Machine Design Magazine had this. But they have not yet considered a catamaran. This unit they show would need ballast water even more than present cargo ships. Ship ballast is one of the leading causes of invasive species.
http://machinedesign.com/fea-and-simulation/updating-sailing-cargo-ship?NL=MD-04&Issue=MD-04_20150212_MD-04_528&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1&YM_RID=CPG05000002211482&YM_MID=1113
And see from a few years ago a catamaran proposal. http://multihullblog.com/2012/02/catamaran-container-ship/
On the cat, displacement would be 864,000 lbs per hull. Draft 7′ and power to go hull speed 1050 hp per hull. That speed 23 knots.
The idea to use sailpower to move cargo isn’t new: we did do that propably the last 10.000 years only to stop doing the last 200 years (engines). And all that time, including those last 200 years there was one rule: weight wins from speed. Only very few exceptions have been seen.
Rarely speed was realy so interesting that faster cargoships where developed for that. (I think tea-clippers might have been such exception), but the majority of all cargo has always transported by volume rather than by speed.
The only reasons I can think of that would justify speed over weight is if the cargo will rot away before it can be traded usefully, or if there is a specific demand e.g. people want to have the first of something. Like the first haddock of the season is in the Netherlands. But such is only once in a year and not interesting enough to sacrifice cargo/fishing capabillity for.
This means that using a multihull for cargo transport is only interesting with either cargo that has a lot of volume and hardly any weight (there is not much cargo like that), or cargo that needs some other multihull characteristic like stability, lesser motions coused by waves or such. I do not know any cargo as in need for such.
Sailing willonly become in use when other options are realy on there end. No coal, no oil, no gas, not enough solarpower, not nuclear fission or fusion. Only then . . .
Or, perhaps in erea’s where it is actively prohibited to use fossil and or nuclear fuels.
But I do not know of such places . . .
If there is no succesfull nuclear fusion in the end mankind will kindly pick up sailpower again. I am sure!
Copied from the blog.
on Feb 12, 2015
I’m surprised catamarans were not noted as a possible future. I have been asked to do studies of that. The units shown in the article would need considerable ballast. Cargo ship ballast has shown to be a major source of invasive species. The power required would be much less, the seaworthyness much more, and the draft required, a fraction.
http://multihullblog.com/2012/02/catamaran-container-ship/
Kurt Hughes
deareyw
on Oct 21, 2013
The area of a ship is always a sail, good or bad. It is nice to see someone putting some thought into this fact.
You are not their brick in their wall. You have enough life experience to understand this. Once you are independent you can HOPE for ONLY the crumbs.
The preferred option seems to be
Marine engineers at Lade AS in Norway have designed a freighter with a hull shaped to harness the power of the wind, letting the ship save 60% on fuel costs while emitting 80% fewer emissions.
The ship, dubbed the Vindskip (windship), will use a symmetrical hull with air foils protruding below the waterline to convert aerodynamic lift created by winds on the forward quarter into a pulling force, powering the ship through the water much like a close-hauled yacht sailing into the wind. And because the Vindskip will also be using a liquid-natural-gas-fired turbine to maintain speeds up to 18 knots, it will almost always be sailing into a relative wind. The designers envision ship captains checking weather reports for wind patterns and then using computers to plot the most economical or quickest course, depending on whether speed or economy is most important.
Lades expects to use the patented hull design on an initial ship in about three to four years. In the meantime, the design will undergo testing on computers, in wind tunnels, and in wave tanks.
Designed by Marine engineers at Lade AS in Norway themselves to try and sell their designs concepts
to the status quo ship builders and contribute to reducing carbon emissions as their part to the environment corporate responsibility.
http://machinedesign.com/site-files/machinedesign.com/files/uploads/2013/10/Vindskip_atSea.gif
http://machinedesign.com/energy/ocean-going-ships-use-hulls-sails
Does not use fossil fuels