I was in Cambridgeshire last weekend and I strayed into
Lincolnshire by the River Nene where I saw wind turbines in action generating
electricity – just about, as there was hardly any wind! I also crossed the
border into Norfolk where I saw Bircham Windmill, but unfortunately it was closed
to the public. Both structures harness energy from the wind, and according to
Wikipedia, wind sails have been in use for this purpose for two millennia.* It
is not therefore beyond the wit of man to have invented a wind-powered sailboat
employing a propeller for moving his vessel; indeed, it has been done. I don’t
know of the first recorded example, but there are several verifiable modern sailboats
driven by propellers. Peter Worsley’s is one such boat: http://www.sailwings.net/images/evestandhires.jpg
and see http://www.sailwings.net/shrouded.html
.
Dip into some of the websites in the Links section below
for other examples, particularly the YouTube videos.
Links
Windmill Sailboat: Sailing Against the Wind
Design puts boat into a spin
Windmill Ship
Revelation 11: Windmill Powered Boat – Open Knowledge
R/C Boat with Windmill Drive
Unusual Catamaran with Wind Turbine Propulsion in Guernsey
Experimental Wind Turbine Boat
Model Windmill powered Boat
Direct into the wind sailing craft model (plans)
Directly into the wind test model
Experimental Rotary Sailing Craft
Rotary Sailing Homepage
Windmill or Wind Turbine Forum
Sailing faster than the wind
Wind Turbine Boat
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Vector Diagrams
Vertical Axis Involute Spiral Wind Turbine
Windmill Ship Blog
Windmill Sailboat
Autogiro Boats History 1870 1933
Autogiro Boats History 1980 – 1995
*History of Wind Power
Windmill
Bircham Windmill
The last time I saw one of these was in the 1970s here in Whangarei. It was made by a Mr Jim Bates who among other things ran a foundry at McLeods Bay making rather nice cast bronze winches. He was a great inventor and in his younger days was on Sir Edmond Hillarys team that went to the South Pole on Fergie Tractors. This was a rather controversial act at the time as they were supposed to be laying supply depots of fuel for Sir Vivian Fuchs Polar expedition. When they finished laying the fuel drops they set out for the Pole beating Sir Vivian, whoops!
ReplyDeleteTo make his windmill boat Bates cut a Yachting World Diamond yacht right up the middle and widened it, then fitted his wind propulsion device. It was very successful and I remember seeing him puttering around the harbour.
Thanks for that Alden.
ReplyDeleteI like the Yachting World Diamond, and I had the good fortune to crew on the first one to appear at Burnham. She was close-winded and fast.
Cheers,
Bill.