Meet the Hydropt?re, a plane-boat that has become one of the fastest sailing boats in the world.
It is set to break an amazing record between Los Angeles and Honolulu in Hawaii this week, cruising at speeds of up to 83 km/h.
Conceived by Jean Nouvel, the ship is 18- metre-long and it can lift itself 5m above the surface with its ?Marine Wings? that use the same principle that gets aero planes up off the ground. This mechanism allows the boat to go from 37 to 83 km/h in just 10 seconds!
The boat also has 100 sensors installed on board to measure the pressures and speeds it's undergoing.
"The data acquired are modelled in a flight simulator to analyze every reaction of the boat and to improve adjustments," the team explains. "Thousands of calculations ? reduce the problems of hydrodynamic flow: when Hydropt?re reaches 50 knots (92 km/h), the water begins to boil around the foils, which reduces the lift and stability."
With the mind-set of raising awareness about climate change the team wants to try to reach Honolulu from Los Angeles in only 4.19 days, if they make it they will become a two times world record winning team.
