Leap Of Faith. Foiling to the Bahamas aboard the Vandal 46 Explorer, Chris Dixon and his son test a new breed of powercat.
When I pushed the twin Yamaha 425 XTO’s a little more, the result was, frankly, amazing. Just north of 15 knots, the 20,000 pound boat became what might be best described as a flying carpet. Not only did she rise up onto her twin asymmetrical hulls, but she was also lifted by a stainless steel foil bolted between those hulls. The lift generated by that six-foot wide, and nearly two-inch thick wing created a ride quite unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. The Vandal now had no problem climbing the backs of the waves, but after she crested them, I expected she’d plummet down into the troughs, but she simply continued on—planted to the water yet cruising above the waves almost as if they weren’t there.
