David Keiper’s Williwaw
Using archival footage, the Int’l Hydrofoil Society has made a short video of David Keiper’s hydrofoil trimaran Williwaw. David built the first flying hydrofoil cruising sailboat in 1970 and subsequently cruised her all over the Pacific. The boat and the voyages are detailed in Keiper’s Hydrofoil Voyager, which is being republished on Amazon this summer.


I sailed on Williwaw from Auckland to
Rarotonga in 1976. I had attended a
speech Dave gave at NZ yacht squadron
and then he advertised for crew. There
were only two of us and quite a few
storms early on