2022. Luca Ferrari flies into the future with RaceBird

Welcome to the special section “BAM 35 Years.” We are presenting “cult” articles from the Motor Boats archive, starting in 1990. A journey through time among stories unobtainable today, even in the great sea of the internet! A dive into the world of epic moments in motor boating. We begin with one of the stories we were most passionate about.

An electrifying premiere

From Boats by Motor 2022, no. 26, July-August, pp. 95-105.

What does it feel like to be at the controls of RaceBird? We asked the pilot who first flew a dream come true.

A Romagnolo Doc, Luca Ferrari is the grandson of Alessandro and Norberto Ferretti. It was with the latter that he won the offshore world championship in 1994 in Class 1 aboard Giesse- Phylosphy, a carbon catamaran built at the time by Tencara. It was precisely his long experience in powerboat racing that proved most useful in fine-tuning the RaceBird.

When “Stella di Mare” from Lucio Dalla‘s eighth album was released in 1979, he had a phrase that sounds as relevant today as ever: “Our boat doesn’t sail, it flies, it soars!” Certainly Dalla did not envision the E1 Series, but it is a suggestion that fits very well to describe the new RaceBird, the “flying” electric boat that will take center stage in this futuristic championship. We are facing the advent of an international circuit that wants to give birth to a new nautical competition. The protagonists are real volcanoes of ideas and bear the names of Alejandro Agag, President and Co-founder of E1; Rodi Basso, Ceo and co-founder; designer Sophi Horne, without forgetting the Victory Marine development team, led by Brunello Acampora and to the many others behind the scenes. Today, however, the protagonist is someone else. Yes, because the idea only works if there is a boat to run on. Designing and building it is only the first step. Then you have to fine-tune it, optimize it, and make it perform at its best. This is exactly what Luca Ferrari, now an official tester for E1, is doing. A past and, above all, a trophy cabinet full of trophies won in major powerboat competitions, Ferrari (one name, one guarantee) has the burden and the honor of having flown the RaceBird for the first time. How did it go? He told us himself in this exclusive interview.

You have racing and innovation in your blood. How are you experiencing this new project?
When I was racing in Class 1 (of which he was world champion in 1997 Editor’s note) I was the first to have a single rudder boat, to experiment with an aileron in the tunnel, just to name a few examples, but I could go on and on. I’m not saying this as a boast, but just because I’m used to projecting myself into the future. It’s very exciting, honestly. And then I feel the honor of taking this boat on the water for the first time with full confidence from Brunello (Acampora Ed.) and Rhodes (Basso Ed.).

This is not the first time you have tried your hand at fast electric boat projects…
No, I already had experience with Anvera E-Lab, among the most powerful electrics in the world. Taking an electric boat with foils to the water is quite a challenge, these two elements together are essential. Brunello and Rhodes, however, now want to evolve the craft to the maximum.

In this regard, he was the first to “fly” over it. How did it go?
We are at the beginning, the first flights ever, but in the three trials we have done we did well even if, as we expected, the first problems emerged. From my indications we will already arrive at the next trials with new foils. In fact we are still not using all the power that on this boat is needed especially for starting. The feeling is like being on a plane. In the first absolute trial at 16 knots was already an achievement. From 16 knots on, the way we were set, we were overdoing it and the boat was getting too high on the foils, risking going out of the water. So it had to be lowered, but to do that you cannot use force, instead you have to work with intelligence.

How do you mean?
The goal is to keep it in the air, but as low on the water as possible, almost flush. Also because as soon as you impact the surface you have a significant brake. First it’s a head and logic job to find the best trim, then the pilot’s sensitivity comes into play.

What is different from your offshore experience?
We offshore drivers have the feeling of being on the water and being pushed by it. There is a direct, almost physical contact that starts from the seat. You have to “feel” the boat. Some people manage to establish this connection instinctively. To that end, I still remember when I took Ayrton (Senna Ed.) on a boat with me. He felt the boat like he was on a single-seater, it was amazing. Here, though, everything is different. The moment you get up on the foils, there is total silence, and silence is a problem because you lose feeling, you struggle to find reference points on the water. It’s like being at the controls of an airplane. That’s why my first request was to add, in the instrumentation, an artificial horizon. You have a horizon in front of you, but you struggle to know how high you are. In my case I had a radio contact telling me, “You are twenty, thirty (cm high on the water, Ed.) you can go, etc.” You, however, do not notice it. My experience, to answer the question, came in handy because of the fact that in the past I always flew flat boats. Maybe at top speed I was slower, but I always tried to have the best balance, a choice that always proved successful. This background today came in very handy for me in tuning RaceBird.

Is it difficult to steer a RaceBird?
Physically the wing always brings you back up. You have to have times when you go up and when you go down with the lift. In short, you look for the water to compensate if you go up too much, otherwise the wing comes out of the water. Trim is critical, just like in the America’s Cup, where the trimmer always has to work on the foils to keep them in the water, otherwise it’s a moment you lose control of the boat. In tacking you will have to stay as flat as possible, because if you tilt the hull and a wing comes out you will lose lift. The best solution will be to tack at maximum speed, but flat to have equal support on the two foils in front.

How much automation is on board?
All of this that I described is manual. You have the steering wheel in your hand and with the steering wheel you send her into a turn with a car-like feel, a little oversteer. When you oversteer she jumps to the outside and it’s you, the driver, intervening to tack as flat as possible. And then always you adjusting the height on the water.

Will tacking then be difficult?
Clearly in a straight line the boat has to be right, there will be parameters for trim and lift. Then, as you go faster, you will need to figure out what the radius of the optimal tack will be. The goal will be to tack flat, fast, wider perhaps than your head says, but still fast. We shall see. We are still in our infancy. Rodi Basso however has created an Academy for this type of boat, for pilots of all kinds. The evolution of this medium wants to involve people, women and men, outside of boating as well.

By Matteo Zaccagnino and Gregorio Ferrari. Photographs: Lloyd Images.

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