this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
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"Giant kites" (lemmy.world)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 61 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

“What differentiates it from other wind solutions,” says Bernatets, “is that the wing is not just pulled by the wind and countered by the ship.” Instead, it flies in figure-of-eight loops, which multiply the pulling effect of the airflow to give what he calls “crazy power.”

“Plus, we fetch the wind 300 meters above the sea surface, where it’s 50% more powerful,” adds Bernatets. The combination “explains why the power is tremendous for a system that is very compact, simple on the bow of the ship, and can be retrofitted on any ship, not just new ships,” he says.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

The retrofitting part is great news

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

“What differentiates it from other wind solutions,” says Bernatets, “is that the wing is not just pulled by the wind and countered by the ship.” Instead, it flies in figure-of-eight loops, which multiply the pulling effect of the airflow to give what he calls “crazy power.”

That's an innovation over square-rigged ships, sure, but not so much over fore-and-aft-rigged ones (where the sails act like aerofoils).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

A 300m line holding turbulent ~~sail~~ kite would never have the chance getting tangled or snapping and killing someone when it whips back

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Sitting in a metal tube in the sky sounds just as dangerous, yet here we are.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah there's similar problems for the ropes that anchors are attached to as well, so they shouldn't be using those either.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The chain for the anchor can be much heavier as it doesn't have to be suspended by something flying in the wind when being drawn out. The water also acts as a shock absorber (as do the individual links) if the chain were to break.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

What about mooring lines? They snap too.

The point is that people working on ships already know how to take precautions around lines that can break with enough force to kill a person. They establish zones on the ship that people can't be in when the lines are being used. This is a very old problem that was solved a long time ago.