and at its cruising speed of 25 knots, narrow wings called hydrofoils, provide huge amounts of lift. in the same way that aircraft wings can get a plane off the ground, these wings can raise the whole hull above the surface. i ve started to notice more and more boats and even windsurfs and kite surfs having these foils underneath the board, so the entire thing can lift out of the water. and because hardly any of the boat is having to push through the water, it doesn t need as powerful a motor. and that means there s something else that s very special about this craft. it s electric. these small propellers are all that are needed to get the ferry up to speed and its onboard batteries give it a range of 50 nautical miles, all of which promises to make waterborne transport a whole lot cleaner and a whole lot greener. normal boats consume an awful lot of fuel and they are extremely inefficient, compared to land based transport. and this is because the boat is trying to push its w