What happens if the foil hits a large fish at top speed? Something has to give and I am guessing it would be the fish. I hope the foil is strong enough that hitting a really big fish like a great white wouldn't damage it.
Bill Dawson the foils are aeronautic grade metal, they would hardly break with a fish, unless we are talking of a marine creature the size of a Russian submarine... ;) In fact, they are so hard we tested the best in class anti fouling paint which doesn’t even stick to their surface for more than a few runs. There are underwater and above water sensors much based on similar tech of the fish finders and sonars that will alert the flight control system the navigation system and the captain of any obstacles that may be threatening far ahead, the ship beers and changes direction 20 times faster than a regular hull planing at that speed for obvious reasons. That said at high speed there is always risk with or without foils the be fair so we’d never state in all honesty that travelling at 40 knots is completely risk-free however commercial hydrofoils have been operated directly from companies we founded and operated (SNAV for example ) without this sort of accidents from 1955 to 50 years later with much less advanced technology onboard so to give you an idea of the % of risk we are talking .. . At the same time the risk of sailing onto a rock for a pure man made mistake will brake the foils but possibly won’t sink you as opposed to making the same mistake directly onto the hull at a similar or even lesser 50% of that speed
@@LeopoldoR Thanks for the informative reply. I figured they must be engineered to withstand contact with fish. Hitting an underwater rock at high speed would be bad, no matter what sort of boat you are in of course, but at least it would miss the hull so it wouldn't necessarily sink as with a conventional ship, as you pointed out. No ship is unsinkable if enough forces are applied to it, I suppose. These boats are pretty awesome. [I think there was a sailboat which won some international sailboat race one year. They had something beneath their boat which they kept covered while at dock. It was a big secret. They won that year. I assumed they had some sort of small foil down there.]
Is the "cruise speed" in hydrofoil mode or displacement? I'm curious if hydrofoils increase or reduce fuel efficiency. I figure since they reduce drag they should improve fuel efficiency.
Thanks! Does it need keel ballast? This is probably a bit crazy to ask, but would it be possible to build a 30" solar hydrofoil catamaran? I mean would it reduce power consumption? You'd only have like 10 kW of power available (more with battery or generator). I know solar catamarans can make only slow speeds on solar alone (about 5-7 knots). I figure there must be a sweet spot between speed, hydrofoil size, lift and wet surface for energy reduction.
Thanks Hailstorm, that's what I'm wondering about. I figure it probably won't work, it would be too easy :) The question is where the break even is depending on available propulsive power in kW and displacement in kg. The theoretical 10 kW electrical input power from solar panels would be about equivalent to about 25 HP combustion power in propulsion power (according to some manufacturer*) Also you could have a battery to store 1 day worth of solar power and burn it in like 1 hour. So maybe you could go proportionally faster and more fuel efficient than slow continuous cruising at displacement speeds. So instead of traveling for 5 hours at 5 knots you would travel 1 hour at 30 knots. Maybe :) I guess I'll have to calculate that answer myself. I've ordered the book "hydrofoils" but haven't read it yet.
The first commercial boat was in service in lake Maggiore for the track between Switzerland and Italy, it was 1953 and the boat was the T10 "Freccia d'Oro". T10 Freccia d'Oro was built by swiss company Supramar.
