now all they have to do is mount the ships on foils... https://gizmodo.com/giant-kite-will-pull-a-ship-across-the-o...

I've been reading about these advances over the years; very cool! The one they've got flying now is a 500m sized kite. Article says they've got a 1000m kite in the works too. At 20% power offset I'd say they need to grow some stones and put up a bigger kite.

Actually, the big problem here is the same as when you try propelling yourself by kit power on a SUP, viz., lack of KEEL!

If they want to seriously got some power out of these kites maybe they could engineer some sort of retractable/telescoping keel on the bottom of these massive ships. How cool would it be if they could project a keel 100 meters down into the ocean in open deep water, slide that 1000m kite out to the side and get some real work done! :D

Yeah, this concept has been out there a long time, and only now coming to fruition. Seems to me another problem is that the trade winds are from west to east in the Atlantic, and doing a figure 8 pattern it is hard to get much upwind pull, so they would seem to only get a benefit from the kite in one direction.

They are using a single line on the kite, and it seems they must have a radio control or wire system to control the kite. The tech to do that is probably fairly complex, though should be helped by the steadiness of ocean winds.

As a Merchant Mariner. Ships Engineer. I think I'll chime in here. I think it's a great concept. Wether it will become more than just an experiment is still yet to be seen. A 20% reduction in fuel consumption it HUGE. I know it doesn't seem like much. But that's because you are not able to wrap your head around just how much fuel these ships consume. The ship I work on is a container ship. It's 720' long. Has 1 main propulsion Engine. It is a slow speed two cycle inline 7 cylinder Diesel. It produces approximately 20,000HP @ 90RPM's there are 4 medium speed 4 cycle diesel generators. Two 4 cylinder generators and Two 6 cylinder generators. Typically when running we are only on one 6 cylinder generator. There's also a boiler that runs on diesel as well. If I remember correctly. Our fuel consumption is roughly 11,000 gallons a day. While running at normal service speed in good weather. (Service speed is approx. 19kts.) So you can see that a 20% reduction even for a day would be substantial. As for projecting a keel. Not possible. These ships are designed to flex, bow, and twist. What your talking about would make the hull to rigid. The ship would not be able to take the stresses of a nasty storm with rough seas if the hull was that rigid.

Wow! Good thing you chimed in. I didn't realize just how much fuel these giant ships consume. If your ship gets one of the kites I hope you will report back on it. I hope it works.

Blitzhound FTW! I loved reading your description of the ship and its engineering and fuel consumption. I had not given thought to the flexing, bowing, and twisting aspects of the hull to withstand storm forces which must be beyond extreme. Fascinating stuff! My little quips were of course just sort of fantastical thinking. If your ship does get a kite as Randy mentioned, we expect you to put in for the Master of Kite position immediately!