A Boat For a Tesla Plaid Owner?

They say that a boat is going to be the second most expensive thing you own, between a house and a car. With a basic Tesla Model S Plaid costing £120,000 or so, then the Candela-8 foiling electric boat may well sit within that idea at £200,000, between the car and your £750,000 town house. 

If you are into what is widely held as the coolest electric car on the road at the moment, then you’d definitely want a Candela-8 as that has the equivalent super-cool tech that makes it something old Elon would dream up! 

Foiling Boat Powered with a Torpedo 

The 28ft day cruising boat is widely held as the most efficient fast cruising electric boat on the market. It will do an unheard of 50 nautical miles at 22 knots - getting down the South Coast from Poole Harbour to Cowes in a single charge at a pinch. 

Why is this? Firstly the boat has a hydrofoil so it hasn’t the friction of the hull on the water. That means by flying over the waves it can go faster and farther than a planing or displacement boat. 

What goes on under the water is the cool bit. Rather than following the existing market and having the motor inside the boat, all the magic happens in a torpedo like system underneath the boat. In having the motor in an in-line system you lose friction. 

The next thing the engineers did was to keep the assembly narrow to improve hydrodynamics. This does mean that a smaller motor will have to turn faster, but being immersed in the water that means it is cooled all the time so can turn faster for longer without burning out. 

Big propellers generate more power, but so do smaller, faster turning props. If a big propeller turns too quickly through the water it causes a vacuum at the tips and this ‘cavitation’ can end up destroying the unit by shaking it to bits. That’s why they went for two smaller props - again just like a torpedo - generating a lot more power than one propeller. 

The torpedo tech thing goes farther too - the two propellers contra-rotate. This solves another issue - one propeller will impose turning forces on the boat which will turn in one direction or other as a result. By having two propellers turning the opposite way, so you end up with a straight line of thrust. 

All in, the makers of the underwater hydrofoiling motor reckon that they have a 14% greater efficiency than any other electric boat motor on the market today. Engineering is usually about squeezing the odd percentage point here and there - this is why the motor is outright revolution and not evolution! 

Other Advantages of Being Electric 

The sound of the ‘D-sail’ is part of life on a motor cruiser. The biggest fossil fuelled boats today have huge amounts of sound insulation around their engines so their passengers don’t get deafened. 

But, with all the engineering under the water you’ll find that the Candela 8 is even quieter than a sailing boat even while travelling at a very quick 22 knots. You can blast down the coast on your foils while listening to the bird song and  the waves you’re flying over. Rather makes the €230,000 you’ve parted with for a day cruiser worth every penny doesn’t it?!