In the eyes of this marine journalist, hydrofoils might draw a comparison to white whales. They’re not quite as rare as Moby Dick or Migaloo the white humpback, but from the perspective of linear time and probability, these boats are seldom spotted. They rear their heads briefly, yet submerge about as fast as they surface.
However, despite a spotty history that isn’t without incident, hydrofoils offer the promise of a chop-defeating ride and incredible efficiency. And some builders today believe they’ve corrected inherent flaws with stability and mastered the recipe. Electric hydrofoil builders Navier and Candela both invited me to test this claim. As chance would have it, I’d even be driving both company’s boats within 24 hours of each other. Navier, based in Alameda, California had just come out with their first running model, the 30, while Candela, located across San Francisco Bay from Navier in Sausalito, just released their second model, the C8, earlier this year.
I planned to write an unbiased firsthand account as to which vessel takes the edge as America’s hydrofoiling poster child, but unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned. I found out a few hours after arriving in San Francisco, that both Candela’s C8 and C7 ended up out of commission due to regularly scheduled maintenance gone awry. So, while I have no
