Foil-Assisted-Ship-Technologies cc (FASTcc) was founded in 1998 by Prof. Dr-Ing. K.G.W. Hoppe, a Naval Architect and formerly a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. Aside of teaching Mechanical Engineering and Marine Engineering subjects Prof. Hoppe has developed foil assisted ships of different kinds in research projects which lead to the international patents of the Hysucat (Hydrofoil-Supported-Catamaran) and more recently to the Hysuwac (Hydrofoil-Supported-Watercraft) family of patents marketed by the University of Stellenbosch.
Prof. Hoppe developed the theoretical background needed for foil assisted craft and designed research facilities (Towing tank, Circulating tank, Cavitation tank) to be used in conjunction with teaching which allowed the backup of theoretical results by ship model tests. Many towing tank test series in research and for design applications gave valuable backfeed data for the practical designs of the more than 300 Hysucats on the sea from 1982 to 2002 which have shown up with speed improvements of over 40% in many cases.
Prof. Hoppe retired early from academical duties at the University in mid 1999 in order to invest all his available time and effort into further development of foil assisted ships and to conduct practical design applications for the international maritime industry through FASTcc.
His long standing experience in the field of fast ship design, propeller design development and computerization, model and prototype testing and teaching in these subjects form the right ingredients for top class product development.
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Some applications can be viewed (and downloaded!) under Applications / Pictures of this webpage and more details be found under Publications. All craft shown are equipped with so called Hoppe-foil systems.
In retro-fitting projects existing catamarans are equipped with hydrofoil systems.
To achieve an optimum combination of a foil system and hull shape (Hysucat hybrid) Prof. Hoppe also designed specialized demi-hull shapes which included the propulsion system (hull lines drawing, foil detail design, propulsion system!) and fast yachts, patrol boats and ferries were designed for S.A., Germany, USA, Thailand, U.K., France, Australia etc.
FASTcc offers Naval Architecture services and consultancies in the specialized field of hydrofoil assisted ships for which the general Naval Architect is not well equipped, either to back up the ship building industry or to offer full hull-foil-system designs.
FASTcc is also concerned with the future development and optimization of foil assisted craft comprising theoretical and practical designs and experimental work.
Prof. Hoppe has collaborated in many Navy, ARMSCOR (Vessel Division) and IMT projects through the former Buro of Mechanical Engineering (BMI) and the later Institute for Thermodynamics and Mechanics (ITM) at the University of Stellenbosch and mainly in Maritime projects. The nature of these projects prohibits a listing here.
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