'Monitor' - The First Sailing Hydrofoil

 

 

 

In the summer of 1955 Monitor, an unusual 26ft boat, was frequently seen on Lake Mendota, Wisconsin. Wheeled into the water on the small wheels protruding from her hull, these were removed and replaced with two almost triangular stainless steel frames, each crossed with parallel diagonal slats, and a third similar frame was folded down into place on the transom. Although rigged with only a medium-sized 240’ sail – roughly between the size of a C and E scow sail – the boat would start sailing normally and then, as her speed reached about 12mph, she would raise out of the water and sail on her three foils. The sound of water slapping against her hull disappeared, the spray stopped, and all that could be heard by the crew of two was a low humming sound from the hydrofoils slicing through the water.¹ 

 

 

Research into hydrofoil vessels had begun in the late nineteenth century: Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, had worked in the early twentieth century on a 60’ vessel powered by two 350hp engines, named the Hydrodrome (shown below in an article from “Motor Boating” magazine in 1933 by the young naval architect Philip Rhodes); and interest had continued in North America and Europe in the following years.²

 

 

In 1947 the United States Navy began a program researching the feasibility of hydrofoil vessels, involving many different manufacturing companies across the country, including Baker Manufacturing in Evansville, Wisconsin. Originally a company that specialized in manufacturing water well equipment, Baker had been involved in sailing hydrofoil development before World War II, but then focused on the potentially more lucrative market of hydrofoil power boats.³

 

 

In a 1955 interview J. G. Baker, the company’s owner, claimed that the powered hydrofoil vessel the company provided to the Navy (High Pockets, shown above), “was the first boat to operate successfully in the Navy’s hydrofoil research program…[and] during the next three years, this was the only craft which continued to give reliable continuous performance.”¹

 

 

The main difficulty for sailing hydrofoils however, has always been the need to have enough speed to lift the boat onto the foils initially, and then maintain this position through tacks as well as in lighter wind.⁴ An early prototype of the Baker yacht had surface-piercing v-foils similar to the Baker hydrofoil power boats, however for Monitor to be successful the foils were widened and diagonal ‘ladders’ added within the frames.⁵

 

 

During these trials on Lake Mendota the speed of Monitor was clocked unofficially at about 30mph. The Baker company’s 95 horsepower Chris-Craft was the escort and camera boat (and presumably where the Library's film was shot from), however she apparently didn’t have the power to keep up with Monitor, whose speed was estimated by gauging how quickly she had overhauled and passed the power boat.

 

 

Despite the significance of this accomplishment, the news about Monitor does not appear to have been widely reported in the press.⁶ J.G. Baker stated at the time that Monitor was still a research vessel rather than a prototype of a model intended for sale, and ten years later he was promising that the company planned a new hydrofoil sailboat, with an inland Lake Scow-type hull for width and stiffness, that “...should cost twice as much as a Lightning, and go four times as fast.”⁷ Certainly, the company had some success over a period of years with their hydrofoil power boats (as seen in the following promotional brochure which most likely dates from the late 1950s), however, many more years had to pass before the achievements shown in this film were to become more commonplace.

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Please visit our YouTube channel to see the approximately 3 minute film of Monitor in 1955, from our George O'Day Film Collection, as well as the many other digitized films we have there.

 

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¹ Wisconsin State Journal, 28 September 1955

² “The Hydrodrome. A Non-Technical Discussion”, Philip Rhodes, Motor Boating, February 1933

³ “Speedboats with Wings”, Motor Boating, August 1953

⁴ “An Appraisal of Hydrofoil Supported Craft”, The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, Transactions, 1953 (illustration of hydrofoil designs)

⁵ “Sailing Hydrofoils”, Amateur Yacht Research Society, 1970 (photographs of two Baker prototypes)

⁶ Yachting, November 1955 (photograph with caption)

⁷ “Hydrofoils and Hovercraft for Fun”, Motor Boating, February 1965

Monitor can be seen at The International Small Craft Center at The Mariner’s Museum.

 

 

 

© 2025 Francis Frost. All rights reserved.