X-legged like a water strider, the foiler chases across the surface of the water. And yet it has little in common with the insect. It uses the surface tension, while the foiler's wings cut through the water to a depth of half a metre. This feat is anything but new.
Motorised flying boats or hydrofoils, as they were called back then, already existed at the beginning of the 20th century. The principle has remained the same: A wing profile, similar to that of an aeroplane, generates so much lift above a certain speed that the vehicle takes off. In the case of the one-tonne foiler, the carbon hull has to be travelling at 18 knots to switch to flight mode.
Dynamic lift should be noticeable from as little as twelve knots. The pure gliding flight brings several practical benefits: according to the shipyard, fuel consumption is reduced by 20 per cent due to the reduced drag, and the top speed climbs to up to 40 knots. But comfort also increases. No rocking can be felt, no slapping of the hull on the surface can be heard or heard - just a quiet gliding over waves that must not be higher than 1.50 metres.
What's more, the winged yacht is so agile that the manufacturer has limited the turning radii for safety reasons.
Fits on every berth
The compact size harbours true innovative power.
In park mode, the arms of the two L-foils and their winglets, the7.20 metres in flight mode The two steps separate the two sides of the boat, which fit snugly and beautifully behind two steps on the concave freeboards. From the notches mirrored at the bottom, the1.60 metre high L-wing out. Their logs are moved electronically into the hull interior in parking or conventional driving mode and stored on top of each other.
The French engineers also folded the propellers sitting on the rudder blades onto the stern in such a way that the boat's length does not exceed the ten metre mark and a bathing platform can be extended. The minimum boat width of 3.30 metres makes it possible to lie in a standard box. The lifting mechanism that retracts the L-foils was developed on a prototype in Switzerland by almost the same team, but under the name Hydros.
French foil fanatic
The financial and non-materialThe driving force behind Foiler is the entrepreneurSylvain Vieujot. The Frenchman has lived in the United Arab Emirates for over ten years and is the deputy chairman of one of the largest property funds in the Middle East. A foil kiter and sailor himself, he set up a shipyard in Dubai under the name Enata, which manufactures sailing catamarans, components for the aviation industry, kiteboards and kitefoils.
Vieujot has already sold several units of the foiler, which was presented at the Dubai Boat Show at the beginning of March. The production model has a total of four separately trimmable foils. In addition to the two L-foils, which generate the actual lift and lateral force and are also known as Dalí foils, there are two delta-shaped wing halves that are horizontal to the rudder blade. They act as elevators.
Both types of wings are manufactured in an autoclave in our own production facility. In this process, the carbon parts are tempered in a gas-tight tube under high pressure. But how to transfer the power to the lowered rudder blade?
A conventional drive, in which the power is transmitted via a shaft, is not compatible with the folding mechanism. Instead, loadtwo 235-kilowatt BMW engines a high-voltage
battery and act on two electric generators that supply the propeller pods integrated into the rudder blades.
In battery-only mode, the foiler can complete a ten-minute journey at ten knots. Diesel-electrically powered130 nautical miles at a speed of 30 knots in flight mode, mind you. Then the two seats in front of the front windows provide the best view. In future, there will also be an optional cabin. The price is another feature that sets it apart from previous hydrofoils.
The foiler is expected to cost one million euros as a series boat.
You can read this article in the August 2018 issue of BOOTE. Available here.
