1984: Race from New York to Europe
In 1984
Fons was the first to challenge the 32-year-old transatlantic speed
record set by the liner 'United States' (three days 10 hr and 40 min).
He
intended to break the record by means of a special 'never seen before'
machine that could race from New York to Europe in no more than three
days.
He started building a hydrofoil designed in the shape of a giant bottle.
The
result of this laborious and complex engineering work was a
staggeringly beautiful, long-legged "Flying Bottle" that, once out of
the water, easily could reach a speed of 40 knots.
 |  |
| Designed to race from New York to Europe |
The
main problem for him was that, during the years he needed to develop
and build his low-budget machine, a millionaire used his original idea
after it was made public by Fons.
The man simply bought a large
conventional powerboat to cross the Atlantic and set the record, but
had to refuel several times during the crossing.
However, as a
technician Fons had reached his main goal: creating a very remarkable
eye-catching bottle shaped hydrofoil capable of crossing the Atlantic
without refuelling.
The machine proved to meet all the preset parameters like speed and stability.
During the following years, the bottle served many interesting purposes and will be rebuilt in 2003.