You only need $20,000 to buy Hydroptère, the world’s fastest boat

It was the fastest boat in the world, the first able to exceed 50 knots of speed in 2009 (a record that seemed unbeatable and instead was literally shattered on November 24, 2012 by SailRocket, which touched 65.37 knots average over 500 meters with an incredible peak of 68.01 knots). Instead, today it lies abandoned in Harbor Master’s Harbor in Hawaii.

Hydroptère had arrived here last year at the end of Transpacand had not booked a berth. All the ports in the archipelago had refused to take him in because of his size, but after promising to leave in a few weeks, Alain Thébault and his team were able to come to an agreement. Having arranged the boat, they disembarked and left the island. Since then, port officials have been unable to contact anyone, except for Hydroptère’s sponsor, who, however, refused to deal with the trimaran any longer. Lo and behold, a notice was posted in front of the boat declaring it an “Abandoned Vessel.”

Theoretically, an “Abandoned Vessel cannot be sold, but the port has the right to dismantle it and to review its rigging, hydraulic equipment, and anything else that is not structural. That is exactly what is going to happen. In fact, those in charge of the Harbor Master are ready to hand over the rights to the boat (and any legal entanglements as well, truth be told) to anyone who comes to them with $20,000. May there still be room to save a piece of sailing history?

THE HYDROPTERE STORY (Taken from Sailing Newspaper February 2013)
There are different stories and situations, of which you get a clear idea. Then you delve into them, talk to the main characters, and find that everything you thought was far from reality. that’s what happened to me every time I heard or read about Hydroptère, about his records, whether achieved or not, about this obsessive pursuit of speed. I imagined a world far removed from my conception of sailing, devoted only to technology. One sentence can be enough to make you wonder, to realize that perhaps it is not all that clear.

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“What is amazing really is our crew: we are retired aeronautical engineers, windsurfers, navigators. The strength of our project is men. That’s what I’m proud of, before the men, after the boat“. Speaking these words is Alain Thébault, the man who dreamed up, designed and finally built the Hydroptère, the flying trimaran that was the first to really bring the concept of foil and high-speed sailing to the big time. In fact, already in the 1970s a sailing legend had imagined and designed a trimaran on hydrofoil: with his Paul Ricard the great Eric Tabarly had thus seized the Atlantic crossing record. Tabarly himself was later one of Thébault’s great “sponsors,” whom he followed from the beginning, later also sailing aboard Hydroptère.

A STORY OF SUCCESSES AND DOWNFALLS
“Beingsuccessful is the ability to go from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm,” said Winston Churchill. A phrase that lends itself well to illustrate Hydroptère’s now 30-year adventure. The first models date back to 1984 and were made in 1/20 scale, again with Tabarly as the “godfather.”
In contrast, 1991 saw the 1/3 scale model, which with a crew of one allowed Thébault to really test foils, balances and, above all, resistance to stress for the first time. Three more years and on October 1, 1994, Hydroptère finally took flight. It seems that nothing can stop the record hunt; from the very first outings, average speeds are well over thirty knots.

Instead, not even a year later, came a first abrupt setback: Hydroptère broke down during a test sail while a French Navy frigate was lending itself as a hare boat. With great effort Thébault and his men manage to tow the trimaran ashore. Endurance calculations appear to be wrong; a new start must be made. The first international recognition thus comes more than a decade later, when the symbolic record for crossing the English Channel from Calais to Dover is broken. Why symbolic? Simple, because the challenge for the flying trimaran was against-a plane! More precisely, the one with which Louis Blériot, in the very distant year of 1909, had first crossed the sea tongue between France and England in 36 minutes and 30 seconds. The Hydroptère takes only 34 minutes and 24 seconds, averaging more than 33 knots in one of the most treacherous stretches of sea on our continent. This seems to be unstoppable growth, with 50 knots of speed (the so-called “wind wall”) as a goal now within reach.

But another setback is upon us. In December 2008 the Hydroptère capsized, capsizing completely just as it was hitting the fateful fifty knots.

FINALLY THE RECORD
Almost another year goes by and, September 4, 2009, it’s finally a record: in the Bay of Hyères it reaches 51.4 knots average speed over the 500-meter distance and an average of 48.7 knots over the mile. A record that seemed unbeatable and instead, on Nov. 24, 2012, was literally shattered by SailRocket, Hydroptère’s historic opponent, which averaged 65.37 knots over 500 meters with an incredible peak of 68.01 knots. But, perhaps, this kind of challenge no longer interests Thébault and his team (and even if it didn’t, they probably wouldn’t admit it) who, after shattering the wind wall, decided to launch themselves into an attack on ocean records…
Alexander de Angelis

After an unsuccessful record attempt in the Pacific, Hydroptère is now in danger of disappearing.

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