Clippership

autonomous wind-powered ships

[Clippership @SailClippership]

A chemical becomes a lifesaving drug when the FDA signs off on it.

A mechanical assembly becomes an aircraft when the FAA certifies it.

And a metal structure becomes a ship when it receives its Class Certificate.

While others race to flip 'hulls', we race to build real ships

[Clippership @SailClippership]

Our 24-meter (75 pallet capacity) autonomous wind-powered cargo vessel design is complete, and build contract signed with KMY shipyard. Launch end of 2026, followed by first run across the Atlantic shortly thereafter.

Are you excited yet!? We sure as hell are.

[Clippership @SailClippership]

@JimCoutre @fiftyyears Similar upwind angle, but roughly twice as efficient on a per-area basis. Also very easy to automate 👀

[Clippership @SailClippership]

Welcome to the fleet, v0+

With a 10-ton steel+aluminum offshore workboat hull, 30ft foldable carbon+aluminum wing with electro-hydraulic actuation, and capable of open ocean uncrewed autonomy, v0+ will help validate critical systems for upcoming big boat.

[Clippership @SailClippership]

The moment the wing is switched on and auto-trims to ideal angle of attack.

Instant propulsive power, roughly equivalent to a 40hp marine diesel (but without the fuel costs)

[Clippership @SailClippership]

Not every day you see your name in Times Square. Thanks, @norrsken_org for the shoutout!

[Clippership @SailClippership]

A bit late, but very excited to share our $4.6M raise to advance autonomous maritime freight. A huge thank you to the @fiftyyears team for going all in on the vision, and @foundersfactory for your participation.

[Clippership @SailClippership]

27 knots 👀

[Clippership @SailClippership]

Windy day on the Bay! Stress testing the little prototype ahead of the winter storm

[Clippership @SailClippership]

Nico sat down with Laurent from WindSupport NYC to talk about sail cargo. https://t.co/i6QAso1Uy5

[Clippership @SailClippership]

…oh and we hit Cl=2.7, over twice as effective as a high-performance cloth sail

[Clippership @SailClippership]

Autonomous sailing vessels need the right type of sail to interact with the physical world (no cloth, no ropes). We tested a scale model of our next-gen rigid wingsail in the wind tunnel last week.

Check out that wing-tip vortex!

[Clippership @SailClippership]

@pjmazan Good eye!

[Clippership @SailClippership]

Hello world!

Clippership is building autonomous sail-cargo vessels, right now.

Here’s our early prototype testing off the Southern California coast.

[Clippership @SailClippership]

@pjmazan Way lower, and a bit forward. Rig is roughly 50% more efficient than cloth Bermuda rig.

[Clippership @SailClippership]

@TheNerd484 @sethbannon Thanks for commenting! Interestingly, a fair amount of the waterfront infrastructure built in the pre-container era still exists, and is very much underutilized. We plan to use existing palletized and breakbulk cargo terminals as we ramp up operations.

[Clippership @SailClippership]

@peroxycarbonate @sethbannon @marcavis @SpaceX @Tesla @MercedesAMGF1 @NASAJPL @Caltech @CarnegieMellon … As vessel size decreases, crew costs become significant, hence supervised autonomy that allows a small number of mariners to supervise a large number of small autonomous cargo vessels.

[Clippership @SailClippership]

@peroxycarbonate @sethbannon @marcavis @SpaceX @Tesla @MercedesAMGF1 @NASAJPL @Caltech @CarnegieMellon Regarding vessel size: the move to very high TEU count box ships is driven by operating costs (fuel, maintenance, lubes & stores etc) per TEU. Using wind as your primary propulsion lets you operate smaller vessels economically…

[Clippership @SailClippership]

@peroxycarbonate @sethbannon @marcavis @SpaceX @Tesla @MercedesAMGF1 @NASAJPL @Caltech @CarnegieMellon *allows, not Helios

[Clippership @SailClippership]

@peroxycarbonate @sethbannon @marcavis @SpaceX @Tesla @MercedesAMGF1 @NASAJPL @Caltech @CarnegieMellon Thanks for commenting! This is a cambered airfoil, but one where leading and trailing edges are symmetric around mid-chord. This Helios you hit higher Cl values than w symmetric, but also lets you tack.

[Clippership @SailClippership]

@AlexJournal2019 Weather forecasts have become incredibly good over the ocean. The route provided to the vessel takes these into account. The backup is a solar-electric thruster system with ~150nm range (on our next gen vessel)