Is it a jet ski? Is it a submarine? No it’s a Dolphin.
Innespace Productions, co-founded by New Zealander, Rob Innes and Californian Dan Piazza in 1998, has just unveiled their latest submersible watercraft, the SeaBreacher, recently selected as one of the winners in Time magazine's 2006 Best Inventions edition.
The SeaBreacher uses its forward momentum and the downward lift of its wings to literally fly below the water's surface. This radical departure from the typical method of sinking below the surface allows the SeaBreacher to achieve full throttle level of freestyle performance.

The new two seat, dolphin-inspired vessel is the second model that Innespace has designed and built. The new SeaBreacher is fifty percent larger than their original vessel in order to accommodate two full size occupants and a larger engine packages. The current prototype is powered by a 130kW Atkins Marine rotary engine. The supercharged race version will put out over 180kW. The 12mm thick canopy on the SeaBreacher is taken from the new F-22 Raptor jet-fighter
Innespace plans to launch a new aquatic racing event featuring a number of their new SeaBreacher vessels. Sponsored vessels will race head to head as they jump over, dive under and smash through obstacles set along a specially set up race course. Innespace compares their new event to the popular spectator sport of Monster Truck racing.
Though there are no shows Scheduled in the UK yet, if you just happen to be in Lisbon Portugal on the 2nd & 4th February 2007 you may see the beachbreaker pulling some moves.
|