ROME – It is 7 meters long, three meters wide and weighs 800 kg, but above all it is the first electric competition boat equipped with hydrofoil. His name is RaceBird, and next year he will participate in the first edition of the E1 World Championship, which is reserved for electric motorboats. In short, a revolution that promises to turn the entire nautical world upside down.
But let’s go in order. First of all, what is hydrofoil? Most of us already know this. It is that system that has recently become popular among surfers: a laminar surface that pushes the surfboard upwards with the increase in speed, which rises into the air, eliminating the resistance of the water. In practice the old principle of the hydrofoil. Well until 5 June the same company that organizes the World Championship – the E1 World Electric Powerboat Series – will exhibit this new boat at the Venice Boat Show, equipped with a 150 kW Kreisel battery and a Mercury Racing outboard motor.
Born from the pencil of the Norwegian designer Sophi Horne and the ingenuity of Victory Design and SeaBird Technologies, the RaceBird is entirely made of carbon, is equipped with two hydrofoils and manages to reach 50 knots of maximum speed with zero emissions, with a range 40 minutes. The moment the boat lifts is when it reaches a minimum of 25 knots: that’s when the water resistance ends and the boat really seems to take flight.
The UIM E1 World Electric Powerboat Championship will involve various European cities, even if the definitive calendar has not yet been set. However, we certainly talk about Venice, Rotterdam, Jeddah (Red Sea) and Montecarlo, while Venice Racing, a strictly Italian team, will manage the Racebird.