An undercover team of navy seal is not worth much if their transport boat’s wake betrays their approach. Nor  does it help if they come ashore with the back pain and possible organ damage from the boats constant bouncing. A sleek new hull design could help troops slip through waves undetected and unscathed, while also setting a new standard for efficient nautical design. While experimenting with high speed yacht designs for the america cup sailing race, aerospace engineer began investigating ways to reduce the wake that builds around the vessel’s bow. Sides and stern as it cruises through water and draining fuel. The bow of concept, called the transonic hull, is shaped like a tight v and cuts through water like a knife, diverting the wake sideways and under the boat to nearly eliminate it all together. Preliminary tests of a 20 foot wood and fiberglass prototype indicate that the model incurs 28 to 38 percent less drag than an ultra streamlined, which says could translate to 30 percent better fuel economy than similar boats. And it powered through waves four fell tall without bouncing.

The design is still unproven. The early results look promissing, but worries that the hull’s efficiently might not translate well to slow speeds. People focused on the right part of the boat to make real progress in reducing bow wake, but adds that he needs to see more test data and computer simulations to vouch for the concept.