An autopilot for human scale kiteboarding would be a great learning tool.
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At this point, my main concern is that the kites stay in position and never end up in the water. I can imagine this being more dangerous than a net for potential to snag/drag marine life. Orcas are already pissed, let’s hope we don’t make things worse. 
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While boats have been powered by wind for millennia
Citation needed
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Up where the air is clear, indeed.
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Now I remember why that one was all over the news at the time. And it explains how it is possible to have missed the endless SkySails PR elsewhere.
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Six millennia and counting.
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7-8 at least surely? They definitely predate the great Egyptian civilisations anyway. Teh wikis suggests the earliest evidence is the Ubaid period of Mesopotamia:
Mesopotamian sail truthers exist and I am not competent to weigh in on that:
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Or if you’re talking nonhuman evolution of wind powered seeds, 270 million years.
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I’m here for some 21st century sea shanties
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Waitaminute, you pay rowers?
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In truth, ancient Greek and Roman rowers were paid sailors; slave galleys were a Medieval thing. But I didn’t say pay for rowers by accident.
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Also… HISTORY!!!
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…that’s where the mesopotamuses live, right?
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Well, here’s one from a good 21st century movie (there were more in the film):
This topic is making want to check out companies already using sails like Ponant or Windstar:
Which would be better, Powerball or Mega Millions?
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I imagine a cable being whipped around by an out-of-control kite has lots of potential to kill or maim anyone it comes into contact with.
Also, if the kite is generating enough force to significantly impact fuel economy when it’s working properly, it feels like it might also generate enough force to to effect the ship’s stability when it works improperly.
But hey, aerodynamics is full of surprises. I’ve always been amazed that the sails on sailing ships can capture enough force the make ships go as fast as they do. Sometimes even very old technology is sufficiently advanced to be indistinguishable from magic. I mean tacking slightly into the wind is sort of believable, but getting within 45 degrees of the oncoming wind? And boats travelling with the wind but faster than the wind? That just sounds like demons are involved.
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cetacean needed.
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I hear they call it physics these days.
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James Clark Maxwell: ‘I said what I said.’
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