How does the JetCycle “flying pedal boat” plan to conquer the alpine lakes?

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Teacher-researcher at Savoie-Mont-Blanc University, Christophe Déprès has tested the JetCycle on numerous occasions. – Louis Nauche

  • The Annecy start-up JetCycle presents this month its bluffing boat.
  • Developed over several years by around fifteen students from the IUT mechanical and production engineering in Annecy, the project foil cycling is intended for a sports audience.
  • Free trials will be offered from June 30 at the Veyrier nautical club, on Lake Annecy.

A pedal boat race on Lake Annecy? The idea launched in 2012 by Xavier Louy, former director of the Tour de France, could then seem surprising. Nine years later, an innovative boat, unprecedented in the world, “100% human-powered”, is ready to take up this challenge. “The problem with the pedal boat is that it tops out at 4 km / h, which is not very sexy for a sports competition”, sums up Nicolas Picard with a smile. In October 2020, he became the president of the Annecy start-up.
JetCycle.

To get there, Bernard Accoyer, mayor of Annecy-le-Vieux from 1989 to 2016, had to be approached by Xavier Louy, and he immediately thought of the mechanical and production engineering IUT of his municipality to initiate the crazy practice of foil cycling. “We were then looking for a common thread to unite our students,” says Christophe Déprès, teacher-researcher at Savoie-Mont-Blanc University. We worked for a long time on a streamlined recumbent bike that broke a speed record in 2019, with 137 km / h. So Bernard Accoyer said to himself that we would also be able to make a fast pedal boat, and even a flying one. “

Titouan Galea and Jean-Eudes Demaret as ambassadors

For five years, “with more than limited means”, around fifteen students worked on a prototype. A launch in 2016, a first take-off thanks to foils in 2018, and the arrival of a second more successful prototype in 2019, presenting 10 kg less (from 45 to 35 kg), are all major steps. The year 2019 also marks the incubation of this project by the company for the acceleration of technology transfer (SATT) in Grenoble, with a grant of around 100,000 euros. Enough to get the project off the ground for good, especially since the start-up JetCycle is ensuring its technical development in the process. The result of this “flying pedal boat”, which counts as ambassadors the sportsmen Titouan Galea (practitioner of wing foil) and Jean-Eudes Demaret (French long distance triathlon champion in 2016), is bluffing.

You can choose not to pedal, without the non-electric machine running the risk of overturning. If, on the contrary, we manage to pedal at 8 or 9 km / h, we can choose to take off by pushing a lever. The boat is then 20 cm above the water. We have the feeling of being balanced on the foils, “marine wings”, and we can have fun doing multiple take-offs and returns on the water. Finally, what are the profiles intended to pilot a JetCycle? “It still works at the pedal, summarizes Christophe Déprès. Besides cyclists, rowing enthusiasts, foil and kitesurfers are interested and quickly at ease, like most sports fans outdoor. “

President of JetCycle since last October, Nicolas Picard presents the third version of the boat. – Louis Nauche

“The foil is booming”

100% made in France, with foils manufactured in Brittany, and the hulls in Moulins (Allier), JetCycle is devoting itself, for its release this month in France, to demonstrations on alpine lakes. “The foil is booming,” insists Nicolas Picard. Until then, the activity market on the lakes was classic between pedal boats, canoes and paddle boards, with a lack of dynamism observed. »Dynamism, JetCycle does not lack, as the curious will quickly be able to see it during days of tests, programmed from June 30 at the nautical club of Veyrier, on the lake of Annecy, before a visit in the Confluence district (Lyon 2nd), July 22.

The new start-up, which has three employees and two interns, wants to produce around fifty boats by summer 2022 for large nautical structures, which would offer them for hire. On September 11 and 12, JetCycle also organizes a competition weekend to promote the practice of foil cycling on the waters of Lake Annecy. With a speed format of 500 m from a standing start, and a regatta event of nearly 1 km, this unprecedented competition will be one of the great curiosities of the season. Nicolas Picard notes: “This is proof that Xavier Louy’s idea in 2012 was not that crazy”. But just enough foil …

For practice, the recommended price is 50 euros per hour.





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