Post-Cannes: Why foiling, electrification and energy efficiency are converging
At the Cannes Yachting Festival 2026, one of the strongest themes running through conversations across the leisure marine industry was electrification.
But after speaking with some of the world’s leading boating companies, another question became increasingly apparent: how do we reduce the amount of energy a yacht needs in the first place?
The direction of travel is familiar. Automotive has moved rapidly towards electric powertrains. Aviation is exploring hybrid-electric architectures and new ways of reducing energy demand. Buildings, industrial systems and transport networks are all becoming increasingly focused on efficient energy generation, storage and management. And it’s obvious that yachting is no different.
Electrification
Electric motors can be highly efficient, responsive and compact. Battery systems can support quiet operation and eliminate local emissions during use, while hybrid architectures can combine different energy sources and operating modes. But batteries remain energy storage devices, not sources of energy.
If a yacht requires a certain amount of energy to travel 100 nm increasing battery capacity can increase range also adding weight, cost and volume, while potentially increasing the energy required to move the yacht itself.
If we look beyond the powertrain: hull efficiency, lightweight construction, propulsion efficiency and increasingly sophisticated energy management will all have a role to play in the electrification of yachting.
As marine electrification progresses, the focus will increasingly shift from simply finding ways to store more energy to finding ways to require less of it. This is where hydrofoiling (whether fully foiling or foil-assisted) has the potential to become an important part of the next generation of yacht design.
Foiling
Rather than relying entirely on the hull to generate the forces required to support the vessel, the foils generate lift and can substantially reduce the amount of hull immersed in the water.
For a fully foiling vessel, the objective is to lift the hull clear of the water and allow the foils to carry the vessel at speed. For foil-assisted vessels, the principle can be applied more selectively. The foils generate a proportion of the vessel’s lift, reducing the effective load carried by the hull and, consequently, its resistance. These are different architectures, with different operating envelopes and engineering trade-offs, sharing the same fundamental hydrodynamic principles.
Fully foiling
Fully foiling represents the most radical expression of this idea. At take-off speed, the foils generate sufficient lift to raise the hull clear of the water. For an electric yacht, this could mean using available battery capacity to achieve greater range. For a high-performance yacht, it could mean maintaining speed without proportionally increasing installed power. For a smaller vessel, it could make electric propulsion viable over distances that would otherwise be difficult to achieve. And for owners, it creates the possibility that efficiency becomes the experience itself.
Foil-assisted
Not every yacht needs to be fully foiling (or can be!) There is an equally interesting opportunity in foil-assisted architectures. Here, the foils can reduce the effective load carried by the hull without lifting the vessel entirely. Which applied to a broader range of vessel types and operating profiles.
Economics
As always, the conversation finds its way to the economics. As yachts move towards electric and hybrid propulsion, the cost and availability of onboard energy become increasingly important. Reducing the energy required to move the vessel therefore becomes just as important as improving how that energy is generated, stored or delivered.
For example, testing on the Spirit F35 has demonstrated an 80% reduction in drag under the relevant operating conditions. And from an economic perspective, this changes the conversation from an efficiency measure to a value proposition.
Reducing energy demand can directly influence operating costs. At the same time, lower propulsion power requirements may create opportunities to reduce the size of the propulsion and energy-storage systems required to achieve a given performance or range target, potentially influencing both capital and operating costs.
BAR Tech Partnership
At BAR Tech, we design foiling systems and complete powertrain solutions for leisure craft, working with established boat builders and brands looking to introduce foiling capability to their products. From fully foiling electric and hybrid craft to foil-assisted tenders and day boats, our focus is on integrating the technology around the vessel (and the experience) rather than treating it as an add-on.
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