Could this be the next “Bond Boat”?

It would be if it were up to me.

I say this after learning about this 40-foot-long, hundreds of horse power-powered, hydrofoil that’s being developed by Sunreef Yachts in Poland. In fact, Sunreef Yachts designers and engineers have been reportedly working on a prototype and they estimate that when they’re done, it’ll be capable of going 70 knots. Very Bond-worthy, no?

40_H04I mean, check this bad boy out. I’m so intrigued by this project I actually tracked the designer down in Poland to learn more about it. Turns out Sunreef Yachts is currently building the prototype, and they estimate that when they get this sucker all dialed in, it’ll be capable of going 70 knots. Talk about “Bond Boat.” Sign. Me. Up.

40_H02In fact, these guys are pushing the luxury boat envelope all over the place. In fact, they’re probably building this radical 40-foot hydrofoil to serve as the coolest-of-cool tender for one of their new superyacht designs like the 210 Power Trimaran (pictured below), perhaps?

Screen Shot 2015-04-03 at 2.15.35 PMBut I digress.

Grzegorz Wladzinski from the Sunreef Yachts design office may have lots of consonants in his name, but he’s also one of the engineers involved with the hydrofoil project who was kind enough to share some of his thoughts with me. And his first point is hydrofoils are hardly new (I saw this firsthand in Russia last summer), but thanks to advancements in technology and materials, they are experiencing a very real renaissance.

“Hydrofoils work the same way as the wings on planes do,” he says. “At the beginning, a boat equipped with hydrofoils moves normally, but with increasing speed, the foils create lift just like an airplane wing or a sail, causing the hull to lift above the surface of the water. Water flowing rapidly over the top part of the foil (where the pressure is lower) causes a pressure difference between the lower and the upper parts of the foil. And this causes the hull to lift.”

40_H03

The obvious benefits of lifting the hull above the water are tremendous. Speed-stealing drag becomes nearly nonexistent, the boat moves faster using less driving power, and the ride on a foil-equipped catamaran becomes much more stable too.

As you can see, the hull uses a pretty slick retractable hydrofoil system. “In order to reduce the complexity of the system and to improve the stability of the unit,” he says, “we use V-shaped foils” (as opposed to the U-shaped foils you see on the Phantom and the G4). “This system does not require the complex stability control systems that other foils require. I also have to mention that our foils are retractable and kept in specially shaped hull ‘pockets’ which are much better for the aesthetics of this luxury product and the hydrodynamic properties for when the boat is moving in normal displacement mode. As for the foils themselves, we are thinking about using both high-strength steel and composites. But we have patented this retractable hydrofoil system, so I cannot reveal any more technical details!”

I don’t blame Grzegorz for wanting to keep some aspects of this design under wraps. The hydrofoil revolution is here.

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