One recipient of the UK government grant toward zero-emission vehicles ~ without us knowing the others in the absence of the results appearing in a readable format ~ was Artemis in Belfast, whose electric-powered ferry is being trialed on a route connecting Kirkwall in Scotland with various islands. No vessel is 'zero-emission' in the way no vehicle is, incidentally, but does tick a convenient box when it comes to spraying tax revenues around.
I've always wanted to travel on a hydrofoil, and visited the island of Thassos in the hope of catching one from Kavala on the Greek mainland. Sadly the Greeks stopped using them, as indeed the people of Hong Kong did a while back... meaning I was to take a ferry there much like those in Glasgow or Liverpool back in the day.
The only reasons in either case I can find for hydrofoils being dropped are twofold. Firstly, like the hovercraft they are comparatively heavy on fuel given the payload they are expected to lift, at least compared to the newer generation of multihulls powered by fuel-efficient diesel jet-pumps. Secondly and more notably, they do not come well out of encounters with sizeable flotsam and jetsam. This meant that like hovercraft they would spend much time in maintenance instead of ferrying people.
A third reason for the scarcity thought of hydrofoils was the difficulty of stabilising them at an ideal ride height, which would eventually lead both Boeing and the US Navy to largely ignore them. Electrification thus addresses two of three objections to the use of hydrofoils viz. they are powerful as well as efficient, whilst the travel can be stabilised by a flight controller of the sort fitted to every drone.
The aim with the TELEDRONE is to capitalise on all three and to create a vessel that is fast, efficient, cheap, seaworthy and undamaged by sub-surface obstacles. What's not to like?
For people providing grants, probably me.
The graphic illustrates the control system used by Candela in Sweden, who are set to dominate the application of e-foils to ferries and leisure-craft. And in a Byzantine twist, tho' chains were stretched across the entrance to the Golden Horn in 1453 the capitol fell to an army which dismantled its ships to carry them overland... be prepared to do the same with your e-foils.
