New Age Trawler/Motorsailer; Kite assisted PowerYacht

The latest measurements made aboard the cargo ship “Michael A.“ of the
Wessels Shipping Company demonstrate how the towing kite propulsion system delivers far more than five times the performance per square meter of sail than traditional wind propulsion systems. With the help of the wind, the 160 square meter kite generates up to 8 metric tons of traction force – this approximately corresponds to the thrust of an Airbus A318 turbine engine.

“Our own measurements show that we were able to temporarily save far more than half the fuel by deploying SkySails in favourable wind conditions,” reports Gerd Wessels (37), managing director of the Wessels shipping company based in Haren/Ems, adding that “alternatively we were able to increase the ship’s cruising speed from 10 to 11.6 knots with the help of this towing kite propulsion.”

Each of the shipping company’s next three new 88-meter, multipurpose sister ships with a deadweight capacity of some 3,700 metric tons and nearly 1,500 kW of power will be fitted with a 160 m² kite. With favourable wind conditions, a kite of this size can generate up to 8 tons of traction power. For comparison: in order to reach a cruising speed of 11 knots, these ships require approx. 11 tons of thrust.

...excerpt from http://hiswasymposium.com/symposium-papers
Vessel propulsion using kites
Stephan Brabeck (Skysails Gmbh & Co KG)
Tom Schnackenberg (North Sails A/S)

PDF document

Tri-Hull designs..... in the smaller range

Here is a fellow out in New Caledonia that is doing some very creative experimentations with tri-hull designs...
....interesting subject thread, and photos, and prototypes:

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/trimaran-motorboat-stabilized-monohull-29665-4.html

Hybrid Design Success

Maybe there are some lessons to be learned from the success of this new hybrid Greenline vessel:

http://www.greenlinehybrid.com/

Cross Continent in Kite Powered Car

A television host and an engineer from Germany have completed an almost 5,000 km (3,107 mile) journey across Australia in their Wind Explorer, a lightweight electric vehicle powered by the wind – not only through electricity-generating wind turbines but also using kites. The pioneering 18-day trip by Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer set three world records – the first time a continent has been crossed be a wind-powered vehicle, the longest overall distance covered by an exclusively wind-powered land vehicle, and the longest distance covered by such a vehicle in 36 hours.

http://www.gizmag.com/wind-powered-car-completes-cross-continental-journey/17892/

Cargill ship will be largest ever to utilize kite power

For the past ten years, Hamburg-based SkySails has been engineering and producing what are essentially giant kites, designed to help ships reduce their fuel use by catching the wind and pulling them across the surface of the ocean. The system was put into regular shipping use for the first time in 2008, when one of the kites was attached to the 132-meter (433-foot) multi purpose heavy lift carrier MS Beluga SkySails. Now, Cargill Ocean Transportation has announced that it plans to use the technology on one of its long-term charter ships, a vessel of between 25,000 and 30,000 deadweight tonnes (27,558 to 33,069 US tons). It will be the largest kite-assisted ship in the world.

The kite will measure 320 square meters (382.7 square yards), and will fly ahead of the ship in a figure-8 pattern at a height of 100 to 420 meters (328 to 1,378 feet). Its flight path will be controlled by an automated system, and the kite itself will be launched and retrieved via a winch-equipped telescoping tower on the bow – definitely a better approach than having someone desperately bracing themselves against the deck of the ship, while clutching a couple of control lines! Information regarding the system's operation will be displayed on a monitor on the ship's bridge, although it is said to require a minimum of input from the crew.

Use of a SkySails sysytem is claimed to reduce a cargo vessel's fuel consumption by an average of 10 to 35 percent annually, and by up to 50 percent temporarily. Due to its "dynamic flight maneuvers," the kite reportedly generates 5 to 25 times more power per square meter sail area than a conventional sail. A study by the United Nations' International Maritime Organization suggested that up to 100 million tonnes (110.2 million US tons) of carbon dioxide could be saved each year, if the technology was broadly applied to the world's merchant fleet.

Cargill plans to install the SkySails system this December, and hopes to have it fully operational within the first quarter of 2012.
http://www.gizmag.com/cargill-ship-will-be-largest-ever-to-utilize-kite-power/18005/

Shuttleworth kite experiments

John wrote recently on a forum discussion:

We are installing the winch and gear to fly a kite like the Skysails system off the 42 m Power tri. We will develop our own control system. The kite is a large version of a normal kite boarding kite. The numbers show that if we can fly the kite in a pattern at 300 m high we can generate enough power to pull the boat under kite alone at 15 knots.


The trick is the height of the kite. At 300 meters the wind speed is higher and you can make the kite travel further and faster across the sky. This is what generates the higher power.


With the low drag of the power tri this concept becomes realistic as a significant power source, where the boat can sail at a good speed. Not just fuel saving.
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http://www.john-shuttleworth.com/New.html
Orion Shuttleworth has spent the past 5 years working for Bernard Olesinski, a specialist in powerboat design, primarily concentrating on deck design and styling for the Princess Yachts. He has developed extensive skills in 3 D modelling with Unigraphics NX surfacing programme, and brings a wealth of Big Boat design experience and understanding of LY2 and RINA regulations to offer as a service to our design office.

His expertise in 3D rendering can immediately be seen in his work on the new Power 41 meter Tri, currently building in China, in which he is playing a significant role in all aspects of the final stages of the design and preparing for classification under the Hong Kong flag authority.

Orion is also bringing his kiteboarding extpertise to developing a kite assist system for the 41 m Superyacht. Current systems for ships are very heavy and complex. Orion is working on a system that uses conventional kites which can be water launched, or launched off the deck of the boat. Progress will be reported on our site.

Atlantic Kite-Powerboat Challenge

A pleasure powerboat crosses the Atlantic with 30 liters of fuel.

http://www.kitepowerboat.com/?lang=en

Single Pod Drive System

This new ZF Marine 'Single Pod Unit' looks to be an applicable power transmission unit for this single engined vessel.

"ZF Marine Group introduces a revolutionary new approach to Pod drive and joystick control technology in small pleasure craft applications, which extends its availability to a larger segment of the pleasure boat market. In conjunction with SeaVee boats, ZF Marine has developed a complete propulsion system solution around a center console sport fishing application that will offer joystick control and maneuverability while employing the pleasure craft industry’s first single Pod drive line. The heart of the propulsion package from ZF Marine incorporates 3 main components. The ZF 2800 Series Pod drive rated at 480hp. This Pod has been redesigned to offer 180 degrees of total movement, 90 degrees of rotation to both port and starboard from the cent reline. The ZF 185 AC Thruster that introduced to the market at last year’s Fort Lauderdale show. The ZF 185 Thruster is designed to offer proportional thrust, 30 minute continuous duty cycle, and smooth, quiet operation thanks to a patented thruster tube design. ZF Marine’s proven SmartCommand controls with Joystick. The joystick system is engaged when the Easidock feature is activated via a button touch on the SmartCommand control head. During normal at sea operation the 2800 Pod drive is restricted to 30 degrees of movement in either direction from center. This restriction of movement is released in Easidock mode and the POD now has full 180 degree movement. The ZF 185 AC Thruster is also brought online at this time. As the vessel operator directs the joystick in any direction or combination of directions the joystick system incorporates POD thrust and varying amounts of thrust from the bow thruster. Proportional control of the thruster means smooth engagement, and only as much thrust as needed to move the vessel in the desired direction. Proportional thrust, combined with an electronic compass tied to the main JMS control unit means there is no vessel yaw during sideways movement. ZF Marine’s patented iAnchor station keeping functionality is also included in the Single Pod System. With the press of a button, iAnchor will compensate for wind and current holding the vessel’s position to as little as a 3 foot radius."

Shorter Tri-hull Kite Vessel

I recently ran across these wonderful computer generated illustrations by Mike Kagan. I asked him if he might generate a few for the smaller versions of the tri-hull kite assisted vessel. Here is one of those versions.

Go to this page for a few more rendenings on that vessel idea:
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/yacht-renderings-plans/14713-mike-kajan-yacht-designs-ii-7.html

Its time for some yachtsman to start planning for a vessel like this.

Energy-generating Kite Aces LabVIEW tests

Control unit for energy-generating kite aces LabVIEW tests

KITEnergy is a revolutionary technology that converts higher-altitude wind energy (between 200 and 1,000 m above the ground), with respect to the actual wind turbines, into electricity. High-altitude winds are stronger and more constant. Because the generated power grows with the cube of wind speed, it can achieve a significant increase of power production.

To exploit high-altitude wind, KITEnergy uses wings (or power kites) linked to the ground by two cables. The flight of the wings is tracked using onboard wireless instrumentation driven by an automatic control unit that can differentially pull the lines to influence the wing motion. Electricity is generated at ground level by converting the traction forces acting on the lines into electrical power, using suitable rotating mechanisms and electric generators. Recent studies – including theoretical analyses, numerical simulations, and experimental tests – carried out at the Politecnico di Torino, indicate that KITEnergy technology can produce large amounts of renewable energy that is available practically everywhere in the world at a lower cost than fossil fuels; thus, it does not require public incentives for its diffusion, a difference from the available renewable energy technologies.

....more here:
http://www.designfax.net/enews/20110802/feature1.php

Kiteboat Project

Check out these videos,...and website

Video

I just went back and looked at that video again....WOW,... that boat is really booking

....and then started looking thru their website...some real interesting experimentation

Team

I just found that the link I provided to the Humphrey's design back in my original posting is no longer valid, so since I could no longer edit that posting, I'll provide a revised link here:
Humphreys SkySail Yacht[1]

Link to SkySail Yacht PDF

Now that link is not good as it only links you to the first page, and not the illustrations on the second page. So here is a link to the document posted in my personal gallery section in another forum:
http://www.boatdesign.net/gallery/data/500/Humphreys_SkySail_Yacht.pdf

I'm amazed how often older links in various forum discussions go 'bad'.

'Idiling Kite'

Did you happen to view this video link I presented in a previous posting?

I'm thinking that what you might have viewed was an early trial of theirs wherein the first reaction is to try and 'control' the situation?? Sometimes that restraining of the control lines can cause more problems than it tries to cure. I've seen the same thing happen with normal sailing rigs being operated by inexperienced sailors. Sometimes you have to 'go with the flow'.

I don't have personal experience with kite-sailing myself, so I have to look thru as many 'presentations' as I can find on the internet. Unfortuntely a number of video links I find seem to disappear or become an invalid link in a short time.

The 'system' in total that SkySail has sought to fully develop for large ship application is indeed expensive. Of course it includes a total ship navigation- optimization program as well as other features.

I would hope that the 'yacht version' could be 'simplfied' to make it more affordable as an auxillary power source / cruising range extender rather than an agressive fuel saver in commericial applications