• grue@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    If you could eliminate 80% of fuel costs you could make smaller vessels much more cost effective

    Ships don’t work that way. There are a couple of reasons other than fuel economy why they keep building them as big as they can:

    • Hull speed is proportional to waterline length. In other words, bigger ships can go faster.

    • Bigger ships have better economies of scale for the crew.

    Also, winds aren’t reliable enough for any ship to sail 95% of the time, unless you count being becalmed as “sailing.”

    • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Yes, theoretical hull speed is proportional to hull speed, but mondern cargo ships aren’t optimized for speed - old school clippers were.

      They are also more cost effective for crew - which is why you need to automate as much as possible. Electronic winches, hydraulic booms or sheets, instance access to weather, Electronic monitoring, tides and conditions forecasting and access for a harbour pilot to take over could eliminate alot, if not all of transit crew.

      Will it be as fast and reliable- no. But if you can make the cost savings outweigh the drawbacks you can make a presentable business case.