"Sailing" ships? Check this out...

I would think that if real world operation stands up over a year or so, that this technology will fly. Makes perfect sense. Would have to question the retrofit statement. The attachment points would require serious strengthening!

Licensing

I wonder what typ of endorsement I'll have to have on my license in order to run that rig?!

Yacht sector Skysails

I remeber reading on thier site that they have an order to put it on a yacht in Blohm and Voss, Thinking about it I wasnt too sure of the sense of that , except for perhaps novelty value or for those Trasatlantic ferry runs.

I encourage everyone to look att he videos on the site, the idea is very simple but it is the control system and the software to optimise the route that seems to me to be the real innovation.

In the newest issue of "Boote Exklusiv" is something about the skysail. They show a computer rendering with a motoryacht and a skysail and they say, that the company who build the skysail is talking with some yacht owners.

A pilot project will/should start in the summer

In my opionion it can be another fore sail for sail boats.

Start the engines

no wind

Thats the clever part, they have a pod beneath the sail and it automatically increases or decreases the sail area depending on the wind load. If the wind drops it will winch it in before it can drop in the sea. If the wind is too strong it will do a kamikaze to save the on deck systems.

On May the 25th it will take place at NAVALIA (http://www.navalia.com.es/index_eng.htm), an international shipbuilding and maritime industry exhibition in Vigo, Spain, a conference on new propulsion systems for fishing vessels. As chairman of the organizing bureau for those conference, I've invited SkySails to present papers, so they are coming to Vigo to present the system. I'll post here more info when I know more.

Kites for ships propulsion is not a new idea, as the people from Kiteship (http://www.kiteship.com/), at least, have been pursuing it since some time ago. The Skysails trick is what they proclaim as an authomatic release-recovery system, as well as the control unit.

From Skysails site:
"A corresponding sales contract has been signed between the Bremen-based shipping company Beluga and Hamburg’s manufacturer SkySails.
Thus, Beluga Shipping is the first shipping company worldwide to equip a ship with the towing kite propulsion system...."

Cheers.

KiteShip and Kite Sail

Guilly -- do you have any more info on Kiteship and/or Kitesail? Did they present in May as indicated in your prior post ? Thanks

CNRocks

Nothing new under the sun

Carl--- you wondered if the skysail thing will ever cross over to the yachting sector.
Man, you are making me feel old!

Back when the last ice age was ending, oh, around 1979 or so, there was a guy by the name of Harry Scholl down in the Magic City (Miami) who was building a line of boats called 'Infinity'.
He was ahead of his time with his patented Delta Conic hullform, propellers fabricated from FRP, a whole host of other futuristic stuff and...
he rigged up a wishbone mast on one of his ( forgive my half-heimers)70 or 80-ft. powerboats from which he flew a spinnaker.
It might have been in Skip Allen's "Southern Boating" that the boat was featured, running downwind south of the Rickenbacker Causeway.

Screaming success? Even back then, sailors and powerboaters wouldn't even look at one another going up & down the ditch.

Harry was no marketing guy.

SkySail Motoryacht

"At his stall at this year’s Monaco Yacht Show, Rob Humphrey presented the plan of a SkySails super yacht. The design has been specially developed with the features of the SkySails-System in mind, to maximise the advantages the system offers. The yacht is a 40 metres long Trimaran which can attain speeds of up to 20 knots using the SkySails propulsion alone - without support from the main engine - provided that suitable winds are present."

http://www.skysails.info/fileadmin/u..._Humphreys.pdf

I think the link is dead...?

Try this:
http://www.skysails.info/fileadmin/.../Dokumente/SkySails_Newsletter_04-2006_en.pdf

Or just go to
http://www.skysails.info/index.php?L=1

and check the newsletter under"downloads"

SkySail Motoryacht

Better yet have a look at this site reference:
http://www.skysails.info/fileadmin/user_upload/Pressedownload/Dokumente/Brochure_Humphreys.pdf

...sorry about that bad link

A couple of years ago, our friend TRY was posting something similar... (also in his avatar)
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/technical-discussion/1833-kite-cat.html?

Beluga Shipping from Bremen, Germany has launched a test ship, the MV "Beluga Skysails".

http://www.beluga-group.com/News.72.0.html?&cHash=8d7c34a750&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=505

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cFB7RJSoQCI

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2umdKznDkfA&feature=related (German)