Flying tourist boat enters final sea trials

The 8.95m long catamaran, with a flat wingdeck from bow to stern, is just four tonnes in weight when fully loaded, carrying 10 passengers and one skipper.

With a top speed of 30 knots it can cruise at 25 knots for up to 50 nautical miles, Vessev says, operating on purely battery power.

The vessel has been designed to be scalable, says CEO Eric Laakman, and is as comfortable as a larger vessel because of the foils, which lift it 50cm clear of the waves and create less wake.

“One way of looking at the impact of this vessel is that our waterways today are like roadways, where the only comfortable mode of transport is very large multi-passenger buses, ie ferries. These large vessels are here to stay, but they will be augmented with point-to-point services delivered by vessels such as the CS-9.

“It’s like introducing a limo into a world of buses.”

The VS-9 will join the Fullers360 fleet, the largest ferry operator in New Zealand, once it has completed the final phase of sea trials, which have already begun.