Latest news with #hydrofoil
CTV News
17-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Hydrofoil passenger ferry could be coming to B.C.
The Artemis EF-12 Escape, a hydrofoil ferry produced by Artemis Technologies in Belfast, conducts a demo off of Victoria's Inner Harbour.
CTV News
17-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Hydrofoil passenger ferry could be coming to B.C. in the near future
The Artemis EF-12 Escape, a hydrofoil ferry produced by Artemis Technologies in Belfast, conducts a demo off of Victoria's Inner Harbour. The Artemis EF-12 Escape, a hydrofoil ferry produced by Artemis Technologies in Belfast, conducts a demo off of Victoria's Inner Harbour. The Artemis EF-12 Escape took to the waters off Victoria's Inner Harbour Monday, and could one day be the future of passenger-only ferry service in B.C. It's fully electric and equipped with hydrofoils, or wings, underneath its hull, lifting the vessel out of the water while at cruising speed. The hydrofoils dramatically reduce its drag while travelling through the water, allowing it to reach speeds of up to 30 knots. That's double the pace of a conventional ferry, all while using half the energy. FRS Clipper has partnered with Victoria-based consulting group Greenline Ferries in bringing Artemis Technologies and the Escape to B.C. The group is looking at the feasibility of using this technology in the Pacific Northwest. 'This could be a game changer for the number of routes that we can supply to British Columbians,' said Mark Collins, CEO of FRS Clipper. Collins said the technology is sustainable and cost-effective, with the price of a vessel being comparable to the cost of a conventional ferry, although it's operating costs are much less. FRS Clipper is considering an expansion between Bowen Island, Gibsons and downtown Vancouver. If that were to prove successful, the company said a route between Colwood's Beachlands development and Victoria's Inner Harbour would not be out of the question. 'We call them shortcuts, anywhere where you can connect the heart of one community to the heart of another community, that's the opportunity for a passenger-only ferry,' said Callum Campbell, CEO of Greenline Ferries. The Artemis EF-12 Escape is a water taxi version that could be configured to carry up to 30 passengers. FRS Clipper is exploring purchasing the EF-24 Passenger version that is capable of carrying up to 150 passengers, which Artemis will be rolling out later this year. 'It is a little small for our projections on the Victoria to Seattle route, however that doesn't say that one day there could be two or even three operating alongside each other providing more frequency and more choices,' said Collins. The seemingly floating vessel's technology could offer a smoother ride in rough waters with a lighter environmental footprint.
New York Times
09-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
When SailGP came to New York City: Spectators, ‘storytelling' and star-studded investors
In New York City, there is never any shortage of sports and entertainment options. This weekend alone, the New York Yankees hosted the Boston Red Sox in front of a sellout crowd and more than 100,000 people attended the Governors Ball music festival. The battle for market share has rarely felt so fierce, yet a short ferry ride over the water to Governors Island and another live sports event was in demand: SailGP. Just under 10,000 people filled out a grandstand — at $85 (£63) per ticket for adults and $43 for kids — to watch a sport growing in appeal and increasingly marketed as the Formula One of the seas. Advertisement The product is increasingly straightforward: 12 nations compete in 12 destinations for $12.8 million worth of prize money across the season. They race in identical hydrofoil catamaran boats, which can go at speeds of over 60 miles per hour. During this weekend's event, racers navigated rainy conditions and choppy waters on the Hudson River, with the skyscrapers of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty painting a picture-perfect backdrop. Spain took their second consecutive event win in the difficult conditions. After finishing the Fleet Races in third with 38 points, Los Gallos held off New Zealand and France to take home the victory in the three-boat final. 'Sailing used to be white triangles on a blue background way out at sea,' says Andy Thompson, SailGP's managing director. 'But that is very far from what SailGP is today. It's a racing property.' The past fortnight has offered further evidence that SailGP is captivating investors. First, the Italian team was acquired by the women-led investment firm Muse Capital at a valuation of $45 million in a consortium that includes the Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway. This represented considerable growth for teams that were selling for between $5m-10m only two years ago. The former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry has previously led a group which acquired the U.S. team for $35 million. In March, Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe bought into the France SailGP team. If we needed any more evidence that Sail GP is the en-vogue sporting investment, this came last week when Ryan Reynolds added to his growing sporting portfolio by teaming up with Hugh Jackman — yes, that's Deadpool and Wolverine — as the pair became controlling owners of the Australian SailGP team. The Aussies, who have now rebranded as the Bonds Flying Roos — yes, that's Bonds underwear as the title sponsor — won the first three Sail GP championships and were runners-up last season. Advertisement Their star sailor Tom Slingsby, an Olympic gold medallist and CEO of the Aussie SailGP team, says he became aware of visits to SailGP events by Reynolds' team at Maximum Effort, the production company and marketing agency founded by the actor ('maximum effort' being the catchphrase of Reynolds' movie Deadpool). Tentative discussions have already started about a possible docuseries, following on from Reynolds' investment in Welsh soccer club Wrexham and Colombian soccer team La Equidad. 'They bring star power,' Slingsby tells The Athletic. 'To have Deadpool and Wolverine, they're the 'it' people right now. They also bring an element of storytelling. We're seeing what Ryan's done with Wrexham. They're just going to be fun owners. Having chatted with Ryan, he is incredibly funny and he's going to fit really well with our team. 'Importantly, every discussion with them is, 'What do you guys need to do to be successful?'. Obviously there's talk of ways to promote our team in the league, but it all comes second to us being successful on the water. I was obviously pretty strong on us being athletes first, and if we can be entertaining for the public as well, that's great, but we want to win on the water.' The U.S. team's ownership group is similarly stacked with big-time investors and star names. Mike Buckley, the CEO and on-boat strategist for the U.S. team, says: 'We wanted the most diverse ownership group that we could possibly find. We want people who don't think like us and have different areas of expertise. 'I can pick up the phone and call Marc Lasry, who runs one of the most successful private equity firms in the world (Avenue Capital). He won the NBA championship and took the Bucks from the back to the front and the valuation from a few hundred million to three or four billion.' The U.S. ownership also features founding Uber engineer Ryan Mckillen and his wife Margaret, the Resy co-founder Gary Vaynerchuk, Hollywood actress Issa Rae, the NFL's DeAndre Hopkins and boxer Deontay Wilder. For sailors, SailGP provides game-changing security by providing year-round events beyond the America's Cup and Olympic Games. Advertisement 'Sailing used to jump on the radar every four years and then it just disappeared off the mainstream public's vision,' says Slingsby. 'After an Olympics, when you finish your event, you'd just be sitting there and there's no funding, you're out of a job for a while and you're waiting for the phone to ring. 'When I've been between Olympics, I've had other jobs — bartending and boat building, all sorts of things. You're doing anything you can to keep the money coming in. 'In 10 years, we'll definitely be seeing SailGP still here and racing in consistent events. It's going to be the backbone of sailing. It's five years old now, a lot of people were saying that it would be around for a year or two and disappear.' Founded by the billionaire Larry Ellison, the co-founder of tech firm Oracle, SailGP is discovering traction in what their executives describe as the crossover market between lifestyle and experiential sports. Slingsby notes there are markets such as New Zealand where the fandom is more intense, and athletes are approached at hotels and when out for dinner. SailGP's executive Thompson says the event's ratings 'regularly average around 20 million dedicated viewers around the world.' In the U.S., CBS and its Paramount+ streaming platform broadcast the event. Their highest-rated events — which bring in around 1.8 million viewers — have been intentionally scheduled to follow NFL games in order to capture audiences from America's most popular sport. SailGP's chief revenue officer Ben Johnson bristles at any suggestion sailing is a 'niche' sport, but the locations of some races — St. Tropez in France, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the Middle East, or Manhattan — do lend themselves to an exclusive in-person audience. The aim is a vast broadcast audience and a hot-ticket live event. Johnson says they are taking learnings from events such as the Kentucky Derby, or the Indy 500, as well as F1, and 'leagues who are moving from traditional sports operators to more sports entertainment and even just broadly entertainment properties.' By attracting celebrity investors (or employing DJ Khaled as the league's 'Chief Hype Officer'), SailGP want to make their events, much like F1, a place to see and be seen. Advertisement Johnson says: 'It is very intentional. There are brands like (European soccer champions) Paris Saint-Germain, where they are more of a lifestyle brand than they are a traditional sports team. They are a perfect example of where we see the opportunity in the global sports space. 'We don't need to be a season-ticketed event. We don't need local media rights to validate our audience growth or our revenue model. We think the demand right now from an experiential standpoint is the highest it's ever been and will continue to grow. So we're focused on new fanbases and inspiring the next generation of lifestyle sports fans. 'People (are) looking for social, communal, family-friendly, brand safe moments where they can bring people together. And I think we're the perfect backdrop for that. It's new, it's novel, fast, you know, all the things that you need to really capture people's attention.' Sponsors are certainly discovering the appeal. SailGP's title sponsor is Rolex, but across the league and teams there are now investments or partnerships from sovereign wealth funds, such as Mubadala Capital (of Abu Dhabi), as well as Emirates airline sponsoring the league and Red Bull partnering with the Italian team, while the U.S. team have sponsorships with Tommy Hilfiger, Amazon, and T-Mobile. The British team is title-sponsored by Emirates and has a partnership with JP Morgan, while Deutsche Bank sponsors the German side. 'I would expect next year you (will) see all the teams somewhere close to commercial profitability,' says Buckley. When asked about profitability, Johnson said SailGP does not disclose its financials, but it is 'ahead of our own internal targets.' The growing investment in the sport is also accompanied by increased jeopardy. Only Spain have won more than one event this season, which may be one of the advantages of sailors racing on identical boats — meaning winning and losing come down to conditions on the day and the performances and skill of those on board. That is not to say there have not been challenges. May's SailGP event was supposed to be held in Rio de Janeiro for the first time but it was cancelled after a defect was found in some of the fleet's wingsails. Australia's wingsail collapsed in San Francisco in a moment Slingsby called a 'scary situation.' The 12 boats were all back on the start line in New York. With 12 teams and money swishing around the sport, talk invariably turns to expansion. Russell Coutts, SailGP CEO and an Olympic gold medallist with New Zealand, has previously spoken about expanding the number of events per season to as high as 20 or 24. Plenty of nations remain untapped, notably Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which has poured money into sports elsewhere. Advertisement 'I think the demand right now exceeds 12 teams,' Johnson says. 'We have an opportunity for us to announce expansion teams, continue to look at markets that we think are really additive.' Buckley says 'balance' is key, concluding: 'There are plenty of countries out there that aren't represented currently in the league. It would be great for all of us.'
The Independent
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Ferry firm hails ‘new era' of flying electric boats in UK
The boss of a Solent ferry company has hailed a 'new era' of flying high-speed electric ferries in the UK. Red Funnel, which runs passenger and vehicle services between Southampton and Cowes, Isle of Wight, has partnered with Belfast-based firm Artemis Technologies to launch a zero-emissions foiling vessel next year. The 150-passenger ferry, which costs between £10-12 million to build, uses advanced hydrofoil technology and modularised battery systems. The hull lifts out above the water, which significantly reduces drag and wake so that the electric boat can travel longer distances at speed. The Red Funnel ferry will be plugged in for a quick charge each time it berths and is expected to save up to 3,700 tonnes of carbon emissions each year compared with conventional high-speed ferries. Its launch in 2026 will follow that of two others built by Artemis Technologies, which are expected to launch in Belfast and Orkney later this year. Iain Percy, Olympic sailing gold medallist and chief executive of Artemis Technologies, said the EF-24 Passenger is the first-ever electric foiling boat of this size in the world with permission to run commercial services. 'The problem with electric ferries is they really can't go far or fast,' he said, with challenges including drag and huge amounts of energy from the grid to the batteries that need to be carried on board. 'The flying part here – the foil – it's the unlocker to do commercially viable range and speed.' Fran Collins, Red Funnel's chief executive, said: 'This isn't just a new vessel. It's the beginning of a new era – defined by zero-emission technology, a smoother passenger experience, and a shared ambition to decarbonise ferry travel.' Speaking to a stakeholder audience at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, Ms Collins said the partnership with Artemis allowed Red Funnel to take a 'tangible' step in its decarbonisation journey with little risk. 'I was blown away by the technology and blown away by the work and the research that had gone into this,' she said. The cost of the ferry is an uplift of around 30% compared with conventional ferries but the firm will save an estimated £1 million a year on running costs, with a boat shelf-life of around 25 years, according to Mr Percy. The Olympic sailor said the firm approached its mission to decarbonise maritime travel with 'the ability to save enough energy to justify the cost of the technology'. 'The reality of the world is that we can't increase costs to decarbonise in the current environment. It's not going to happen,' he said. This means both firms expect no increase in Red Funnel passenger fares when the service kicks off next year. On ticket prices, Ms Collins said: 'Iain was very clear that his vision for this is that it's cost-neutral to put in the technology, and that's where we expect it to be. 'So from a ticket price perspective, we're not going to put ticket prices up as a result of having the Artemis vessels in.' She also said the new boat will help the firm cut service times back to pre-pandemic from 35 minutes to 30 minutes so they can better match up the journey with train times and improve the service's reliability. Red Funnel hopes to expand its fleet of electric foiling vehicles and introduce hybrid vehicle ferries but Ms Collins said the grid infrastructure remains a bottleneck to scaling their green ambitions. In the meantime, the firm has been calling for the Government to exempt lifeline services from the planned UK Emissions Trading Scheme, which will put a cap on the amount of carbon firms can emit while allowing them to buy more allowances to cover their excess. 'I think we need to be very careful,' she said. 'I think that imposing charges on lifeline services when there's no alternative is wrong. 'I think we need to incentivise us all to change but we cannot be responsible for putting in billions of pounds of infrastructure upgrades. 'We have to be careful it doesn't just become a tax on people because it all comes back to the consumer.'
BBC News
19-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Electric hydrofoil ferry begins trials in Orkney
A small, electric passenger ferry is beginning a three-year trial in vessel uses new hydrofoil technology and could cut travel times between islands ferry has been built by Artemis Technologies in Belfast and the £15m trial is part of the Electric Orkney project - funded by the UK government's Zero Emission Vessel and Infrastructure (Zevi) it is approved to carry passengers, the ferry will operate from Kirkwall to the islands of Shapinsay, Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre. Orkney Ferries will begin testing the 12m (39ft) ferry this week to see how it performs in the sea conditions around the hydrofoil technology lifts the hull of the vessel above the water, enabling it to travel at high speed. If the Zevi boat performs well it is expected to begin carrying passengers later this summer."This is a trial and we need to find out how well this new technology will work here," said Orkney Islands councillor Melissa Thomson, who chairs Orkney Ferries."We are very hopeful this could be a game-changer for faster travel between the islands if things go well." Service manager for Orkney Ferries, Eddie Barclay, said the Zevi boat would be put through its paces by experienced local mariners for the next two months."We need to see how it performs in different sea states and conditions," he said."The waters around Orkney can be challenging so it will certainly test her handling capabilities."A second larger hydrofoil vessel is due to arrive in the islands at the end of this year. A new fast electric charger is being installed at Kirkwall's harbour which will charge the Zevi's batteries in about one hour. The electric hydrofoil is a high-tech addition to Orkney's ferry fleet, but it does not remove the urgent need to replace the islands' ageing internal arrival coincided with the latest meeting of the Scottish government's internal ferry replacement taskforce for the is currently chaired by Finance Secretary Shona Robison who welcomed the arrival the electric Scottish government has contributed £3m towards supporting the Zevi trial and also the council's business case for new ferries. Ms Robison said the local authority had plans to introduce eight new vessels in total which would help both tourism and the local community.
