Hydrofoiling technology has started to reshape the maritime transport and tourism industry, offering the opportunity for a more sustainable future on the water. Vessev has played a key role in this transformation with the launch of one of the first electric hydrofoiling vessels certified for commercial use, the VS–9.
Since 2025, the VS–9 has been carrying passengers across Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour in partnership with Fullers360, New Zealand’s largest tourism and ferry operator. The vessel demonstrates how cutting-edge hydrodynamic design and electric propulsion can successfully combine into a real-world commercial application.
Vessev, formerly Seachange, has been using Gomboc since the early design stages in 2021. Today, we are proud to share their very successful and inspiring story supported by advanced simulation-driven design and performance optimization within the unified Gomboc development environment.
“From a hydrodynamics standpoint, we used Gomboc to evaluate foil performance across a wide range of operating speeds, sea states, and passenger configurations. By systematically exploring those parameters, we optimized foil geometry and operating setpoints to improve efficiency and ride quality across the full operating envelope.
Gomboc also supported controller development and validation, including hardware-in-the-loop testing, which helped ensure the on-water trials went smoothly. It also enabled seakeeping and manoeuvring analyses, informed improvements to helm inputs, and allowed us to generate structural load cases for robust evaluation of design loads.” – Sam Harding, Head of Hydrofoil Systems @Vessev
The VS–9 is a nine-meter hydrofoiling catamaran designed to seat up to 10 passengers. Cruising at 25 knots with a top speed of 30 knots, it delivers up to 50 nautical miles of range on a single charge.
One of the strengths of the vessel is its high-efficiency fully retractable hydrofoil system. Made of carbon fibre, the foils are equipped with high-precision flaps adjusted at 100 times per second by the onboard control system. This dynamic control ensures a stable and comfortable ride for passengers while foiling in wave heights of up to 0.75 m and wind speeds of 25 knots. The result is a quiet, smooth, low-wake and zero-emission passenger experience.
The VS–9 represents only the first milestone of Vessev’s journey. The company is also developing larger 12 and 18 meter electric hydrofoiling vessels, aiming to scale up the decarbonization of maritime transport.
We are proud that Gomboc can contribute to the next generation of high-performance, sustainable vessels.
