Beneteau teases 400hp foiling flybridge powerboat
A short video hints that the French brand is taking a long look at how it can get future generations of its boats up on foilsFrench boat-builder Beneteau has teased an outboard-powered boat wearing drop-down foils that, when tucked away, make it no more difficult to dock than a normal vessel.
The vacuum-formed fibreglass prototype, powered using twin 200hp Suzuki outboards, has four drop-down foils that at speed lift the hull out of the water. When the boat drops below foiling speed, the blades lift up and tuck into the side of the hull, leaving an uninterrupted waterline.
The teaser video, released by Group Beneteau overnight with next to no information, shows the boat planing with the foils down, and then with the foils stowed.
The boat is an unusual design, with a high dual-seat centre console built just behind the centreline of the hull. The vision shows two rows of three chairs running forward of the console towards the bow, protected by a fixed roof.
The hull, with unconventional-looking reverse chines and a slab-sided dead-flat profile, also wears a long, sleek-looking logo with orange fins protruding from its sides.
Enclosed flybridge?
We do get clues as to what this boat is likely to become, which by all appearances is a fast commuter boat. A rough sketch shown later in the video reveals that the high centre console is to become targa-topped enclosed flybridge, with both the pilot and co-pilot able to stand at their stations once the targa is removed.
The prototype also appears to include a pontoon-like buoyancy device around its gunnels – a feature also incorporated into the CAD drawing. That is probably a nod to foiling RIB specialist SEAir, which appears to be on board the Beneteau project, as is marine mechatronic specialist Noval, which looks to be working on the task of getting the boat up onto its foils without pulling the big Suzukis out of the water.
The boat is shown with the retracted foils almost touching in their stowed position.
The as-yet unnamed power boat won’t be the first foiling hull in the Beneteau line-up. That honour goes to the Figaro Beneteau 3, a foiling monohull sailboat featuring a pair of fixed foils extending out and down from the hull. The foils' inward-facing profiles help to improve the boat’s righting moment, as well as reducing drift.
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