New Age Trawler/Motorsailer; Kite assisted PowerYacht

Sit-down Kiting

video I was referenced to:
Sit-down kiting
http://www.skytoys.co.nz/Kite%20videos.htm

Stability of Kites

Video showing stability of a Peter Lynn kite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSWfi5AMT2E&amp

This is promising, my experience with traction kites is that they have to--have to-- be flown all the time. Apparently the model shown is water-relaunchable as well.

Hmmmmm.
...from another forum, contributed by eponodyne

Either this French group has been reading my posting,

...or I've been reading their site,

...or many of us are thinking along the same lines.

... and Dave Culp (Kiteship) was way ahead of us all

Stern Leisure

On my initial posting I included a photo of a possible stern treatment for a tri style hull. Here is another 'deployable stern' photo I ran across.

Kite Sailor alongside Fast Trimaran

Video shot

...click on "english version" and check out the competition...first a windsurfer, then a kite sailor.

Fishing Under Sail

...just saw this news from Sail-World.com, and being that it relates to 'supplemental wind power' I felt it belonged in this subject thread


Advance to the Past: Fishermen Start to use Sails

Commercial fishermen in the UK are reverting to wind power in response to soaring fuel prices, as skippers rig their boats with auxiliary sails to cut the amount of diesel they use.

The move comes as a new generation of vessels is being developed that will rely almost exclusively on sails.

Higher fuel costs threaten to force many fishermen out of business. The price of the red diesel the industry uses has doubled in less than a year, while fish prices have remained relatively stable.

Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, said a number of skippers were now using sail power to help them travel the long distances between port and their fishing grounds.

'Skippers are putting on foresails while steaming to fishing grounds offshore,' he said. 'The whole cost structure of the industry has shifted so dramatically as a result of fuel price rises, and in response, vessels are looking at what they can do to reduce costs.

'Fleets are going to have to find ways of reducing fuel dependency. Everyone is looking for the optimum steaming speed and people are looking at a whole range of measures, including sail.'

Auxiliary sails were once commonly used by fishermen to pick up extra speed, but they died out in the 1980s as engines became more powerful. 'These sails might sound a bit Heath Robinson and a bit of a throwback, but in other ways they are the future,' Mr Deas added. 'We used to have windmills in this country. Now we are building windfarms.'

At the wheel of his boat, the 36ft Sardia Louise, Roly Kirby, a fisherman from Helford River, Cornwall, said he had saved up to a fifth of his weekly fuel bill since fitting a sail to the 20ft mast. He uses the sail while steaming to and from fishing grounds up to 20 miles from his home port, where he lays nets for monkfish.

'We are steaming for about three hours out and three hours back every day, but with the sail, we can cut the revolutions back on the engine from about 1,300 to 900 and still make the same speed,' he said.

Mr Kirby, 33, steamed along the sheltered Helford River while crewmate Perry Roger, 28, tied a spinnaker sail to a mast at the bow. Once out into Falmouth Bay, the potent northwesterly filled the sail and the throttle was eased back to save on fuel as the Sardia Louise stormed towards the Lizard.

'We have been using another sail, which is bigger, but this one seems to be doing the job today,' said Mr Kirby. 'You have to be careful in case the wind is too strong for the sail, but in these waters it just gives you the right helping hand.' Since October last year, the cost of red diesel has risen from 30p to 60p a litre, and Mr Kirby now spends about £1,000 a week on fuel. It is his biggest single expense and means that after paying wages, insurance and leasing a quota, he must catch fish worth at least £6,000 every week to make a profit. 'The fuel prices are terrifying, so the savings I can make are a real boost,' he added.

'Of course, it depends on the direction and strength of the wind, but these are pretty good results using an old spinnaker from a racing yacht on a traditionally built fishing boat. It looks like the future. I'm sure this will catch on more and more.'

Kevin Bennetts, a former fisherman who now runs an oil firm selling diesel to fishermen in Cornwall, said: 'A lot of people are dragging old bits of sails out of their lofts and hoisting them up. It can make a difference, supplementing the engine.'

Although the use of sail is currently limited to small and medium-sized boats, there are plans to harness the power of the wind for Britain's biggest and most powerful fishing boats, such as beam trawlers, which use up to £12,000-worth of fuel a week.

A German company is developing a system that would allow larger trawlers to be powered by a computer-controlled kite flying off their bows. The technology is already used on two cargo ships and can provide up to 35 per cent of their power.

In a separate development, an Essex boatyard is developing a new generation of sailing vessels for fishermen. Gemini Workboats in Colchester has designed a 30ft catamaran which uses its small, 14-horsepower engine only to enter and leave harbour and in emergencies. Boats of a similar size would normally require an engine of about 200bhp and would use around £600 of fuel during a week's fishing.

Plans for the catamaran, which will cost about £60,000, are to be announced this week, and work on the first boat is expected to start in October. Although it would not be suitable for trawling, the vessel could be used for laying nets and pots and for trolling - dragging baited lines behind the boat. Andrew Craig, of the company, said: 'This is the first boat of its kind really since the 1930s. But it is time to go back to them. They are cheap to build and cheap to run. We think there will be huge demand. Sailing's time has come again.'

by Jaspar Copping, Telegraph/Sail-World
_________________________________________________
Of course I've tried promoting the idea of 'Sportfishing Under Sail' for quite some time:

...and at one point I commented, "Several times I’ve put this idea into hibernation, particularly the ‘Gamefishing Under Sail’ idea. My comment at the time was something like, “I just spent 18 years in the sailboat business trying to convince sailors of the virtues of multihulls, and now I’m going to try and sell a fishing guy a boat with sails on it. I’ve got to be crazy!”
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/showpost.php?p=32941&postcount=3

RunningTideYachts.com
http://www.runningtideyachts.com/gamefishing/

...on another subject thread
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/general-sailing-discussion/1548-gamefishing-sail-under-sail-power.html

Controlling those Kites

..from another forum

Kite Stability/Controllability

Peter Lynn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSWfi5AMT2E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh8GIZ7SmAc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe_kP-nEgYs&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw3Di0v96YE

First Yacht Application??

Couple of more possibilities for first yacht application??
1) Design Valbella:
The French dock yard, 30 Metres Plus Yachts, has signed the first sales contract for a SkySails super yacht system. 30 Metres Plus Yachts will install the SkySails-System on the new built Valbella, a 40 metres SkySails motor hybrid super yacht. The Valbella will be able to soundlessly cross the sea using the SkySails-System without support from the main engine. The dock yard in France plans to specialise in the construction of SkySails motor hybrid yachts after completing and testing the Valbella.
30 Metres Plus Yachts

2) Design VPLP:
At the 2007 Festival de Plaisance in Cannes, Van Peteghem Lauriot Prévost Yacht Design were publicising the Noah 76’, a semi-production power catamaran designed to carry an optional 80m² SkySails that could drive the yacht at around 10 knots. Designed as an auxiliary system, the canting launch mast would be mounted on the beams connecting the two hulls and supporting the forward trampoline net.

3) Design Humphreys: (note:MY FAVORITE)
This 40m Motoryacht represents a new development in yachting, merging the benefits of a low resistance, fuel-efficient hull form with an unusual propulsive device - a fully automated, self-tending kite.
PFD Concept

Guess which one signed the first contract??

Women in Kite Sailing (video reference)

Speaking of 'control' over those kites, have a look at the women in kite sailing:

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/general-yachting-discussion/11221-kite-sailing-inspirational-video.html

Enjoy the video and sights

Learning from the Youth

...from another forum

Slender Tri-hull, BIG size

...slender ship ?... on another scale
EOSEAS, greenship concept born from the ECORIZON program
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkFFLMTkNks

...this is a little bit larger tri-hull than anticipated for the new-age-trawler-motorsailer ...but interesting how she makes use of that extra wide deck area available

Humphrey's Skysail Brochure, PDF file reference update

Upon review I just discovered that this link I posted previously is no longer valid. So I thought I would give a new one since the PDF file is too large to attach in this forum::
http://www.skysails.info/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/Dokumente/Hintergrundinformationen/EN/EN_Humphreys_Brochure.pdf

Econo Version Tri-hull Power with backup sail

Interesting posting this morning on what might be termed an economy model cruising tri-hull configuration powered craft with an aux lateen sail in place of a kite.

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/84017-post66.html

..similar theme

...but this one can be shipped to its cruising ground rather than getting there on its own bottom.

Littoral Ship Tri-hull

Look at the minimal bow waves and wakes of this tri-hull design at speed

More photos here

Gino Morrelli Endorses Kite Power

I found this interview in a recent issue of Sea Horse Magazine. They are speaking with Gino Morelli of Melvin/Morrelli Design



SeaHorseMag: You’re given a clean sheet of paper and asked to design your ultimate multihull...

GinoMorrelli: For me right now it would be a powercat! My personal solution is into powerboats due in part to the fact that I have a wife, kids, a business and a schedule. Sailing is now a luxury I can’t really afford. But if I could guarantee I could go 18-20 kts anywhere any time with a sailboat, then I could almost live a life afloat.

The one thing I can see coming is what could be called the SUV of sailing. There are a lot of cool things going on with drives right now. The aim is to retract, remove, or eliminate the drive when we don’t need it. The problem we currently face is that if we put the right engine in to go 20kts, then the hull shape is wrong. That’s led to tough compromises, but if we can make the power plants lighter, and get rid of the drag of propulsion when we’re under sail, then I can see us ending up with a 20kt boat… it will do 20kt under sail, 20kt under power, and it’s going to be fairly user-friendly all the time.

I also like the thought of kite sails I think ultimately that’s a way to be able to get a high-power low-risk sail plan. The trick is going to be making it auto-pilotable. There’s a bunch of guys working on it, in fact we’re scheduled to test one on one of out Leopard 47 production boats that we’ll soon be delivering from the builders in Cape Town to Tortola. The Moorings is auditioning a couple of guys to build a kite to help reduce fuel costs for their deliveries so we have been fooling around with some of those guys, trying to figure out how we can make this happen and stick it on autopilot. The pilot would control the angle of attack and let us fly the kite day and night

Plus you need to have a simple launch and recovery system... There are some bizarre kite guys out there fooling around with some different designs that have promise. It's just a matter of getting some funding for them so they can build prototypes. The shipping industry is actually pushing the limit of kites a little faster than the recreational side, so we may see some of this development come out of the shipping industry because they have a lot of reasons to get some power out of the wind.
________________________________________________________

SeaHorseMag: And what about your pure performance multihulls.

GinoMorrelli: From here on it’s going to be a horses-for-courses thing. If you’re looking at the next generation of multi to break the round-the-world record as opposed to a single-handed transatlantic, then obviously Hydroptère is where you should look. It’s opening up a giant crack and showing us that it you can spend enough money and are diligent enough then you’re on your way. They are going to get that thing to stay together one of these days, and it’s going to break the 24-hour record and the Atlantic record. And there are some dudes telling you that thing could go round the world one of these days — if you have enough time and money to develop it, foils are definitely the way to go.. it’s an instant turbo. We’re still not sure what exactly that boat’s gonna be — a foil-borne biplane cat or tri, or a foil-borne, wingmasted, tilted bi-plane ‘thing’.

I also have these crazy visions of a big foil-borne, kite-driven, ultra-light three person boat. That’s where the programming and the software for the autopilot for the kite come into play. It’s where you set a ginormous kite then tell it never to develop more than 20,000lb lift. You’d probably control it by just making it drive at a different angle of attack. It’s gonna happen

HISWA Symposium on Yacht Design...paper on kite propulsion

HISWA Symposium on Yacht Design...paper on kite propulsion


http://www.hiswasymposium.com/pdf/2009/Hiswa%20Symposium%202008%20Tom%20Schnackenberg.pdf

http://www.hiswasymposium.com/symposium_papers.asp

Good Video

I was just reading some kite subjects on another forum and ran into this:

...Yes, those kites(sailors) are fast, but...

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=FWINygISxDE

Kite Sailing Across Oceans

Just brought to my attention, this lady (Anne Quemere) kite-sailed across the Atlantic in '06, and now she is onto another adventure in the Pacific.

http://www.anne-quemere.com/

http://www.anne-quemere.com/indexgb.php