3 ms·

https://www.boundarylayer.tech/ https://www.boundarylayer.tech/ There's a Y Combinator supported company pursuing it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=216

https://www.boundarylayer.tech/ https://www.boundarylayer.tech/ There's a Y Combinator supported company pursuing it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21662056 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21662056 3rd comment is from an employee. Big benefit being quick turnaround. Load 160 containers and start the ship rather than loading/unloading a few thousand while the other tens of thousands of containers sit on the ship doing nothing.

hef19898 4y ago
Of course there is YC company for this. Too lazy to google it, but how many of the founding team are actual naval architects with expirience in container ships? Kind of reminds me on the company trying to develop robots to build solar farms.
- yetihehe 4y ago
  > Kind of reminds me on the company trying to develop robots to build solar farms. Yeah, it will be unnecessary once we get panels which can be unfolded just by driving a truck over field placing entire row directly from trailer already connected with cables in one go like [0]. Then just connect the rows. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G38VXkIFSG8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G38VXkIFSG8
nradov 4y ago
Boundary Layer Technologies appears to have dropped their plans for a cargo ship and pivoted into jet skis. There's just not much market demand for slightly faster ocean transport. The basic technology of a small hydrofoil cargo ship probably would have worked, but the construction, maintenance, and fuel costs would have been huge. Plus hydrofoils don't do well in heavy sea states. And if it collided with a floating hazard like a lost shipping container or a big tree trunk while foiling then the results could be unpleasant.
- nine_k 4y ago
  That won't be "slightly" faster; I suspect a hydrofoil ship would be 4-x times as fast, if it could be built. We would see oceangoing military hydrofoil ships, for instance. But, AFAIK, the Pegasus line was the last bunch of sizable hydrofoil ships the US Navy operated [1]. But, AFAICT, for hydrofoil to work, it should lift the watercraft well above the waves, which works fine on rivers, and works somehow in calmer seas; I remember Greece used hydrofoil ships to communicate between its islands. I have trouble imagining the size of hydrofoil "stilts" required to overcome larger ocean waves. The hull should also be much stronger, with few points of support. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus-class_hydrofoil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus-class_hydrofoil
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - BazookaMusic 4y ago
    They're still used, https://www.ferries.gr/en/ferry-companies/aegean-flying-dolphins/ https://www.ferries.gr/en/ferry-companies/aegean-flying-dolp...
    - Gwypaas 4y ago
      Comparatively tiny built in USSR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_(hydrofoil) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_(hydrofoil) There is also the Boeing 929 Jetfoil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_929 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_929
  - nradov 4y ago
    The practical speed limit for large hydrofoil ships is about 45 kts, so only about 3× the cruising speed of a conventional displacement hull ship at best. Customers don't care how fast the ship cruises, they only care about how fast their cargo arrives at the final destination. Once you factor in port time and intermodal transport, the hydrofoil advantage shrinks further. There could still be a market for hydrofoil cargo ships at the right price, but if so it's going to be really niche. Hydrofoil ferries are still used in a few places but even those are falling out of favor. Low cost airlines killed a lot of the ferry market. And many of the remaining customers prefer larger, slower ferries which can also carry cars and trucks. The US Navy abandoned hydrofoils because there's just no mission for them. They're only useful for coastal defense, and even for that mission aircraft are generally superior.
- edkearney1 4y ago
  Hey Y'all - Ed Kearney, Boundary Layer Technology CEO here. Love all the interest in the space! Reason for the pivot was pretty much the market crash in 2022. Finding funding for this big plan was going to impossible. We found a massive demand to replace airfreight with small, fast, green ships. We just needed to build them! So now we are going to start with a a vehicle that is small and fast to develop and build, prove the tech, build an amazing team, then keep going bigger. Fast first vs big first. Check it out - ridevalo.com (shameless plug lol)

hef19898 4y ago

Of course there is YC company for this. Too lazy to google it, but how many of the founding team are actual naval architects with expirience in container ships? Kind of reminds me on the company trying to develop robots to build solar farms.

yetihehe 4y ago
> Kind of reminds me on the company trying to develop robots to build solar farms. Yeah, it will be unnecessary once we get panels which can be unfolded just by driving a truck over field placing entire row directly from trailer already connected with cables in one go like [0]. Then just connect the rows. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G38VXkIFSG8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G38VXkIFSG8

nradov 4y ago

Boundary Layer Technologies appears to have dropped their plans for a cargo ship and pivoted into jet skis. There's just not much market demand for slightly faster ocean transport. The basic technology of a small hydrofoil cargo ship probably would have worked, but the construction, maintenance, and fuel costs would have been huge. Plus hydrofoils don't do well in heavy sea states. And if it collided with a floating hazard like a lost shipping container or a big tree trunk while foiling then the results could be unpleasant.

nine_k 4y ago
That won't be "slightly" faster; I suspect a hydrofoil ship would be 4-x times as fast, if it could be built. We would see oceangoing military hydrofoil ships, for instance. But, AFAIK, the Pegasus line was the last bunch of sizable hydrofoil ships the US Navy operated [1]. But, AFAICT, for hydrofoil to work, it should lift the watercraft well above the waves, which works fine on rivers, and works somehow in calmer seas; I remember Greece used hydrofoil ships to communicate between its islands. I have trouble imagining the size of hydrofoil "stilts" required to overcome larger ocean waves. The hull should also be much stronger, with few points of support. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus-class_hydrofoil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus-class_hydrofoil
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- BazookaMusic 4y ago
  They're still used, https://www.ferries.gr/en/ferry-companies/aegean-flying-dolphins/ https://www.ferries.gr/en/ferry-companies/aegean-flying-dolp...
  - Gwypaas 4y ago
    Comparatively tiny built in USSR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_(hydrofoil) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_(hydrofoil) There is also the Boeing 929 Jetfoil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_929 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_929
- nradov 4y ago
  The practical speed limit for large hydrofoil ships is about 45 kts, so only about 3× the cruising speed of a conventional displacement hull ship at best. Customers don't care how fast the ship cruises, they only care about how fast their cargo arrives at the final destination. Once you factor in port time and intermodal transport, the hydrofoil advantage shrinks further. There could still be a market for hydrofoil cargo ships at the right price, but if so it's going to be really niche. Hydrofoil ferries are still used in a few places but even those are falling out of favor. Low cost airlines killed a lot of the ferry market. And many of the remaining customers prefer larger, slower ferries which can also carry cars and trucks. The US Navy abandoned hydrofoils because there's just no mission for them. They're only useful for coastal defense, and even for that mission aircraft are generally superior.
edkearney1 4y ago
Hey Y'all - Ed Kearney, Boundary Layer Technology CEO here. Love all the interest in the space! Reason for the pivot was pretty much the market crash in 2022. Finding funding for this big plan was going to impossible. We found a massive demand to replace airfreight with small, fast, green ships. We just needed to build them! So now we are going to start with a a vehicle that is small and fast to develop and build, prove the tech, build an amazing team, then keep going bigger. Fast first vs big first. Check it out - ridevalo.com (shameless plug lol)