Candelaboat

vor 3 Jahrendiscuss

Mikael at Candela, the hydrofoil maker, here. Our P-12 uses submerged hydrofoils and emplys a digital Flight controller, which stabilizes the craft by adjusting the angle of attack of the foils 100 times per second. So the pitching and heaving you found nauseating in the old Soviet Raketa and Kometa hydrofoils don't exist in P-12 - it's smooth sailing even in. chippy weather. Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIp9OkMzZkM

Candelaboat

vor 3 Jahrendiscuss

Mikael at Candela here. Norway is indeed a target market for us!

Candelaboat

vor 3 Jahrendiscuss

Mikael at Candela here. Our C-8 can foil in wave heights of around 1.2m, which are pretty big waves for a 27-foot leisure boat. The P-12 is designed for much bigger waves, and can foil in 2 meter high waves, meaning it will be able to cover rough weather in archipelagos and littoral waters. The catamaran hull is also efficient at slower speeds up to 10 knots, if the weather would not permit foiling.

Candelaboat

vor 3 Jahrendiscuss

Hi there, Mikael at Candela here. Since the P-12 uses 80% less energy than a conventional vessel, the cost of operating it is far less than diesel vessels- overall around 50% percent lower including service, energy, salaries etc. This makes electrification desirable for operators for the first time. Usually, conventional (non-foiling) electric vessels are more costly to purchase than diesel vessels, and more costly to operate too, as they require MW charging infrastructure on land. The P-12 uses a DC style charger of up to 175 kW, which is pretty affordable to install.

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Feel free to ask me anything, I work at Candela!

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Mikael at Candela here. The cost of replacing the foils vary, but considerably less than the lower unit of an outboard on 25 foot boats. I actually ran over a submerged chain and broke the foil once - the only time that has happened in Sweden. Took us an hour to replace it, so no big deal You hoist the foil/struts down completely and insert a new one.

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Update: it's done. Thanks!

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Hi, no problem, just wanted to clarify. The price is 250 00 euros, which indeed is expensive for a 25 foot boat, but still about 100 000 euros less expensive than conventional electric boats that can go fast - but not that far.

The price stems from a high production cost, the whole boat is built like an aircraft, in carbon fiber (the designer used to work at Eurocopter) to be as light as possible. The weight of the hull and deck is about 240 kg. So our main goal for the future is to reduce the costs - by a lot. But think about C-7 as the Tesla Roadster. But our foiling ferry for the city of Stockholm will be launched next year, and then people using the Stockholm public transport system can go foiling for 2€.

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Mikael at Candela here. It's supposed to be "wake", not "wave" - sorry for this. The wake behind the boat is only 5cm, so no wake damage here:) The boat handles waves nicely, we can fly in up to 1,2 meter high waves - watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7I0pVpnytM

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Good suggestion - thanks!

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Mikael at Candela here. Because it's super hard to make the control system for an inherently unstable boat. It took five years of R&D to make it work in all manners of situations, banked turns etc. Conventional boat builders don't have access to software and control systems engineers, and tech companies seldom invest in the marien sector. But once we got it working, there are no real drawbacks, only benefits. Smooth, quiet, and fun to drive. Check out candela.com for more videos.

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Waterskiing behind a Candela C-7 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAMlAcSEI1I&t=10s

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Mikael at Candela, the hydrofoil boat maker, here. Yes, that's a key difficulty that has to be solved by using sensors that detect flight height, and distance to the waves, among other things. If the foil leaves the water, you ventilate and come down. We use a flight controller, a kind of computer, to perform these calculations. Some sailing boats have wands, ie a mechanical stick that detects waves in front of the boat,, but using ultrasonic sensors and adjustable hydrofoils is a way more accurate solution. Check us out here: candela.com

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

There's a lot of vaporware out there, but this foiling ferry has been paid for by the City of Stockholm and will launch next year:

https://candelaspeedboat.com/public-transport/

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Check out our foiling ferry P-30 that already is paid for by the city of Stockholm and will be launched Q4 2022:

https://candelaspeedboat.com/public-transport/

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Mikael at Candela, the C-7 maker, here. Hydrofoils have a number of benefits, among them are: less slamming (up to a certain sea state), less drag and better fuel economy, and smaller wake. Boeing 929 Jetfoiler from the 1970's onwards and the Russian hydrofoils that were produced in large numbers during the 1950's-1980's largely used hydrofoils because they made smaller wakes (Russian river rockets) or handled choppy water well (Boeing, in Hong Kong and Japan).

At Candela, we use hydrofoils to reduce the energy usage, to be able to make an electric boat that has long range at high speeds, above 20 knots. Conventional hulls are hard to electrify since they need so much power. However, we use a new type of hydrofoil: fully submerged hydrofoils, that are more efficient but needs active stabilization from computers and software. The on-board Flight controller adjusts the hydrofoils at 100 hZ, or 100 times per second, which makes for a craft that won't pitch or heave. This tech was available in the 1970's - it's basically a very similar Flight controller as in an inherently unstable jet fighter like F-16 - but thanks to drones and smartphones, the price reduction of sensors makes it possible for us to offer this tech in a leisure boat.

And - we're scaling our electric hydrofoil tech to commercial ships. Right now, we're starting the construction of the world's first foiling electric shuttle ship for the city of Stockholm. At its launch next year, Candela P-30 will be the fastest electric ship ever at 30 knots, as well as most energy-efficient ship ever built. Energy usage is 1/10th of conventional diesel ships. Check it out here:

https://candelaspeedboat.com/public-transport/

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Mikael at Candela, the maker of C-7 here. Yes: The hydrofoils reduce slamming by about 95% in waves that are up to 1,2 meters. If they're higher than that, you can always go slow. The boat has a 40 kWh battery pack in the keel, so it's a very stable craft even at slow speeds. Check out Candela.com.

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Mikael at Candela, the maker of C-7, here. This post is inaccurate and frankly makes no sense. First, the waves will never capsize the boat. Due to low cog, it's virtually impossible to do - we've tried. You can manoeuvre just fine at all speeds, but at high speeds it's correct that you might not be able to avoid running over a log or other submerged objects. Same goes for regular planing boats at high speeds. If you hit something, the foil will withstand smaller objects - branches, debris - but is designed to come off should you hit a bigger object, such as a log. While the foil breaks off, the hull will stay intact and avoid damage. Now, on the other hand, if you hit a log with a conventional boat, there's a risk the hull is pierced and the boat sinks. Regarding the "weight ratio": hydrofoil boats are super energy efficient and need very little power at cruise speed compared to a traditional hull, which is why we use them for C-7. At 22 knots, the C-7 uses about 25 hp, which is pretty remarkable for a 25-foot boat. We have a passenger capacity of six persons, but have actually taken off with 10 persons on board - using a motor rated at 65 kW!

Candelaboat

vor 5 Jahrendiscuss

Hi, I work for Candela in Sweden. 5cm is not the wave height the boat can handle. 5 cm is the height of the wake the boat produces, so almost no wake. You can go foiling in 1,2 meter high waves in 30 knots - check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7I0pVpnytM&t=8s

Candelaboat

vor 6 Jahrendiscuss

Great question. What's different in our case is that the flight controller captures the boat’s movements from 7 sensors. Then it establishes the full-state 3×6 state matrix (position, velocity and acceleration with regards to position in x, y and x and rotation around the same axis). This is partly done using sensor fusion algorithms.

We then use the outputs to control the angle of attack, along the longitudinal axis of the foil, essentially twisting it. The R&D that has gone into making this work reliably enough for a consumer product is our secret sauce.

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