Give or treat yourself to a subscription to Boats in Motion print + digital and for only 39 euros a year you get the magazine at home plus read it on your PC, smartphone and tablet. With a sea of advantages.
Foil + hydrogen in fuel cells: this is the same philosophy adopted today in the catamarans of the last America’s Cup, which this university team boasts of pioneering by building, in 2021, the world’s first hydrogen-powered flying boat.
The Team Hydro Motion from Delft University of Technology, the largest and oldest public university of technology in the Netherlands, has been engaged in researching and building clean energy-powered boats for more than 15 years, a path crowned by winning last year’s Monaco Energy Boat Challenge Open Sea class world championship .
In addition, they faced a unique challenge by crossing, with one of their boats, the North Sea between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. To accomplish such a feat requires efficiency and autonomy. And that is precisely why they chose a carbon hull, 8 meters long by 2.65 meters wide, sailing on foil, powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
Foils, creating lift like airplane wings, get the whole hull out of the water, reducing drag and incredibly increasing efficiency. This boat uses a system of 3 independent foils, two forward, for main sustenance, and one aft, which houses the transmission – a trailing propeller, which is more efficient – and the rudder. All three are regulated by management software that automatically maintains the set flight attitude. The fluid dynamics are designed for maximum efficiency at a cruising speed of 21.6 knots.
But efficiency alone is not enough to ensure sufficient range, the cross of any electric vehicle. This is the reason for the choice of hydrogen. Not only an environmental choice to provide an alternative to the demand for lithium that is growing faster than supply, but, more importantly, a system with an energy storage density about 235 times greater than standard lithium-ion battery cells. Translated into popular terms: a tide of less weight on board. And that is critical for a planing boat.
All these systems, fuel cells and foil management, need nontrivial management and monitoring software. For this, the project’s many sponsors come to the rescue, namely. Panasonic, which provided its TOUGHBOOK G2 series rugged tablets, products specifically developed to withstand harsh environments. After all, that of the North Sea, on a small boat, is certainly one of them: water, humidity, salinity, cold, shocks and, of course, the range that is never enough. And who knows, in the near future we might not see some products entirely dedicated to boating.
Sign up for our Newsletter
Powerboats, its stories, from small open to motoryachts. Sign up now for our free newsletter and receive the best news selected by the editorial staff each week. Enter your email below, agree to the Privacy Policy and click the “sign me up” button.
We anticipated the top management change within the famous British shipyard Sunseeker. Here now is confirmation: Scott Millar, senior managing director of Teneo Financial Advisory, has taken over as interim CEO of Sunseeker International effective Dec. 8, 2025, following the
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
Boats, even the largest and most exclusive superyachts, are assembled products; they are the sum of a boundless number of components. The end result comes not only from the skill of those who know how to “put them together,” but
A tribute to the companies and people who have made Barche a Motore great over these 35 years allowing it to be born, grow, and become great up to this historic anniversary. In these articles the great excellences of boating
