MikeAqua:

 

tweake:

 

foiling boats are not new. there is a rather famous big ferry that i think may still be running. really impressive seeing something of that size zipping along with the hull out of the water.

 

the electric side, thats a bit debatable but the foils do help a lot.

 

 

I was thinking of the smaller foiling boats.  At channel ferry size it isn't such an issue.  But a 6m boat with a foil height of ~1m in a 1m sea would be ... interesting, I think.  All the video I have seen shows the small foil-boats operating in mill-pond flat or slightly ruffled water. The video linked above is an example of that.

 

The electric side make sense to me in someways.  Wetted surface and prismatic drag are the two big energy sappers in boats.  Foiling massively reduces both, especially prismatic drag.

 

From a review of a Candela C7 Candela C7 ~ Boating NZ

 

"During our time with the C7 the flight height fluctuated a little unnervingly at times, especially in choppier water, and the noise of the hydraulics became more noticeable the harder they had to work. Nor was the electric motor especially quiet, though much quieter than a conventional outboard".

 

Looking at the hull shape it would be quite adventurous if you had to travel in displacement mode in a following sea.

 

absolutely. with the small ones they would be limited to flat calm days. a problem that might occur is if you went out on foils, weather changes, forced to revert back to hull and use so much power you don't make it back.