Why Were Clipper Ships So Fast?

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Short Answer: They were built for speed.
Clippers were usually fully or barque rigged, but it was the hull that really made them fast.
The word clipper signified speed that they clipped across the waves rather than float in them.
The hull was very elongated and narrow to allow for maximum slide through the waves.
This enabled the clippers to sail upwards of 17 knots and they halfed the sailing time from China to Britain.
The drawback was a very limited cargo capacity and the cargo needed to be light and high value.
Clippers were usually in service on routes, where hefty prices could be earned by arriving first.
This is the reason for the tea clipper, where the first shipment of Chinese tea to arrive in Britain from the year's harvest could earn substantial profits.
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Опубликовано:

19 ноя 2023

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Комментарии : 11

@MakaiMauka Месяц назад

Great video clip…

@kierankennedy7162 8 месяцев назад

I love this video I have recently build the same clipper from leggo, thanks for the vid 👌🙏

@gormoboskos 6 месяцев назад

Tak for det øverblik

@user-qh9lu5cl6n 8 месяцев назад

Clippers raced home with the wool clip from Australia into the 1890s. Cutty Sark was sold out from under Captain Woodget off that run in 1895. She was fastest there, beating all her old tea rivals, and she did this with a cut down rig from her tea days, with no stunsl gear either.

@unconventionalideas5683 7 месяцев назад

Cutty Sark was made to look pretty slow and impractical with the arrival of ships like the Preussen and the Herzogin Cecilie, though. Still, Cutty Sark was impressive for her day.

@jeroenvanrixel7980 8 месяцев назад

Thx

@sahhaf1234 7 месяцев назад

sharp deadrise was only a property of early clippers. Later clippers used hollow lines instead.. naval architects like griffiths used sharp deadrise only at the start of their career, discarding it later on and advicing agains it in the textbooks they wrote..

@williamzk9083 8 месяцев назад

I don’t think that Clipper Ships were much faster than Wind Jammers, the larger ships carrying the bulk of cargo. Maybe 10%-16%

@martijnb5887 8 месяцев назад

If you compare the speed records of the clipper (~20kts over 24h) to the speed record of the windjammers (~17 kts over 24h), that is true. But for lighter conditions the difference were probably much larger. I don't have numbers but in such conditions the Clippers could increase their sail area significantly by employing studding sails. The windjammers did not have these, probably because their crew was too small to for such labour intensive extra's. The idea of the windjammers was to make more simple ships, and use steam engines for sail handling to be able to employ a much smaller crew and thus reduce operational cost. By the end of the windjammer age ships of ~100m were sailed by a crew of 25 men or even less.

@williamzk9083 8 месяцев назад

@@martijnb5887Thankyou, fascinating information. I’ve always found the windjammers fascinating since they built up so much commerce. In 1856/57 New Zealand 🇳🇿 and then Australia 🇦🇺 began to exporting frozen beef and lamb to Britain using windjammers. A steam engine driven air standard refrigeration cycle was used from the Boston Coil Company. It required 300 tons of coal for the 86 day journey. The animals were slaughtered and packed at the dock and frozen on the ship as it went underway. The meat was cheaper than that grown in Britain. An indication of how cost effective they were.