this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

From what I’ve seen it’s kites acting as sails so you aren’t bound to using a mast which takes a lot of space and limits your sail area

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Some sails are basically kites, symmetrical spinnakers specifically are basically just big kites.

Ed: to be clear they're using these for lift more like a wing than a sail.

I don’t think it’s about limiting the sail area, we got really really good at filling a mast with a shitload of sails. I’d say it’s more likely they’d get in the way of cargo un/loading. Or heaven forbid, take up space for containers.

[–] Marvin42@feddit.nl 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think they are actually proper kites flying rather high (at least compared to regular sails) in approximate 300 m AGL.

The big difference is that at this hight there is significantly stronger wind.