 Sailing is a 7,000 year old technology that has been almost completely replaced in the modern world. Commercial ships are run by fuel-hungry engines which become less economically and environmentally feasible by the moment. Two San Francisco based entrepreneurs have developed a technology to revive sailing and do their part to save the world. The ferry system in San Francisco Bay is very popular. The people that use the ferry system either on a normal commute or when we have the emergencies that happen on a periodic basis. When the earthquake hit in 89, the Bay Bridge went into operation, the ferry systems took over. The problem with the ferry systems the way they're currently instituted is they are horrendously inefficient in terms of diesel use. They're also creating a lot of greenhouse gas and it's just not sustainable. You can drive your Cadillac Escalade across the Golden Gate Bridge and get 19 miles per gallon and you'd be far more environmentally correct than you would be to take the ferry system the way it's currently operated. Some of these vessels burn 300 gallons an hour. There is certainly an overwhelming desire to make ferries greener, cleaner, more fuel-efficient. And after all the ferries in the Bay Area are government subsidized so if we can save cost it saves taxpayers so it's kind of a win across the board. I met Jay I guess two years ago and he introduced his wing project. From that moment I guess there was six months of design and iterations, a lot of different tests to optimize the size of the wing for this test platform and then the actual build took maybe six months. Everybody knows what normal sails are like. They're just fabric and they're essentially one side of a wing. The benefit from the wing is that you have two sides and it's a very precise shape. So an equal size soft sail and a wing, the wing is going to be about twice as effective, twice as powerful. The wing is 45 feet tall, front to back is 10 feet. It weighs roughly 600 pounds so it's a very, very light structure. Sort of insignificant to the weight of a ferry and it's potentially very powerful. These ferries are traveling along at 30 and 40 knots sometimes and I forget the exact number but you certainly can produce I think six or seven tons of force at full speed if required. So the wing also has inside of it a brain, it has a GPS system, it has a satellite tracking system, it has a vessel data recording system. It knows where it is, it knows where you're going. All we have to do is turn the wing on and off. The people who drive big ships are not sailors so there's kind of a discontinuity between wind power systems and the people on the boat who are just not going to use those systems. What this wing does is completely autonomous. The crew doesn't need to know anything about the wing or how it works. It's literally an on off system. We do that by having a feathering tail system. Very much like a tail on an airplane controls the pitch and hence the lift. We have a vertical tail that controls the wing and hence the power the wing produces. If it can make power for the boat it will do. If it can't it just feathers and is kind of a benign thing on the ship. In a way you could say that the wing is a hybrid system. It's not intended to completely replace the motors. It is intended to make them as efficient as possible and use the wind to drive the vessel as much as possible. The ferries in the Bay Area, I think they use certainly over a million dollars worth of fuel per year. There are 25 ferries. We demonstrated we could save 30 to 40 percent of the fuel costs. We have proven technology works and is valid and saves fuel and emissions. It's really handed over to the lawmakers, but certainly the policy makers. We've demonstrated the technology is available. Are they going to insist that that technology is included in the next generation of ferries? I think it's going to become a requirement pretty soon that the energy standards and greenhouse gas emissions are going to be. You're going to have to show that you're reducing. If you can't show that you're reduced from what has been done in the past, I don't think they're going to allow the technology. To some it might be a threat. I mean you're going to use less fuel. You're probably going to have smaller motors. You're going to do things differently. It's a clear choice. You can either go the dirty diesel route or you can go for a clean tech route. The wind's got a tremendous amount of power in it. Seventeen quadrillion kilowatt hours of power in the wind in the course of a year. It's a number that's unimaginable. If there's only a one percent chance that we're going to seriously damage the conditions of life on Earth, that one percent chance is enough for me to say, okay, we've got to do something here. The rest of the universe is 20 miles this way. 20 miles up is what the rest of the universe looks like. We absolutely have got to stop pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Anything that we can do to change that is what we've got to do.
 Sailing is a 7,000 year old technology that has been almost completely replaced in the
 modern world.
 Commercial ships are run by fuel-hungry engines which become less economically and environmentally
 feasible by the moment.
 Two San Francisco based entrepreneurs have developed a technology to revive sailing and
 do their part to save the world.
 The ferry system in San Francisco Bay is very popular.
 The people that use the ferry system either on a normal commute or when we have the emergencies
 that happen on a periodic basis.
 When the earthquake hit in 89, the Bay Bridge went into operation, the ferry systems took
 over.
 The problem with the ferry systems the way they're currently instituted is they are horrendously
 inefficient in terms of diesel use.
 They're also creating a lot of greenhouse gas and it's just not sustainable.
 You can drive your Cadillac Escalade across the Golden Gate Bridge and get 19 miles per
 gallon and you'd be far more environmentally correct than you would be to take the ferry
 system the way it's currently operated.
 Some of these vessels burn 300 gallons an hour.
 There is certainly an overwhelming desire to make ferries greener, cleaner, more fuel-efficient.
 And after all the ferries in the Bay Area are government subsidized so if we can save
 cost it saves taxpayers so it's kind of a win across the board.
 I met Jay I guess two years ago and he introduced his wing project.
 From that moment I guess there was six months of design and iterations, a lot of different
 tests to optimize the size of the wing for this test platform and then the actual build
 took maybe six months.
 Everybody knows what normal sails are like.
 They're just fabric and they're essentially one side of a wing.
 The benefit from the wing is that you have two sides and it's a very precise shape.
 So an equal size soft sail and a wing, the wing is going to be about twice as effective,
 twice as powerful.
 The wing is 45 feet tall, front to back is 10 feet.
 It weighs roughly 600 pounds so it's a very, very light structure.
 Sort of insignificant to the weight of a ferry and it's potentially very powerful.
 These ferries are traveling along at 30 and 40 knots sometimes and I forget the exact
 number but you certainly can produce I think six or seven tons of force at full speed if
 required.
 So the wing also has inside of it a brain, it has a GPS system, it has a satellite tracking
 system, it has a vessel data recording system.
 It knows where it is, it knows where you're going.
 All we have to do is turn the wing on and off.
 The people who drive big ships are not sailors so there's kind of a discontinuity between
 wind power systems and the people on the boat who are just not going to use those systems.
 What this wing does is completely autonomous.
 The crew doesn't need to know anything about the wing or how it works.
 It's literally an on off system.
 We do that by having a feathering tail system.
 Very much like a tail on an airplane controls the pitch and hence the lift.
 We have a vertical tail that controls the wing and hence the power the wing produces.
 If it can make power for the boat it will do.
 If it can't it just feathers and is kind of a benign thing on the ship.
 In a way you could say that the wing is a hybrid system.
 It's not intended to completely replace the motors.
 It is intended to make them as efficient as possible and use the wind to drive the vessel
 as much as possible.
 The ferries in the Bay Area, I think they use certainly over a million dollars worth
 of fuel per year.
 There are 25 ferries.
 We demonstrated we could save 30 to 40 percent of the fuel costs.
 We have proven technology works and is valid and saves fuel and emissions.
 It's really handed over to the lawmakers, but certainly the policy makers.
 We've demonstrated the technology is available.
 Are they going to insist that that technology is included in the next generation of ferries?
 I think it's going to become a requirement pretty soon that the energy standards and
 greenhouse gas emissions are going to be.
 You're going to have to show that you're reducing.
 If you can't show that you're reduced from what has been done in the past, I don't think
 they're going to allow the technology.
 To some it might be a threat.
 I mean you're going to use less fuel.
 You're probably going to have smaller motors.
 You're going to do things differently.
 It's a clear choice.
 You can either go the dirty diesel route or you can go for a clean tech route.
 The wind's got a tremendous amount of power in it.
 Seventeen quadrillion kilowatt hours of power in the wind in the course of a year.
 It's a number that's unimaginable.
 If there's only a one percent chance that we're going to seriously damage the conditions
 of life on Earth, that one percent chance is enough for me to say, okay, we've got to
 do something here.
 The rest of the universe is 20 miles this way.
 20 miles up is what the rest of the universe looks like.
 We absolutely have got to stop pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
 Anything that we can do to change that is what we've got to do.