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Comment by adrianN | Hacker News Reader

From the pictures the ship looks awfully small compared to container ships. I wonder whether the economics will work out for them.

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It won't. Capacity is minuscule this is 9 containers small ones are 1000-3000 and giants are 20000. Speed is 2/3rds. The crew is likely larger or same size. Plus wooden ships are pain to maintain. Though lifespan might be larger. Not sure about costs to build though. I just can't see reasonable way for this to work outside customers who really want to pay the premium for slower service.

On the other hand the crew might get a larger share of the profits compared to the crew on container ships.

Also, this is a prototype and effectively a research platform. And if you are going to build with wood, there are not many contemporary designs floating around. Starting with a proven design may be a good idea.

Some of the (few) other sail cargo ships make it work by having most of the crew paying for the privilege. It's kind of like an adventure vacation.

> Ceiba is small for a cargo ship – tiny in fact. She will carry around nine standard shipping containers. The largest conventional container ships today carry more than 20,000 containers.

She will carry the cargo equivalent of 9 shipping containers, or they are going to actually load 9 shipping containers onto the ship?

The ships and crews are expensive. Any time they aren't moving they aren't making money. Isn't the whole point of shipping containers that you can buffer them up and then rapidly load them onto a ship once it arrives?

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