From a South African military project comes the brainchild of a university professor. Mike Pullen gets to grips with the long-awaited Hysucat . . .

Hydrofoils are not new. They have been around for a century or more, so it comes as no surprise to me that the Hysucat project itself is also quite a long-lived one. That too has been around for nearly a quarter of a century, tweaking, testing, building and developing. But now, finally, a Hysucat RIB is here in the UK and ready to test and I, for one, cannot wait to get it on the water.

The Hysucat project started when Professor Gunter Hoppe of the University of Stellenbosch was tasked with improving the performance of a Military Patrol Boat. The peculiar name, therefore, comes from the words: ‘HYdrofoil  SUpported  CATamaran’. The patrol boat was of the catamaran design and the professor decided to fit a single hydrofoil between the hulls forward and a pair of mini foils aft to support the stern and maintain the angle of trim when underway on the plane. The result of his development work was remarkable. The military patrol boat could carry more load at the same speed, or the same load with a 30 per cent saving in fuel, which in the minds of the original military commissioners, equated to a very useful increase in range.

Since then, the Hysucat has been a successful design for commercial applications, such as fast ferry services and patrol craft. The largest Hysucat currently in service is a 45-metre vessel but there is also a 72-metre ferry on the design board. Taking the application a step further, it seemed logical to develop the system for leisure use, especially as the cost of fuel now has such an impact on everyday boating.

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