone through the lock (Or the ship could push the Barge into the Lock and wait for it to clear to go up afterward). Through from what I have read this was rare, mostly the ship just pulled the barge and they both docked at the same time (Through In one case I read the barge, do to a tail wind, was able to dock first at one just joint docking).

I point this out to show that Max speed of a Freighter is NOT what counts, but the speed it uses the least fuel. This is generally bout 3-4 knots, about what a sailing ship could do in the olden days. People forget Sailing Ships stayed competitive till WWII. Sailing ships could NOT maintain a constant speed and course and thus could NOT operate within the confines of a WWII convoy. The WWII convoy (Designed in the last years of WWI and implemented in both wars) put every ships in a block of other ships. In a WWII convoy each ship was in front of another, behind another and to the right and left of another unless the ship was at an edge of the Convoy. Thus you had a square of ships traveling together at a set speed over a set direction. Sailing ships could NOT maintain a constant direction nor a constant speed so could NOT fit in such a Convoy. Thus Sailing ships died out (Starting in WWI and dieing out complete for commercial use in the early years of WWII). Adding to this was oil became cheaper and cheaper after WWII till the early 1970s (Which is why the Railroads dropped their conversion to Electric Drive in the same period for the same reason, diesel fuel was so cheap it was cheaper to convert to Diesels then to convert to Electric Drive which previously had been the preferred replacement for Steam locomotives).

Given the NORMAL speed such ships operate at, the additional expense of running sails is NOT that expensive. They is no need to stay to a rigid course (No one is going in a convoy in the deep oceans nowadays) so the flexibility needed for sail is NOT a problem (And where it is a problem the ship can drop the sail and use its diesel engines).

I foresee this type of sail becoming more and more popular on container ships and tankers, just to save fuel given the speed such ships normally do. Most people will never seen the the sails for as the ships near the coast such the use of such sails will stop do to the need for the ship to stay to a more rigid course as it nears port. It is a way to save fuel and companies will slowly go with it just to keep the cost of shipping down.

[One_Life_To_Give]

17. This type of sail Yes, traditional I doubt

On this trial run the ship averaged 9.6kts over her 11,952NM journey of 52 days. And it appears in the container ship category they are trying to increase the speed. Which given that operators of ships like the Emma Maersk are looking at a bank note of $600k per month plus $120k per month for crew salaries and benefits. Not to mention what traditional rigging would do to a 6hr turnaround for a container ship.

[happyslug]

18. Clippers could do 22 knots in the 1840s.

22 Knots is the Record

while traditional merchant ships were accustomed to average speeds of under 5 knots (9 km/h/6 mph), clippers aimed at 9 knots (17 km/h/10 mph) or better. Some could reach 20 knots (37 km/h/23 mph). The fastest recorded speed for any sailing vessel was a clipper, , traveling at 22 knots (41 km/h/25 mph) in 1854.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper

Now the above speeds are the records for max speed for a sailing ship (The 22 knots is NOT the Average Speed, that appears to be more like 15-17 knots for the Clipper "Sovereign of the Sea", but it does show that 9.7 knots is while within the Capability of conventional Sailing ships. Clippers aimed for 9 + knots, but cargo sailing ships could and did do better than 5 knots.

What Killed off the Clippers in the 1850s (for the US) was the opening of the Panama Railroad in 1854, that permitted fast shipment of goods via New Orleans by ship to Panama then overland by Train them by Ship to California, replacing the old d\route dominated by Clippers in the early 1850s of New York City to San Francisco via the Straits of Magellan. The British then dominated the use of Clippers, but for the China trade via the Cape of Good hope. This was killed off by the Suez Canal in 1867. Larger steam ships capable of travel with steam (Supplemented by sail while into the 20th Century) given the tendency for the Mediterranean Sea for no wind and the narrowness of the Red Sea.

For more on the Sovereign of the Seas see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_of_the_Seas_(clipper)

[cbayer]

10. This is just so cool.

I would love to see it in action.

[starroute]

11. There are a bunch of videos at YouTube

You can start with this one and then try the related links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4A0B_-aQK4

[cbayer]

12. Thank you very much.

I have a very, very slow connection but will take a look next time I am in a place with better reception.

[JohnWxy]

14. interesting!

[seemunkee]

15. seakayaker have been doing this for years

Parafoil kites are the design of choice. I fooled around with one about 15 years ago.