Need for speed

In early September, powerboats thundered along the calm waters of the Connecticut River as pro racing returned to the state for the first time in more than two decades.

If a Sandy Hook company has any say, leisure boaters will be able to hit similar speeds on Long Island Sound and other waterways ”“ even on days when the whitecaps are out in force.

HAWC Technologies Inc. is marketing hydrofoil boats that can cruise at more than 35 mph, while bursting to speeds of more than 50 mph.

An acronym for hydrofoil-assisted watercraft, HAWC is developing both new leisure boats, as well as working to retrofit catamaran ferries with hydrofoils to increase their speed while reducing the size of their wake, an important consideration for ferries that operate in bays.

The company is run by Gerhard Kutt, who is designing vessels on licensed designs from a researcher at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. At deadline, Kutt could not be reached for comment.

Sheila Carmine, executive director of the Stamford-based Connecticut Quality Improvement Awards, said Kutt has been seeking venture capital backing for the company, which won a CQIA award last month.

“You would not believe the energy he has,” Carmine said.

One might say that holds true for the vessels Kutt is selling. Dubbed by some as “ships on wings,” hydrofoils are designed to reach high speeds by rising out of the water thanks to submerged, plane-like surfaces attached to struts on the hull. As those planes slice through the water, drag is reduced to a minimum, including in stiff seas that cause other vessels to labor.

In promotional materials, HAWC says its hydrofoils operate with 40 percent less fuel consumption compared to standard powerboats of the same size and displacement weight.

In August 2007, the company conducted its first speed trial off Rhode Island, with the company”™s 36-foot aluminum catamaran hitting 53 mph using a pair of outboard motors (a YouTube video of the vessel in action has drawn 10,000 views in just over a year”™s time).  At a cruising speed of 36 mph, the boat consumes more than eight gallons of gas an hour, comparing favorably with standard speedboats.

Still, despite some of the advantages of hydrofoils, few U.S. companies have been attempting to sell them to the weekend, water warrior. A Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company called American Hydrofoils has been marketing several designs, including two hydrofoils for recreational use, one a speedy toy akin to a Jet Ski. And Lake Worth, Fla.-based Hydrofoils Inc. has been designing several high-performance vessels since its start in 1999.

Hydrofoils, however, have found a readier market for utilitarian purposes. Boeing Co. has had limited success since 1974 selling hydrofoils for both military and passenger ferry use; some two dozen of its “jetfoil” vessels are used by ferry companies in the Pacific Rim. Those companies include Hong Kong-based TurboJET, for which HAWC has worked on upgrading a water-jet-powered catamaran ferry with hydrofoils to improve performance.

HAWC is not the first Fairfield County company to tinker with hydrofoils ”“ a half-century ago, the U.S. Navy began a hydrofoil acquisition program following World War II that drew an unsuccessful bid from a daredevil Connecticut woman.

In 1962, an employee in an Avco Corp. installation in Stratford patented a design for an amphibious vehicle that relied on hydrofoils to obtain greater speeds. The following year, the Bridgeport-based Bullard Co. won a patent for a hydrofoil with foils that can retract vertically to make docking easier, along with a rear foil and propeller that could be angled to steer thrust in a particular direction.