Dreamboat for Orca?

Once again, technology finds inspiration in nature. This Orca-like craft is actually a catamaran.

Paritet Boat, the Moscow-based boat manufacturer, has released a successor to the glass-bottom Looker. The Looker is a hydrofoil boat--a boat with two wing-like struts mounted to the bottom of the hull. When you pick up enough speed, the hydrofoils raise the entire hull out of the water and you're essentially riding on the hydrofoils. This provides less drag and, therefore, less fuel needed for going fast.

The Ellips

(Credit: Paritet Boat)

Paritet's newest boat, the Ellips, has the same whale-shaped design, but is actually a catamaran. This means that it has two slender hulls that maintain a wide and stable footprint, while the boat still rides high over the surface of the water.

The 28-foot-long, 12-foot-wide Ellips catamaran can do a maximum speed of 65 knots with the right engine, thanks to its lightweight, high-grade aluminum and magnesium alloy hulls.

While Paritet offers four engine options, Elorca, the company's U.S. distributor says it can outfit the boat with any gas engine 200 to 800 horsepower and any diesel engine between 236 and 440 horsepower, as well as add custom fuel tanks.

The "cruise version" of the Ellips has a full bathroom and two cabins. Other goodies include air conditioning, two refrigerators (one for fish and one for food, presumably), GPS, autopilot, radar, sonar, a remote battery switch, two auto-pumps, an automatic anchor and a sun/rain canopy with hydraulic tilt.

According to a spokesman for Elorca, the Ellips will start at $200,000 in the U.S. The Looker starts at $150,000. He also said that Paritet is opening a factory in Los Angeles and plans to offer something "a little different" in the near future.