1975 Study On Sailing Ships for the US Merchant Marine

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RipSteakface

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In the midst of the Oil Crisis, all manner of novel ideas were brought up to reduce foreign oil reliance, especially in the fuel-hungry maritime sector. Nuclear propulsion was being considered in trade magazines, a small fleet of coal-powered bulk carriers were built in various yards, and in 1975 a team from the University of Michigan prepared a study for the Maritime Administration on the possibility of reviving the most ancient method of sea travel, sail power. The study evaluated three vessels at 15, 30, and 45 thousand tons respectively. In lieu of paraphrasing it, the study is still available on UMich's website, which I have posted here.

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bits...Publication_No_168.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
 
targetpractice said:
This would have been very cool View attachment 777220
Click to expand...
Imagine running eastbound around the Cape of Good Hope before a full gale, breaking 25 knots on a broad reach.
HoHun said:
About 3 times the displacement of its conceptual predecessor:
Click to expand...
A little over four times, in fact - the 45,000-tonner was projected at 59,250 displacement tons, as against 13,860 tons for the THOMAS W. LAWSON.
 
I understand that even the Saudis are drying up...we may yet see a widespread return to the days of sail.

A newer look at an old maneuver
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-tackles-dynamics-common-difficult-maneuver.html
"Tacking is more than just a turn," explains Christiana Mavroyiakoumou, an instructor at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the lead author of the paper, which appears in the journal Physical Review Fluids.

"It is a high-stakes maneuver where sail performance can make or break a race or a sailing journey in general. By uncovering what determines a successful flip and how long it takes, this research gives sailors and engineers a new resource for mastering the wind."
https://journals.aps.org/prfluids/abstract/10.1103/37xg-vcff
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRSe9EObHaU

Interesting:
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-08-temperature-ship-tanks-skew-real.html
 
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Wind power through conventional and rotating-column sails, even giant kites, is being tested and implemented on conventional vessels as way to harness low-cost power as fuel costs will continue to rise. Hybrid-power ships, as it were.
 

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