Aquila Power Catamarans has released a new video walking through how its Hydro Glide® foil system actually works, and why the same idea ends up shaped differently depending on which boat it’s bolted to.
The physics, as Aquila’s Chief Product Officer Jean Raas and Chief Designer Jure Zule explain in the 3½-minute video filmed at the Sino Eagle shipyard in China, where every Aquila is built, comes down to a simple chain. The foil creates lift, lift reduces wetted surface area, and less wetted surface area means less drag. Aquila says that since 2018 it has fitted more foil systems to production boats than any other builder in the world.
The foil isn’t standard across the board. It comes fitted as standard on the 42 and 46 Coupe, is optional on the 36 Sport (about one in three owners tick the box) and on the 42, 46 and 50 Yacht models, and the 70 Luxury flagship is built foil-capable. The shape changes with the job. Yacht-sized foils are broader and more rounded to lift a heavier hull, while the smaller, higher-speed Sport and Coupe foils use a slimmer section. Both the 46 Yacht and 42 Coupe have picked up international design awards this year with the foil system cited among their strengths.
“What we achieve with the foil is reduced resistance, improved efficiency and improved comfort of ride,” Zule says in the video.
Raas says the gains convinced Aquila to make the foil standard on the Coupe range rather than leave it optional. Aquila’s own figures put the 36 Sport’s fuel efficiency improvement at upwards of 35 percent, and the brand’s testing shows the Coupe models beating comparable monohulls by as much as 76 percent on inboard power.
Aquila is well known to Kiwi boaties already. Whitehaven Marine is the brand’s official Australia and New Zealand dealer, while Busfield Marine has partnered with Whitehaven to represent Aquila Catamarans for New Zealand customers.
