The Future of Electric Water Travel: 'Flight Testing' The Candela C8 Hydrofoil Speedboat
Watercraft
Speaker 1: No wake trailing out behind you. No diesel or gas trailing into the water and no noise. That's the promise of the Candela C eight speedboat, a 100% electric hydrofoil boat that's designed to fly above the waves, meaning that when you are on the water, your ride is fast, smooth, and incredibly silent. Since releasing its first hydrofoil [00:00:30] speedboat in 2019, Swedish Company, Candela has been refining its design with a team of 50 engineers. The result is the C eight, an all electric 28 foot powerboat that uses hydrofoils to float out of the water and cruise above the waves. According to Candela, this design reduces water friction by as much as 80%. That combined with the lightweight 100% carbon fiber hole means the SEA eight uses [00:01:00] less power to push through the water. And Candela says that is the secret to long range high speed electric travel at sea.
Speaker 1: The Sea eight uses a 69 kilowatt hour battery from pole staff, which gives it a range of about 57 nautical miles at cruising speed. That's 22 knots, or roughly 25 miles an hour. It can get up to 27 knots at top speed when it's foiling. All that power is driven by a remarkably small motor known as the Sea Pod mounted [00:01:30] on the rear foil like a torpedo. It's direct drive, so there are no gears, and it sits entirely underwater, meaning there's no combustion engine puttering on the back of the boat. All that makes the sea eight phenomenally quiet. When I first got in the Sea eight and the motor started, I didn't notice, I only really believed it when we started moving away from the dog. So right now I'm sitting above the motor and I am speaking at, like [00:02:00] talking to a friend in the cinema kind of level. And you can hear me because this isn't a diesel or gas engine kind of puttering away. This is a direct dry motor. It's so quiet. I wonder if you can hear me if I'm whispering over it. Wow, it's crazy. My captain for the day is Candela CEO and sailing veteran Tangi de Lamo. He's sailed solo around the world and has years of experience with hydrofoiling.
Speaker 2: [00:02:30] So right now we're, uh, going out of the marina. We are doing about four and a half, five knots, and we are using, uh, 1.2 kilowatt hour for our nautical mile. And the crazy thing is that when we'll be flying, we'll use the same amount of energy, but we'll be doing 22 knots. So, uh, that's how efficient the foils are.
Speaker 1: Hydrofoils aren't new to sailing, but the C eight brings this technology to an electric leisure boat and the foil solve One of the big problems with conventional speedboats. [00:03:00] All the power you need to push the hull through the waves. According to Candela, a conventional planting Hull Boat uses 15 times as much fuel per mile as a family car. The hydrofoils work in the same way as the wings of an airplane. Water passes over each side of the foil at different speeds. Generating lift that pushes the hull of the boat out of the water, reducing drag and reducing power use being in the sea eight for takeoff also feels a lot like taking [00:03:30] off in an airplane.
Speaker 3: So the idea is like a plane, you go straight and full power and then it'll take off ready. And now we are flying.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, it really does feel like you're kind of flying through the air. Like I can, I don't feel, I don't feel the waves buffering underneath us. I can see a speed boat riding along next [00:04:00] to us and they're bouncing up and down in the water, but we're just cruising along. And you can actually see now that we are riding along next to this powerboat, you can see the weight coming off that boat and we're still riding above that, so we're not really getting buffeted even though there's all these waves coming off that speedboat next to us. So that's pretty remarkable to feel. And we feel a little, I can feel a little bit of jostling, but even then you can feel this boat correcting and just kind of stabilizing us out. It's like having a gimbal for your boat. It's really cool.
Speaker 1: [00:04:30] Getting out of the waves on the hydrofoils means we are not slamming down on every wave and wake we hit, but it's not just the foils keeping the ride smooth. The C eight also uses data from sensors, gyroscopes and accelerometers across the boat to measure its movement in the water. That info is then fed into the boat's flight controller, which makes constant adjustments to help the C eight stay stable, kind of like avionics in a drone [00:05:00] according to Del Lamot. That makes the C eight incredibly intuitive to operate.
Speaker 2: In my career as a professional sailor, uh, we, we use the foyers as well, but we are not allowed to have a software to help us control the foil. So it's very different. And of course we're using the wind, but on this one we're using, we are using electricity and the battery, uh, and a super high-tech, uh, software that, uh, adjust the foils, uh, more than a hundred times a second. And that's why anybody can do it. The beauty of the technology [00:05:30] is that you don't see it. It's there, but it's doing everything for you. But it's, it's not in your face.
Speaker 1: After cruising around the San Francisco Bay for 10 minutes, it was time for me to take the wheel.
Speaker 4: All right? I'm told I'm about to be a pilot because I'm not gonna drive this. I'm gonna fly it. They've let me behind the steering wheel, I just have to lift the throttle and then off we go. So you sure you wanna do this? All right.
Speaker 5: [00:06:00] Oh,
Speaker 4: Oh. And there it is. I feel as we just kind of like took off and now we're out of the waves cruising along.
Speaker 1: Candela has started taking orders for the C eight, starting at $390,000 US for that price. The company says you'll get [00:06:30] all the bells and whistles you'd expect on a premium speedboat room for eight passengers, including the captain. Optional extras, like a hard top and space to sleep. Two adults and two children. The company is also opening up what if calls test flights here in the San Francisco Bay.
Speaker 4: If this is the future of boating, then I gotta say I can definitely get on board the idea that I can't smell the gas motor. I can just fly over the ways with the sound of the birds around me and frankly, throw [00:07:00] me a glass of champagne. I'm ready to go. Time to take off. That's a.
