Kite Powered Cargo Ship

[forrest]

A giant kite-like sail billowed out in front of the MS Beluga SkySails, as she set out on her maiden voyage from Germany to Venezuela. Following routes tradition-ally used by sailing ships, the kite-sail cuts fuel costs for the cargo ship by roughly 1,500 Dollars a day.

The sail floats between 350 to 1,000 feet in the air, tapping into stronger and more stable winds than those found at sea level. Throughout the pilot voyage, which took the Beluga from Bremen to South and North America, then back to Germany via Norway, engineers on-board studied the SkySails System. The results will soon be published.
http://www.positivenews.org.uk/artman/publish/article_1544.shtml

[Buffalo Head '75]

Woo-hoo, modern science has perfected the "sail".

quick everybody pat yourselfs on the back.

next they are going to dig out the trunk of a birch tree and invent the new-fangled thing called, "the canoe".

It's a great idea. the problem is, we have already had it.

[Java Joe]

Let's see, over the centuries we have used solar, wind, water, fire and lets not forget the Romans gave us concrete. So these are old school and no longer viable? Sail power makes sense...wind is free.
With the price of gas I bet more boaters will opt for sail and I'd rather see more canoes on Maine waters than power boats.