In-mast and In-boom furling. Not the greatest performance but real easy to increase or decrease sail to the conditions. So.....you only have to look at a 35 foot or larger cruiser.....hmmmm. And then there are the cubic dollars involved for purchase or retrofit.

I sail...a lot.
As far as commercial value it may have potential. A lot of testing to scale up. I saw some design mathematics as I was vetting the product. Beneteau has to be working with this for their charter fleet boats by this brand and by Jeanneau brand. As far as the newer Jeanneau boats are concerned....I'll only use these as dock barges from now on. Horrendous handling and lack of safety holds. If Jeanneau outfits new charter boats with these inflatables I'd like to be a spectator.

Right now I'd only use something of this for day sailing. The fabric and seaming would cause my biggest reticence in the event of a real blow. Hulls for this type of sail require new design for weight and balance....as in some of the Freedom designs. Weight, or pressure, forward to keep the bow cutting in heavier air.

Secondary and tertiary pressurization systems needed for offshore safety. Potential for induced pressurization through some creative ducting and ancillary fans or turbines is feasible. Some other offshore / cruising things to consider are radar reflection, visual signalling, identification lighting for a few.

I've only seen films of upwind so far. On a reach or downwind with a main, jib, 2 jibs on a cutter rig and a spinnaker I bet I'd make a lot of time on any match hulled vessle outfitted with inflatables. And then there are the skill sets these guys are targeting. Ease of use and handling look real minimal for beginners.

I knew these guys worked on the North 3DL layout for sailmaking. Still, I've raced my Dacron 135 against 150 3DL's in light air.....4 to 8 knots, and far outperformed the technology my substantive seniors were using. My Dacron sails also have a 2x life as the higher tech.

I've bookmarked this as it may get very interesting, and profitable.

exactly. far worse than using fossil fuels.

Neat technology. Wonder how much it costs.

Nuclear fuel is highly regulated to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons. Imagine what a rogue state would pay a pirate to steal a seagoing source of nuclear fuel.

I dont mind being laughed at

good idea. The raising and lowering of sails is currently a pain in the butt

aircraft carriers use nuclear power, but I suspect they are VERY careful about the design and maintenance. Not so sure an indonesian freighter would be as careful, not to mention a russian one.

If the wind isnt strong enough, perhaps the freighter could go a bit slower- given the savings on fuel costs, perhaps a little longer sail would be ok

There are also refrigerated containers which would need electricity. Not to mention the amount of electricity thats needed to control these ships as well as provide livng conditions for the crew.

What a great experience! Must have felt like flying on the wave.

Check out the web site. It is designed for the telescoping mast to retract and reef the sail as desired by the captain.

As you note, it does have a specific market viability. Not much advantage to many sailors today, but in the future all boats above a certain size may have this system.

Me dino can sail a boat with a far less expensive old-fashioned sail. Think I much prefer saving money that way. Dinos can be old-fashioned like that.

Seems to solve many problems and increase efficiency. I would like to try one to observe the results.

I wonder if it can be shortened: as in reducing exposure to higher winds. For instance, sailors typically reduce sail height in high winds on a beam reach.

I remember the first airplane like sail I saw, it was amazingly quick and could merely sail on apparent wind; meaning on the wind created by forward movement. Of course it was done on a Cat and not a single hulled ship.

Our Yacht, the Carlinda, used battens in the sail that were weaker in the middle and they would create a wing shape. Surprisingly, very little wind was needed to create that shape.
If we were sailing at 8knots the added shape added 2knots just on the apparent wind we created so theoretically we were 2+ knots faster than other 37' yachts.

One the best experiences was when we caught a 12 foot wave and were able to ride it at a total speed of 18knots until the wave encountered a shallower bottomed area (ocean floor) and we backed off the wave.
I was standing on the captains seat, yelling "I'm the king of the sea"...laughing like I was a kid again.

👍

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV1Nk...

Good points about any new technology.

I'd worry about repair. Repair of sail has been well understood for centuries.

What do you do if it gets stuck half way in advisory-force winds, not even yet gale force?

What do you do at the boatyard when they laugh at you and suggest you're going to be staying there for three weeks waiting for parts?

A friend wants to put it on a cruising boat for making the loop around eastern USA. Being able to easily raise and lower the sail could make that much easier to do. It would be great for a couple on a cruising cat, too.

One of the substantial difficulties is that the power taken in by sails varies as the cube of the velocity of the wind. A wind of 40 knots provides 64 times as much power as a wind of 10 knots. At 80 knots it's 512 times as much power.

Something must be done to avoid destroying the ship in a higher wind speed. Traditionally we reefed the sails, This new design certainly suggests the possibility of self-reefing, but the test is to see what happens in that 40 or 60 kt wind.

The next obvious bit of configuration to try is putting this sail on a trimaran with hydrofoils.

In the past sails required a lot more crew to function. I think this sail advancement (and reduction in complexity) could be automated and eliminate that issue. Programming automatic sail reefing/adjustment of this sail system could be the deciding factor and allow sails to function in most wind conditions.
You're right that the ships would require some engine technology due to changing conditions. There will have to be a cost-benefit analysis to weigh the savings in fuel against the additional capital cost of sailing gear.

Good comment. Decisions were made in the mid 1800s when steam replaced sail, but since then technology has changed, both in fuel and in sail. I recall seeing a proposal for a test, about 20 years ago (?) for sail assisted ocean freighters, no follow up that I recall.

The problem with wind power is that it is just not powerful enough for the size of modern tankers, except when there is a hurricane when all systems shut down. This can be seen by the grotesque wind power generators that run on tax money, not wind. They cannot operate in high winds.
Note, the boat carrying teen alarmist Greta across the Atlantic is powered by wind, but there is diesel backup of course.

I am curious, these tankers are now very large, why not nuclear power?

Those specific points are made on the web site.

Looks good but I'd have liked to see more of how it is handled and what is its advantage over the traditional sail.