The small maritime company is developing a line of futuristic electric-powered hydrofoil vessels that it envisions zipping people across the bay, from pier to pier — a cleaner and potentially quicker alternative to gridlocked bridges or bulky commuter ferries. Imagine having a fleet of on-demand vessels capable of shuttling someone from, say, the shores of Redwood City to Oakland's Jack London Square in about 20 minutes.
"Waterways are not an obstacle to travel," said Navier founder and CEO Sampriti Bhattacharyya. "They're a free piece of infrastructure, and they're underutilized."
This weekend in San Francisco Bay, Bhattacharyya is rolling out the first public on-water demonstrations of Navier's signature watercraft, a 30-foot-long, six-person battery-powered vessel with twin electric motors capable of carrying a charge for about 75 nautical miles at an average speed of 20 knots.
The N30, as it's called, looks like Robocop's cabin cruiser. When it gets going at about 15 knots, its hull rises above the surface of the water and the craft glides quietly on its three underwater foils.
"The feeling is kind of magical. I felt like the Silver Surfer. It's smooth, with no sound except the wind," said Donald Stalter, a partner at Global Founders Capital, which has invested in Navier.
Navier has received over $10 million in seed funding from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Android co-founder Rich Miner as well as several other venture capital funds. The craft, currently marketed for recreational use and as the backbone of the water taxi concept, carries a price tag of $375,000, but the company declined to say how much it spent to build each one.
Stalter took a quick ride on one out of San Francisco earlier this year. He imagines legions of Navier boats in coastal cities around the world ushering in an impending clean-tech revolution in water transportation and shipping.
"This feels like something that could go beyond a consumer product and displace all sorts of shipping options," Stalter said. "Think what Elon Musk did with Tesla — how that technology is going into semitrucks and a variety of transportation industries. We look at Navier the same way."
Hydrofoil technology has been around for decades as a low-drag alternative to traditional V-bottom boats, though sparsely applied. But advancements in carbon fiber composites, computer-controlled construction, onboard piloting software and rechargeable batteries have fostered a resurgence of interest in foiling as a means of cheap, silent, zero-emission travel.
Now foils are being incorporated into all kinds of designs — from personal electric surfboards popping up on Lake Tahoe to high-speed sailboats and commuter ferries.
"They're great for transporting people over water at speed without using a ton of energy," said Paul Bieker, a naval architect in Seattle known for designing high-performance sailboats that race in the America's Cup.
Navier tapped Bieker to engineer the N30. He said the type of water taxi network the company is conceiving "could be a big milestone." Navier claims its craft is "10 times more efficient than traditional gas-powered boats."
Having showcased its boat at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year, Navier is following up with a demonstration this weekend at Marina Green. Its boats will run laps in front of thousands of spectators expected to show up for the championship regatta of the Mubadala U.S. Sail Grand Prix. The global sailing tournament is backed by Oracle founder and noted sailing enthusiast Larry Ellison and features 80-foot-tall hydrofoil catamarans that maneuver with improbable swiftness and speed.
More demonstrations are slated soon for Los Angeles, San Diego and Lake Tahoe, Bhattacharyya said.
The company has built just two N30s but plans to ramp up production and develop full auto-docking capability as well. Bhattacharyya says the company is on pace to manufacture about 40 crafts by the end of 2024.
"You'll see more vessels in the bay next year," she said, "and then we'll scale rapidly after that."
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