Renewable clean energy is a solution:
polluting marine craft are a problem
The end of an era
The days of using excessively large fossil fuel powered marine engines pumping carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur particles into the air and water to overcome outdated boat designs that were developed in the 1950’s are numbered. Almost 100% of the “fast” (over 20 knots) planing hulls on the water today, both monohulls and catamarans, are based on an archaic patent obtained by Starling Burgess in 1937 and later perfected for aluminum and fiberglass construction by C. Raymond Hunt in the late 1950’s.
The environment is under siege and current boats produce 40 times more unregulated carbon emissions and other pollutants into the water and the air we breathe per mile traveled compared to today’s automobiles and trucks. Hundreds of millions of tons of pollutants are created by marine vessels every year. This situation cannot be an acceptable marine standard for a clean, renewable energy, offshore wind farm industry.
Electric hybrid propulsion
Thanks to technological advances over the past decade in the automotive and truck industries, electric hybrid propulsion for marine craft is now a documented reality. The big issue for boats, compared to automobiles, is water is 835 times more dense than air creating tremendous resistance and parasitic drag as a hull moves through the water. Overcoming parasitic water drag on a conventional boat hull requires a tremendous amount of energy. Amphfoils address this problem by reducing the amount of surface that is in contact with the water at any given speed. There’s never been a boat until the Amphfoil that uses energy free, naturally induced aerodynamic lift created by surface/ground effect. The lift factors on an Amphfoil are further enhanced by the use of wave piercing foils and tilting/lifting electrically driven air propellers. This combination of lift features significantly reduce parasitic water drag and energy/battery demands.
Surface/ground effect lift
Ground effect molecular phenomenon has been well known in the aircraft industry for over 100 years. Every aircraft in the world uses advantages of ground effect when taking off and landing and every race car strives to minimize ground effect lift with special body panels. While surface/ground effect has been used effectively in seaplane type craft for decades, Amphfoils are the first boats to use this energy efficient method for creating lift and reducing parasitic water drag. Simply put, surface/ground effect is created when a flat surface or wing travels through the air in close proximity to a solid surface like water. The space between the wing and the solid surface is scientifically molecularly less dense than the air above. This naturally occurring phenomenon allows an Amphfoil to move across the water with minimum resistance on a smooth cushion of air. Every aspect of the Amphfoil concept was designed to minimize energy demand and maximize electric battery propulsion.
Seafoils
Unlike archaic hydrofoils on conventionally shaped hulls that rely solely on excessive boat speed and energy to obtain foil lift, Seafoils use proven Wave Piercing technology to allow an Amphfoil to glide effortlessly on the surface of the water on the absolute minimum amount of surface area. The retractable Seafoils on an Amphfoil are fitted with shock absorbers to dampen any wave action on the hull. In heavy seas, wave piercing technology allows the Seafoils to jump wave troughs and prevent pounding action transferred to the hull and people aboard.
AMPHFOIL CTVs are the “totally green”
offshore wind farm solution
Amphfoils travel to wind farm sites skiing smoothly over the waves avoiding potential sea mammal strikes, then create a stable, safe work platform, at offshore work sites.
Amphfoil CTVs’ environmentally friendly solutions:
- Climate Change fossil fuel pollutants such as nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SOx), hydrocarbons (HC) and particulate matter (PM) are totally eliminated
- Amphfoil has a proprietary hydrofoil turning system for emergency traffic avoidance
- Electric retractable turning propeller pods for exceptional maneuverability
- Radiator based fluid control to maintain optimum battery module temperatures
- Amphfoil “Rapid Swap” battery module technology minimizes downtime and charging periods
- Amphfoil “Rapid Swap” technology allows for simple conversion as new battery technology advances over the coming years
- AC electric propulsion motors are radiator-cooled in a closed system
- Slow speed retractable electric water propulsion is totally isolated from the main system for safety and emergency backup
- No danger to marine mammals from boat hull or propeller strikes
- No propulsion wake turbulence affecting sensitive shoreline ecosystems
- Surface effect hull design provides lift and in-motion efficiency on a smooth cushion of air
- Amphfoil hulls are 35% more efficient than conventional catamaran hulls
- Low drag coefficient deck house designs reduces energy demand at all speeds
Amphfoils are the first marine craft using surface effect for environmental purposes
Walt Schulz, and Shannon Boat has been working for almost a decade in an effort to use the miracle of sustained aerodynamic and hydrodynamic lift on a boat to address serious environmental issues and offshore sea conditions.
Greenhouse gas emissions, wake turbulence that damages sensitive shoreline ecosystems, disregard for the protection of marine mammals and other environmental issues have underscored the fact that existing boats are definitely not environmentally friendly. Using sea surface effect lift technology, Shannon’s Amphfoil is the first totally marine design in history to address energy demand, carbon emissions, sea mammal protection, wake turbulence and offshore sea conditions. This fact is evidenced by receiving a difficult-to-obtain international patent coverage on the Amphfoil concept that is not limited to size or specific use.