2019 SEAir 5.5 Foiling Tender review

The SEAir Flying Tender 5.5 was launched at the 2019 Sydney International Boat Show, featuring a normal fibreglass-hulled, tube-ringed RIB with a state-of-the-art foiling system.

The front foils – one on each side – are electrically retracted into the hull when not needed which means they're out of the way when beaching, docking or trailing. The rear one is fixed onto a standard long-shaft outboard engine.

Just after the Sydney boat show boatsales.com.au hitched a ride aboard this $115,000 production foiler in the company of Australian distributor, Standen Marine’s Steven Williams.

Stepping aboard, you’ll notice a moulded fibreglass housing to either side of the centre console. These house the foils that go through the hull just under the edge of the tubes.

A button on the dash of the centre console is labelled “Flight Control”, and deploys the foils, dropping them from tight up against the hull and tubes to hanging below the tender.

An electronic display shows the rake of the foils that are constantly tweaked by a system called “CRIS”, which automatically pivots their angle to the water for optimum effect.

The foils are similar to a pair of outward-facing flippers, although at speed the boat rides on just the small lower part. In full foil mode, both the forward and stern foils barely kiss the water.

The SEAir is not like the old manly hydrofoil that used to fly across Sydney Harbour.

At speed, the CRIS system does all the work, reading the sea state so that all the helm has to do is concentrate on driving. It makes for a very user-friendly system that's well suited to modern-day pleasure boating.

The SEAir 5.5 Flying Tender is surprisingly easy to drive, and up on the foils and skimming over the top of the water is quite a different sensation to normal high-speed boating.

The boat will foil at about 15 knots, but we’re pushing along at a respectable 21 knots from the 90hp Suzuki extra-long shaft outboard engine fitted to the transom through Sydney Harbour’s usual washing machine chop.

In calmer waters, we’d be pushing on to a cruising speed of about 25 knots, and potentially even faster with the optional 115hp outboard engine.

Two important take-outs emerged from our brief foiling run.

First, on the foils the SEAir 5.5 Flying Tender will bank out on a turn, and not in like a fast monohulled powerboat. And second, when running across another boat's wake, one of the front foils can drop unexpectedly.

SEAir claims up to a 30 per cent fuel saving compared with a “normal” 5.5-metre boat.

Performance*

*Claimed, not tested

Maximum cruising range based on 95% of 100L fuel tank: 162nm @ 3650rpm

While it's still early days I think the power boating world might be onto something with foils. Concerns about rising fuel costs and emissions may well turn this idea from a novelty into a mainstream concept.

Combined with what's now happening with battery-powered outboard engines, the SEAir 5.5 Flying Tender could be a glimpse of what the future of fast power boating might look like in a decade.

Specifications
Model: SEAir 5.5 Flying Tender
Length overall: 5.5m
Beam: 2.54m
Draft: Not supplied

Priced from: $115,000 with a Suzuki 90hp four-stroke outboard engine and a swim ladder

Supplied by: Standen Marine