Thread · HN Continuity

As both a sailor and a wingsail designer, I've followed this space for a long time. I've gotta say this is just one of the thousands of trial PR announcements for different companies which develop something and think it's gonna save the world.

<a href="https://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

We've been seeing these every other year or so ever since the walker wingsail back in the mid 80's:

<a href="https://www.change-climate.com/Transport_Land_Sea_Sustainable/Assisted_Ships_Sails_Solar_Projects_Marine_Pollution/Walker_WingSails.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.change-climate.com/Transport_Land_Sea_Sustainabl...

As to why they are never successful, I don't exactly know. Most of the companies that put these on trial just quietly retire them without adoption, and never explain why. It's not about ease of use, plenty of designs have near 100% automation and simple design. It's not really about maintenance, plenty of designs have almost maintenance-free design as well.

My best guess is that sails/wingsails/rotorsails have inherent height, which interferes with bridges and gantry cranes, and requires furling/stowing capabilities which them makes the systems a lot more complex. My next best guess is that in order to get meaningful propulsion, you introduce heeling, which is bad for container ships and potentially catastrophic for dry bulk.