There are no more Teaclippers but there is a Rumclipper!
With a cup of tea standing on the roof next to the wheel, the helmsman stands easy, steering to the following sea, while the ship logs 9, 10, 11 knots like nothing. It's Sunday, some people of the watch are dancing on the middeck to the ocean beat. A full set of 4 stun'sails give her the wings to harness the Tradewinds on the way down to Cabo Verde, appearing like a cloud over the water.
This is use of wind energy, direct and enjoyable. No double thoughts about sustainability or economy, because if the sail rips, we fix it and when the wind dies away, no economy! But what shall, the wind is the one we cannot change, so every breeze given is good and useful and enough, without alternative ;-).
Not like windmills on land or in the coastal seabed. Backed up by gas power stations they continuously kill birds, constrain the view and the sailship routes, destroy the seabed and make sealife crazy when built. For the reason to create a greener picture of our destructive energy consumption. Green energy made by machines, how funny is that! Just read The time machine, HG Wells, which puts on a clear picture of the result of machine made energy consumption and the degeneration that follows, in a pace we call the forward steps of humanity, or evolution.
Most probably it is all about the scale and how we use forces, because when you see how Lynx and co. build their ship Ceiba in Costa Rica, or how a wooden windmill works in Holland, it takes your breath and it's hard to see the evil side like abuse of people and nature in it. Because energy is used locally, as much as there is and no more. Most of you would say that's past and there's no way back, even if we wanted. I agree, but there's a way forward, where the local and small scale use of energy is the way, and the next HG Wells can write a book about how humanity choose an intelligent way, much different from the sustainable people of our day.
Greetings,
Andrew