The futuristic-looking Sliver Bullet is an all-carbon foiling boat designed to fly above the water on articulating foils
Looking like a hybrid cross between the Starship Enterprise and a giant pond-skater, this futuristic concept craft takes foiling boat design to a whole new level of innovation.
Called Sliver, it’s a 130ft (40m) all-carbon fibre vessel that can carry 12 passengers at speeds of up to 50 knots.
The outrageous styling is the work of Swedish studio Gray Design, led by Eduard Gray, and marries cutting-edge style with the glamour of the 1930s Streamline Moderne movement.
This render gives some impression of the scale of the foiler
The main hull or fuselage has overtones of an early passenger aircraft fuselage, while the two sponsons fold in and out on slender hydraulic legs.
Those two sponsons have foil ‘feet’ that provide most of the lift for the foiling boat and a stern pod that carries a combined electric thruster and T-foil rudder assembly to deliver steering and pitch control.
All the foil surfaces would be controlled by an AI system that constantly learns and relearns how to fly the craft most efficiently, given load, sea and climate factors. The maximum beam with sponsons retracted would be around 46ft (14m) and 108ft (33m) with them fully extended.
The foiling outriggers fold in to reduce the beam when docking
Gray suggests that sustainable power generation for such a craft could come from ammonia-fuelled generators. The advantage of using ammonia is that it burns carbon-free, emitting only nitrogen and water vapour, although a catalytic converter would be required to eliminate the creation of nitrogen oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.
Whether Sliver ever makes it off the drawing board is unclear but Eduard Gray tells us he is confident a boat like this could be built given a suitably wealthy client. Preliminary discussions have already begun with potential build partners in Sweden.
