True innovation in boat design rarely happens and when it does it usually comes in small increments. But there is a real
breakthrough on display at the Festival De Plaisance in Cannes. Imagine a decent sized elegant boat that goes fast in the water,and can drive itself across a beach into the water, and you have the Iguana 29.
Designed and built in France, the Iguana 29 features "caterpillar" tracks on either side of the hull that drives the boat on land.Using a 40 hp engine, land speed is 8 km/h - 3.5 mph. When in the water these tracks then "fold up" into the planing hull which,when powered by the 300 hp outboard motor, allows speeds of up to 35 knots.
Built from sandwich composite materials, the Iguana 29 weighs no more than standard boats of the same length. Key
dimensions are: LOA 8.6 meters / 28ft 3in; Beam 2.5 meters/8ft 3in; and Draft 0.45 meters/1ft 6in. It is a CE category C class boat that can carry up to 10 passengers on land and at sea.The rare mount of space in a boat of this size is
provided by two large bench seats (complete with passenger lockers) that run the full length of the boat. The boat will be built in small batches of 6 and a smaller
model is envisaged for the future.