As a kid I also rode hydrofoil bus boat in a river, and now I noticed the anomaly,... a "better" technology that did not survive?mig27 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2016 8:22 amIndeed!foilonfoil wrote:Hydrofoils have offered so much promise for boating for decades. It's great that there now so much potential.
Development stalled for some reason.
Only the Russians had a relatively broad spectrum of hydrofoil equipped boats, from small tenders powered by an outboard up to passenger ferries.
We had those (upgraded to German engines) for a decade here in the Netherlands as an alternative for busses.
Unfortunately, their shortcomings caused a serious accident. That was the end of the hydrofoil passenger ferries over here. I loved the sight of such a vessel sailing by with 75km/h!
How come the hydrofoil vessels had shortcoming ? Weren't they more fuel effective and faster?