The strangest thing about these enormous ships is the speed they move at. This ship travels at 23knots (just over 26mph, or just over 42kph). That doesn't sound fast if you're not a sailor or don't spend a lot of time on the water around these things, but for a boat, it's quick. We're used to the way things work on the roads, which is the bigger the truck, the slower it goes but on the water, it's pretty much the opposite. If you're sailing and you see a sailing boat on the horizon you've got a while to think about what to do to avoid it if necessary. With a ship like this it's not many minutes at all.

Incredible engineering.

The fuck is someone in a sail boat rushing anywhere?

I kind of disagree. Those stunt helos can accelerate to a blur and then make a complete dead stop in a fraction of a second. Given the usual "he who is less maneuverable has right of way" rule of thumb for everything not on wheels, I'd say the helo is at fault. Works for sail boats up to oil tankers...

http://videosift.com/video/Crazy-R-C-Helicopter-Skills

Yeah, just like on a sail boat.

The point I was making was that if air passes through the turbine, (I am assuming) it leaves with a portion of the turbine's forward velocity imparted upon it. If this is the case, then doesn't it mean that the car's chassis, following directly behind the turbine will experience less drag, since the relative wind speed is lower? So if the drag on the car's chassis is reduced, and a portion of the drag increase from the turbine is gathered by the generator, doesn't it get a bit more complicated? Again, this isn't the same as the trivial example of a fan on a sail boat (which due to triangular sails and keels actually can work in a very limited fashion).

Yeah I know this is only likely to make me look more stupider, but I'm okay with that.

>> ^doogle:
Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I don't recall there being a myth that you either could or couldn't sail a boat made of duct tape.


You weren't mistaken, you were simply always a believer.

>> ^Drachen_Jager:
No, sail boats and Ice 'sailors' can go faster than the wind but not DOWNWIND.


"not downwind" -> if you mean:
1. "icesailors can not go dead downwind in a STRAIGHT LINE faster than the wind": than I fully agree with you
2. "ice-sailor can not go faster than the wind downwind VMG-wise" (i.e. they can NOT catch up with the wind downwind or with a balloon just drifting with the wind by zigzagging downwind), than you should reconsider or ask some of those guys. That's a fact!

Let me know what your position is on point (2).

If you don't agree on point (2), than I'm not going to bother you any further. ;-)
But if you agree on point (2), than that should be a good basis to believe that the trolley concept could work.

BTW, I don't think I need to specify how many physics classes I went through, not sure if it is relevant at all here, but I can safely say it's more than what you currently think. No worry! ;-)
Let me know if all your physics courses allow you to see where this guy might have gone wrong: http://home.roadrunner.com/~tadhurst/DWFTTW.htm

No, sail boats and Ice 'sailors' can go faster than the wind but not DOWNWIND.

You really don't know what you're talking about. How many post secondary physics classes have you taken? Given that the answer is zero (and I think that's obviously a safe assumption) why would you think that you are capable of judging whether something like this is possible or not?

I want to wake up next to my wife in my bedroom but instead of a bed, I wake up on a huge pile of $100 bills. But then it turns out that the money belongs to the mob and I have to fight my way to the boss using my new bad ass martial arts skills that the ghost of my dead father taught me while I was sleeping, and rip the bosses head off and become the new leader and then my wife and I get on a sail boat and travel to a tropical island and spend the rest of my days being really lazy and eating a lot. Something like that.