The design is also nearly maintenance free, requiring a maintenance interval of around once a decade for most recreational boaters. A pair of counterrotating electric motors propel the boat from the bottom of the hydrofoil, taking advantage of the water immersion to run cooler and more efficiently. The ride is much quieter as a result, though part of the quiet ride also comes from Candela’s revolutionary C-Pod electric motors that move the entire drivetrain beneath the water line. Once you’ve tried Candela C-8, it will be hard to go back to traditional powerboats. Unlike V-hull boats that crash up and down on each wave, the C-8 remains smooth and steady even when crossing over waves and boat wakes.Īs Candela’s founder and CEO Gustav Hasselskog explained:įlying in absolute silence, without any slamming and basically for free – it’s just an amazing experience. The ride experience is also much nicer for everyone onboard, from the pilot to the passengers. It can cruise along for 2.5 hours on just €8 of electricity, which Candela says is 90% lower than a similar-sized ICE powerboat.īut the benefits aren’t purely energy-based. The C-8 flies with a top speed of 30 knots, yet pulls only 20 kW of power when flying at 2/3 of its maximum speed. The design has proven so popular locally that the C-8 has outsold most other gas-powered speedboats in its size class. The boat uses around 25% of the energy required by a typical speedboat, allowing it to achieve “longer range than any other fast battery-powered boat on the market – despite having a smaller battery pack.” Once reaching a few knots of speed, the boats automatically “takeoff,”lifting themselves out of the water and significantly reducing the amount of energy required to cruise at a constant speed. That’s also one of the reasons that electric boats have often had either notoriously short ranges or exceedingly high prices from massive battery packs required to provide decent range.īut to avoid that problem altogether, Candela’s boats simply remove water from the equation, or at least fly directly above it. That should make sense, as shoving heavy water out of the way at high speed isn’t a job for the weary. Gliding above the waves, the C-8 flies on a pair of computer-controlled hydrofoils that automatically raise, lower and make fine tune adjustments over 100 times per second to create an ultra smooth ride.Ĭandela’s engineers, many of whom hail from the aircraft and drone industry, designed the boat to significantly reduce the energy required to cruise at speed while spending a day on the water.Ī typical 28-foot boat of similar size to the C-8 uses around 15 times more energy than a family car. The Candela C-8’s groundbreaking design was officially unveiled last August ahead of its production, showing off the planned engineering and design of the flying electric speedboat. The new model will be formally launched a week from today at the Salone di Nautico Boat Show in Venice, Italy. That popular model has already spread across Europe and the US as well, but is soon to have its position as the company’s flagship model usurped by Candela’s next-generation C-8. It’s not a strange sight to see silent flying boats zipping around the Stockholm Archipelago, where Swedish boatmaker Candela produces its C-7 hydrofoil electric speedboats.
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