Navier was founded in January 2021 by Sampriti Bhattacharyya and builds one boat, the N30, a 30 foot electric hydrofoil. The team composition says a lot about what the boat is. Kenny Jensen, the chief technology officer, works on flight control, and the lead naval architect is Paul Bieker, whose background is in racing hydrofoil design. The N30 is built in carbon fibre, uses two motors with redundant flight systems, and flies on foils governed by software that reads wave conditions through sensors and trims the foils continuously. Navier publishes a 70 nautical mile range, a 30 knot top speed and a 45 minute DC fast charge, and has added an automatic docking function. The foils carry the entire argument. Lifting the hull clear of the water removes most of the wetted surface, and the figure Navier cites for the resulting drag reduction is around ninety percent, which is what allows a 70 mile range from a pack that would move a comparable displacement hull a fraction of that distance. The company sells the N30 in recreational, commercial and defence configurations. For a European reader it is most useful as a comparison against Candela, since the two arrived at production hydrofoiling from different starting points and made different calls on hull material, foil control and market.
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