Tag: sail

Untapped Power in Offshore Wind Turbines?

  • Developers want to put wind turbines in offshore locations like Lake Ontario and off the coast of Massachusetts. (Photo by David Orsborne)

The U.S. Department of Energy wants 20 percent of the country’s electricity supply to eventually come from wind power. Some of that power could come from wind turbines located on the water. The GLRC’s Chuck Quirmbach reports some power companies are hesitating:

Transcript

The U.S. Department of Energy wants 20 percent of the country’s
electricity supply to eventually come from wind power. Some of that
power could come from wind turbines located on the water. The
GLRC’s Chuck Quirmbach reports some power companies are hesitating:


Until recently, the strength of the wind on the water was mainly of
interest to the shipping industry, anglers, and to people who like
to sail.


(Sound of sail ruffling and folding)


Lee Konczak is folding up the sail on a small sailboat that he often
takes out into Lake Michigan. Konczak says he likes the serenity of
riding on the wind and the beautiful view from offshore. Even so, he
says he wouldn’t mind if the view included a few wind turbines:


“With energy certainly being at the top of the news practically on a
daily basis right now, and with limited resources, I think an
experimental kind of thing with wind turbines would be excellent.”


Some wind power companies are planning more than a small
experiment. An effort is underway to put up 140 wind turbines in Lake
Ontario and another developer wants a wind farm off the coast of
Massachusetts. The industry would like to develop more projects. It
says the US is behind some European countries when it comes to
going offshore for wind. Compared to the US, European countries are
short on fossil fuel supplies and they don’t have as much land. So
they began placing turbines offshore a few years ago.


John Dunlop is with the American Wind Energy Association. He says the land-based
wind turbines in the US and Canada are important but often trigger local
disputes over new overhead transmission lines. Dunlop says lake-based
wind turbines would avoid some political squabbles by being close to
many cities:


“We enjoy living next to water, so consequently our population centers
tend to be close to the water which means a lake-based installation
may be no more than 10-20 miles away from that load center. Now, to get
that energy, that electricity from that wind project back to the city
you do need to have underwater cabling, but that’s a fairly common
technology so that’s not a huge impediment or a huge cost.”


Several environmental groups are getting on board with the idea of
putting wind farms in waterways. Charlie Higley is with the Citizens’
Utility Board in Wisconsin. He says there are already many coal and
nuclear plants near the water:


“Both of those have huge environmental and economic costs
associated with them, so we’re supportive of the development of
wind, not only on land but we really think the time is now to
start looking at developing wind resources on Lake Michigan.”


Higley acknowledges some people may not like the look of wind
turbines if they’re installed within view of the shoreline. Other
supporters concede there also needs to be more study of wind speeds
over the water. They also say there needs to be a cheaper way to fix
turbines that break down in waters dozens of feet deep.


Walt Musial helps oversee offshore wind projects at the National Renewable Energy
Lab. He says getting to a turbine in water is no easy task:


“You can’t drive a truck, so you have to drive a boat, or perhaps a helicopter like they do
in Europe. These add costs as well, and so these methods of accessing turbines have to be
developed and minimized.”


Still, Musial says because the Energy Department’s long-term goal is
to promote more wind production, he predicts some of that wind power
will come from offshore. But for now, the uncertainties have many
power companies rooted in inland turbines.


Kim Zuhlke is with Alliant Energy. He says his firm prefers a place
like Iowa, where there are already 800 wind turbines and a
desire from public officials to have more:


“You couple the acceptance, the economic growth, existing
transmission, all of those things together make it a logical place
for us to go.”


Still, Zuhlke says offshore wind turbines in the U.S. may become
a reality. He says engineers have to perfect a turbine that provides a big
enough payback for the additional expense of putting something way out in
the water.


For the GLRC, I’m Chuck Quirmbach

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Great Lakes Sloop Sails Into the Past

  • Bonnie Wilson, left, and Megan Blough, right, act as crewmembers on the Friends Good Will dressed in full period costume. (Photo by Tamar Charney)

This summer there’s a new ship plying the waters of the Great Lakes. The ship stretches 101 feet from end to end and is a replica of a sloop that did battle in the War of 1812. Those on board are hoping to provide a glimpse of what it was like to sail the lakes in the 1800’s. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney takes us on board the “Friends Good
Will”:

Transcript

This summer there’s a new ship plying the waters of the Great
Lakes. The ship stretches 101 feet from end to end and is a replica of a
sloop that did battle in the War of 1812. Those on board are hoping to
provide a glimpse of what it was like to sail the lakes in the 1800’s.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney takes us on board the “Friends Good Will:”


There’s this famous phrase from the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of
1812. U.S. Commodore Perry sent a dispatch that read,
“We have met the enemy and they are ours.”
It goes on though, and reads “Two Ships, two brigs, one schooner and a
sloop.” That sloop was the Friend’s Good Will.


The sailboat looks like a pirate ship or something out of the movie Master
and Commander. 19-year-old Megan Blough and 75-year-old Bonnie Wilson are
loosening ropes from wooden pins so the ships biggest sail can be raised.


(Sound of orders and talking)


WILSON: “Being a crewmember, you get to go out once or twice a week on it.”


CHARNEY: “Now, as a crewmember, what do you do?”


WILSON: “Whatever the captain tells me to do. I just generally help; I try to let all the heavy stuff go to the men. I have gone out in the bowsprit, but I prefer to let the younger ones do that.”


That’s because she’d have to climb out on that piece that sticks out over
the water in the front of a one of these tall ships while wearing period
clothing to boot.


WILSON: “This is supposedly a typical uniform from a sailor in 1812. Wore the
plants with the flap in front and they usually wore a striped shirt and a kerchief and a
straw hats.”


Replicating the Friends Good Will was Jim Spurr’s idea. He’s a lawyer and
an avid sailor. He worked with the Michigan Maritime Museum in South
Haven to research historic records and come up with a ship the Museum
could recreate and let people sail.


“It is the only ship sailing the Great Lakes as a tall ship that
served both as a merchant vessel, a Royal Naval vessel, and a United States
Naval vessel all in just three short seasons. She had penchant for being a
wrong place at wrong time, and it is really a great story. So it enables
the museum to educate visitors and school children about all three different
maritime traditions.”


But this isn’t a teacher and classroom sort of education. The idea is
that people onboard will experience what it was like to sail at that time
in history. Barbara Kruiser is the executive director of the Michigan
Maritime Museum.


“This will be a performance, and as the season goes on and we get
better at what we’re doing, it will be a performance and they will talk to
one another as they would have spoken 200 years ago, and we’ll try to be
using some of the same language of that day as well as just of this
particular occupation.”


She says Friends Good Will will take out school groups. There will be
sails for the general public including sunset cruises and overnight sails.
And while there are a number of places around the Great Lakes where you
can see a tall ship or even sail on one, Barbara Kruiser says Friends Good
Will is the only one where the crew is in costume.


Jim Spurr says he is thrilled his idea is now reality. But didn’t get to go
out on this sail. As Friends Good Will left the dock, he had to go back to
work. Which may be why he could best put his finger on what it is about
being out on the water in a ship at the mercy of the winds that so
captures our imagination.


SPURR: “Well perhaps all of us in our hearts wish we had more adventure in
our lives and there’s nothing more adventurous than setting out in a
historic tall ship for parts unknown going roving or exploring.”


And even if Friends Good Will will rarely sail out of view of its home
port, it’s still fun to pretend.


(Sound of singing)


For the GLRC, I’m Tamar Charney.

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Holy Grail of Great Lakes Shipwrecks Found?

  • For a long time, anything any diver salvaged could be claimed as his or her own. Since the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, anything divers find on public land remains public. But a new discovery may bend some rules. (Photo courtesy of NOAA)

A shipwreck hunter believes he might have found what’s been described as the Holy Grail of Great Lakes wrecks. His find has triggered a new debate over who can lay claim to historic shipwrecks and what should happen to them. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sally Eisele reports:

Transcript

A shipwreck hunter believes he might have found what’s been described as the Holy Grail of Great Lakes wrecks. His find has triggered a new debate over who can lay claim to historic shipwrecks and what should happen to them. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sally Eisele reports:


Of the thousands of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, the wreck of the Griffin is probably the most legendary. For a few reasons. She was built by somebody legendary – French explorer Rene-Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle, she was the first European ship to sail the Upper Great Lakes… and she was the first to sink. Actually, she sank on her maiden voyage in 1769, not exactly one of La Salle’s bigger success stories. But the mystery she left behind is pretty big – and it has pretty well flummoxed Great Lakes historians for hundreds of years. Shipwreck scholar Steven Herald is the director of the Manistee County Historical Museum.


“The Griffin loaded its first and only freight cargo downbound at Green Bay, and there has never been a reliable report of anyone who has seen the vessel since. It left Green Bay and disappeared totally.”


Did she run aground? Sink to the bottom of Lake Michigan? No one knows, But Steven Libert, a long-time shipwreck hunter, thinks he might have found a clue. What he’s excited about appears to be a long, wooden pole sticking out of the sand in about 80 feet of water in northwestern Lake Michigan. It doesn’t look like much. But Rick Robol, the attorney for Libert’s company Great Lakes Exploration, says tests indicate it could date back to the 17th century. And it could be part of a ship.


“Great Lakes Exploration does not know at this point what is there. And it does not know whether in fact it is the Griffin or not. Certainly if it were the Griffin, it would be a very substantial find.”


Great Lakes Exploration has filed suit in federal court seeking salvage rights to the site. But the site is in Michigan waters and the state has filed a motion to have the case dismissed. State archaeologist John Halsey says whatever there is should belong to the public, not a private company.


“They have the money to go out and look, they have the money to go out and find, but what they don’t have is the permission to bring stuff up. That’s where the rubber meets the road.”


The state argues the Federal Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 gives any state title to historic wrecks in its waters. Before its passage, pretty much anybody in a rubber suit could salvage shipwrecks. And they did – the evidence is rusting out in garages across the country. The federal law sought to protect these historic sites – which, in the cold fresh water of the Great Lakes, are often well-preserved time capsules. But Wisconsin shipwreck researcher, Brendon Baillod, says a number of cases have already shown the law is full of technical loopholes if you have the money and time to challenge it.


“We have a lot of wrecks that are open game legally. It really is up to the judge who gets the case before them.”


If Great Lakes Exploration does clear the legal hurdles, the next question will be academic. What should happen to their findings? Attorney Rick Robol says it all depends on what’s there.


“Really, shipwrecks have to be dealt with on a case by case basis. There are some shipwrecks that may best remain in situ, that is, on site, and there are other that should be recovered. It’s impossible to determine what’s best for a particular wreck without first scientifically studying it.”


At this stage, it’s anybody’s guess as to whether the site contains the remains of a ship or just a pile of very old scrapwood. But preservationists such as historian Steven Herald, argue anything of historical value should really just be left there.


“I’m a great one for leaving it where it is and studying it in as much detail as possible. The easiest way to preserve it is to keep it there.”


One thing is certain, any excavation would likely involve many years and millions of dollars. Oh, and there’s another possibility too, if in fact the Griffin is found. Technically, the vessel still belongs to France, which was in charge around here after all at the time of La Salle’s adventures.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Sally Eisele.

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The Allure of Tall Ships

  • Tall Ships cross the starting line in one of the many races over the waters of the Great Lakes. Photo by Todd Jarrell

This summer, tall ships are plying the Great Lakes, offering millions of people on-board tours and the spectacle of the Parades of Sail. But most people don’t sail, and certainly not on tall ships. Most have no idea how a sailboat sails. So, what is the fascination with these ships? The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Todd Jarrell has spent several years sailing the world on the tall ships, and he offers some personal perspective:

Transcript

This summer the tall ships are plying the Great Lakes offering millions of people on-board tours and the spectacle of the Parades of Sail. But most people don’t sail, and certainly not on tall ships. Most have no idea how a sailboat sails. So, what is the fascination with these ships? What is it that they come to see? Writer and adventurer Todd Jarrell has spent several years sailing the world on the tall ships, and he offers some personal perspective.


With their canvas palisades and pennants flying, today’s tall ships are every bit as grand and romantic as their ancestors, perhaps more so for their rarity. One’s imagination follows them to sea; envisioning sun-drenched decks and star spangled night watches.
One sees the crews lay aloft on towering masts to loose billowing sails as deckhands work in concert below. One expects the cobwebs of a sedentary life or the stresses of the workaday world to be swept away on the freshening breeze. Truly, it is difficult to find in our world of instantaneous gratification, more fitting symbols of a straightforward way of life.


To the novice the attraction to a tall ship is a kind of infatuation, a friendship, but to some it becomes a love, founded in sweat and bound in mutual trust. The sailor’s term, “One hand for yourself and one hand for the ship,” describes this symbiosis: each does their part to keep both above the waves.


The wind ships, once mankind’s most vital vehicles, were the far-ranging satellites of the Age of Discovery. It was the tall ships that carried the conquerors, colonists and zealots, as they crossed the hemispheres, their chart lines stitching the known world to the new.
Their determination is humbling – however suspect their motives may be – as many sailed for glory, certain Providence was at their side, and with the promise of riches before them like a golden carrot at the end of every jib boom. They claimed the riches and real estate – even the souls – of lands they considered “new” and “undiscovered.”
Religions, foods and philosophies all were carried to a world that was, like a child, only beginning to comprehend its own size, shape and cultural complexities.


Today the tall ships are icons of that adventurous time and, worldwide, festivals swarm with those who bask in their grandeur. Strolling the decks of their own imaginations people visit a common heritage, seeking a sense of connectedness, a tangible link to their histories and ancestors for surely all were touched by the ships – the pilgrims, the immigrants, the natives, the slaves. The masts and yards tower and sprout as upturned roots of a collective family tree.


The mission of the ships has forever changed; the heart of the fleet no longer beats to the drum of war but pulses still in the veins of the adventurer. By one sea skipper’s estimation, more people have in the last forty years orbited earth in space than have circumnavigated in a traditional tall ship. But the arcane arts of the sea are still preserved in sail-training programs for young men and women and it is an undeniably expansive experience – if not an easy one.


Witnessed from shore, the stately vessels set out to sea with ease, but from on deck, one appreciates fully the learning curve of the tall ship trainee – a curve as near vertical as the masts themselves. Here one sees the blistered hands and homesickness, the dismal days spent in wet weather gear and the bleariness of crew for whom a good night’s sleep seems the stuff of a long ago life. Here are 4am wake up calls to crawl from a warm rack to work on a dark, rolling deck in a stinging cold rain – and much worse.


Far from the familiar, trainees must plumb themselves for unknown depths of character.
The distance many journey cannot be calculated in nautical miles, nor by latitude and longitude, for the vanishing point of well-developed confidence and curiosity is far beyond measure.


So when the crowds call on these vessels, when they line the shores awaiting the whimsy wind to carry the ships past, it has nothing to do with blockbuster entertainment or bang for the buck. Rather it’s that people somehow sense that here is found a promising future in the past.

Tall Ships Set Sail

  • The Pride of Baltimore II will be plying the waters of the Great Lakes this summer along with dozens of other tall ships from all over the world. Photo by Thad Koza

A dozen or so tall sailing ships are dropping anchor at Great Lakes ports this summer as part of an event that’s both a race and a tour. The Tall Ships Challenge will be an opportunity for thousands of people to see replicas of a bygone era. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Barnett has more:

Paul Cox wrote and produced this story.

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Artists Ply the Waters

  • “Fritz Seegers and Mary Brodbeck in front of 'Alwita.’ They’ ll sail the wooden boat around Lake Superior this summer.”

This month a rotating group of artists begin circumnavigating Lake Superior in a sailboat. The artists will be painting, photographing, and making sketches of their journey. They’ll also be collecting stories to share with school children after their return. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney caught up with some of the artists before they left: