Are autogiro boat, Wind Turbine boat, Windmill Boat Real?

TopSail

New Member
In all honesty are autogiro boat, Wind Turbine boat/Windmill Boat's Real? I mean I read the Wikipedia artical and then Yahoo/Google results repeat the same article many many times. The basic concept as I understand is that for a wind turbin/Windmill boat the head wind turns the turbine which then turn a propeller creating forward motion with wind resistance on the propeller and internal gear efficiency losses in power, however, with the overall force being positive or neutral in the forward direction. The Autogiro I have very little on. I was wondering if they are real and if so do you have a site or source for more information for someone with interest. I generally read most ship related concepts and am looking for more facts. Thanks

Mike
 
absolutely not

wb2.jpg
 
Amazingly enough they do exist.
or at least they used to!
In Whangarei, which is where i learned to sail ( a bit north of 'saws place) there used to be a lare cat, somewhere around 35-40 feet, which was powered by a windmill thingy. Sorry I cant remember the guys surname, can recollect his first name was jim. Anyway, it went ok straight upwind or reaching, but once it turned downwind the loss of apparent made it super slow.
During a storm it lost a vane, and the last time I saw it it had no rig, that was probably 15 years ago!
Jeez I feel old after admitting that!
 

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