l’Hydroptère is a 60 foot sailboat, but when it’s moving it doesn’t spend much time in the water. Above 12 knots, it pops out of the water and rides on hydrofoils, which look and act like small airplane wings under water. When riding on it’s foils the Hydroptère has very little surface area in contact with the water (2 square meters) and therefore, very little drag.
- 1975: A team of aeronautical engineers, aircraft part manufacturers and sailors managed to convince Eric Tabarly of the project’s viability.
- 1987-1992: Alain Thébault built a 1/3 scale model.
- 1st October 1994: l’Hydroptère’s first flight.
- January 27, 2007: Reached it’s top speed of 47.2 knots - shown in the video below.
2 minutes. Link to Video
Here are some smaller hydrofoil sailboats that you can buy:
- Hobie Trifoiler (no longer in production)
- Moth
- Windrider Rave
