Maldives Coast Guard Aims To Introduce Sail Powered Patrol Boats

Coast Guard vessels are known for their fast speed and ability to withstand fiery sea conditions. Such boats to have actual sails to harness the power of wind could be the last thing you may think. But, that was what the Maldives Defense Minister Adam Shareef announced on 9th January 2017.


Photo by Mihaaru: Maldives Coast Guard officials take part in a sailing contest

The Maldives National Defence Forced had a sailing contest, while inaugurating the event the minister expressed his ambitions to design a model that could effectively use both - engine and sail.

You may think this is a crazy idea. But, I think this is great and this is exactly the kind of ideas we need to tackle today's problems.


Photo: Coast Guard on a rescue mission

Coast Guard boats are not always on urgent missions. In fact, most of the time they should be patrolling the seas. Doing this on wind power saves money, less carbon emission means saving the environment too.

Some days it will not be windy to travel by sail. In this condition, instead of completely switching to engine power it could be both combined at same time so that fuel consumption will be low.

Shape of engine powered boats are very much cubical in design. For sailing it needs to be more crescent shaped, to prevent it from flipping over. Therefore, a whole new design has to be made to fully utilize sails on motorized boats.



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