Icarus

Will try to get more info on the Icarus project later. Image & Text sent by Andrew Dowley.
“Icarus was based on a Panthercraft Tornado originally. Holder of the B Class World Speed Record, including hydrofoil designs and principles from ocean going boats to hydrofoil sailboards.
James Grogono was the man behind the project.
Luke Yeates from Weston Sailing Club owned the boat for a while and tried to work with it.
The boat has now gone to James son, probably to stay in a barn forever.

It was pretty un seaworthy and old. James Grogono showed Luke all his drawings for icarus and icarus 2. Luke and his team used the boat as a concept testbed and it worked remarkably well. Achieving 26kts in 21kts of breeze. Not bad considering it literally weighs over 1/4 tonne and the 30 year old hydrodynamics were interesting at best, with design features such as sharpened leading edges! Icarus 2 was also very heavy but with a much improved design, it proved very fast 30kts plus (unofficial) but unfortunately it was blown of calshot spit in a storm and got smashed to pieces on hill head. It was never replaced.
James went on to do a lot of work with Alan Thebault on the Hydroptere designs in the early stages.”