That sleek little electric, carbon fibre hydrofoil vessel zipping quietly back and forth off the breakwater Monday morning?

That could be the future.

Victoria Clipper teamed up with Victoria’s Greenline Ferries to bring one of Belfast-based Artemis Technologies electric hydrofoils into the Inner Harbour this week for a series of test drives.

It turned in an impressive performance, but there is a lot of work to do before it, or some variation on the concept, becomes a common sight in B.C. waters.

The Artemis EF-12 Escape model seats 12 in first class comfort and is designed for pilot boat and offshore wind farm or oil-gas well service, as well as small ferry runs.

A 150-seat model (EF 24) is currently under construction. That size of vessel or even larger would be a more likely candidate for the kind of runs that the visionaries at Greenline Ferries have in mind.

The Artemis cruised out of the harbor at the five to seven-knot speed limit then accelerated through a light chop at the breakwater. In a few seconds, it got up on the foil and lifted just barely above the wave tops. The rocking eased substantially. It was strikingly quiet even at 26 knots.

A nagging........

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