File these awesome boat and watercraft designs under ‘things you’ll wish you had access to this summer.’ Who wouldn’t want their very own personal submarine, or a house boat shaped like a UFO? Some of these wild-sounding creations are concepts – like automated, self-piloted cargo ships and yachts shaped like giant illuminated swans – but others are available to rent or purchase right now.

UFO Houseboat by Jet Capsule

This UFO-shaped fiberglass floating object features a main living area with kitchen, bathroom an storage in its above-water level, while the submerged level contains a bedroom and second bathroom. Or, you could commission one to hold a floating restaurant, gym or hotel reception area. They’re powered by electric engines that push them along at a speed of about nine knots, and their batteries are charged by solar panels, wind turbines and water turbines. The manufacturer, Jet Capsule, will reportedly be ready to start shipping these out via helicopter in 2018.

Quadrofoil: Electric Hydrofoiling Personal Watercraft

This thing looks like a mechanical animal galloping through the water. It also looks really fun to ride in. The Quadrofoil gets a top speed of 21 knots and features an electric engine that can be fully charged in under two hours. They’re available for order now at the company’s website, in three models.

U-Boat Worx C-Explorer 3

This ‘luxury personal submersible’ boat by U-Boat features a 360-degree acrylic pressure hull capable of containing a pilot and two passengers, zooming around underwater for up to 16 hours at a time at a maximum depth of 3,300 feet. Plus, it’s air-conditioned. That’s pretty incredible! While it’s primarily geared toward scientists and researchers rather than the general public, it looks like anyone can order one, provided you have the cash.

Hydrohouse by Max Zhivov

A houseboat, dock, garage and water parking for a hydroplane all come together in a single nautical creation called the HH Hydrohouse, with all parts made from prefab modules so it can be transported by truck. It contains a kitchen, master bedroom and two guest bedrooms and a bathroom, and its upper canopy is one big solar panel array.

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Bold Boats 15 Wild Fantastical Futuristic Nautical Designs

Well, here’s one way to get some exercise and simultaneously enjoy views of a beautiful city without getting rained on or dealing with traffic.  Gliding along the surface of the Seine in Paris, past such landmarks as the Notre Dame Cathedral, ‘The Paris Navigating Gym’ gets most of its power from the humans operating the stationary bicycles inside. Supplemented by rooftop solar panels, the boat is designed to be a mobile exercise facility and relaxing tour of the city all at once, separated from the noise and chaos of the streets.

Architect Carlo Ratti collaborated with fitness manufacturing company Technogym, non-profit Terreform ONE and urban generation institute URBEM to develop the project. Director of the MIT Senseable City Lab, which describes itself as ‘urban imagination and social innovation through design & science,’ Ratti aims to explore the potential of power generation through the movement of human bodies.

The boat itself is pretty cool, accommodating up to 45 people on the bikes and other fitness equipment made by Technogym. As they work out, they can keep track of how much energy they’re producing as well as their fitness progress. An inverter converts the pedal power into utility grade electricity, powering the electronic elements of the equipment and propelling the boat. Excess energy is fed into the grid.

The design of the boat is based on that of Bateaux Mouches, ferry boats for tourists that have dotted the Seine for nearly a century. The panoramic glass facades looking out onto the water sure beat the views of parking lots and televisions at most local gyms.

Here’s one UFO you won’t be seeing in the skies, but rather on the surface of the sea, half of its iconic shape disguised beneath the waves in the form of an underwater viewing dome. The ‘Unidentified Floating Object’ concept is the newest weird watercraft design from Italian water transportation company Jet Capsule, envisioned as a semi-autonomous floating home complete with a vegetable garden, water generator and wind turbine.

You won’t get very far very fast, as this thing reaches a top speed of just 3.5mph, but it’s not meant to be a speedboat or even really a means of getting from one place to another. It’s a recreational watercraft crossed with a vacation home, offering habitable areas both above and below the surface of the water, including a sub-level bathroom where you can shower while gazing out at the surrounding marine life.

The flat ring around the central sphere functions as an exercise track for jogging or biking, and there’s a plantable strip so you can grow grass, flowers, trees or food. Opening the top hatch enables the collection of both solar energy and rainwater, and underwater turbines gather energy from the currents. There’s an anchor on an elastic cord so you can stay in place when you want to. The top cabin features a built-in kitchen, semi-circular dining area and lots of windows for taking in the views, and the whole thing runs on a battery-powered jet motor.

Jet Capsule is about to seek funding to create the first working prototype, with a Kickstarter launch reportedly coming soon, so it looks like they’re serious about getting this thing into the hands of consumers. No word yet on an estimated retail price.

First there was the guitar boat, the wooden Ferrari boat and the ‘spider that ate San Francisco’. Now come 12 even cooler and crazier watercraft designs and concepts from super-high-tech water-cleaning ‘whales’ to the lowest of the low tech – duct tape and pumpkins. Perhaps not all of these awesome boat, hydrofoil and jet ski designs hold water, but they’re definitely interesting eye candy.

Flying Sailboat/Airplane

(images via: psi punk)

Like a massive dragonfly, ‘Sailing Aircraft’ by Yelken Octuri can glide through the air and then land on the surface of the water. But unlike dragonflies, this theoretical water/aircraft can then upturn its wings to catch the wind and sail. Commissioned by a captain, the design can fit four passengers and even has two lateral panels that can flip over to become pontoons.

Amphibious Whale-Shaped River Cleaner

(images via: vincent callebaut)

From the same designer that brought us the awe-inspiring Lilypad design for a nature-inspired, eco-friendly floating city comes ‘Physalia’, an amphibious self-sufficient vessel that takes its shape from whales and actually cleans the water as it ‘swims’. Designer Vincent Callebaut imagines it floating through the world’s rivers eliminating pollution and providing more clean water to drink. The inside is filed with gardens, and the ship is covered with a green roof as well as thin-film solar panels.

Solar Boat

(image via: inhabitat)

While the Physalia may be many decades from actual construction, another solar-powered boat is almost ready to launch. PlanetSolar is the world’s largest solar-powered watercraft at 31 meters long and was set to take a trip around the world in April 2010, which was delayed – but in September, the boat did make it from Germany to Spain and will undergo further testing in Barcelona.

Solar Bicycle Boat

(images via: m-j design)

When it’s sunny, you could take this solar-powered boat on a silent, pollution-free joyride, pausing to lounge on the deck and jump into the water. But if you find yourself out to sea on a cloudy day, you’re not stuck: you can just pedal back. The design eliminates the costly fuel needed to keep most modern-day boats running, though solar panels will have to get quite a bit more powerful before this design is really viable.

Dolphin Hydrofoil

(image via: nikko van stolk)

If you’ve ever wished your jet ski had wings so you could catch some air and go even faster, this is basically what you’ve been looking for: the ‘Dolphin Hydrofoil’, a personal watercraft that lets you jump out of the water just like its namesake. Since the hull is off the water when in motion, you can make banked turns at high speeds. So far it’s just a concept by Nikko Van Stolk, but a very cool one.

Kite-Powered Watercraft

(image via: greenpacks)

Imagine gliding over – and under – the surface of the sea on what looks like a futuristic jet ski, only without the fuel. The Nereus is a kite-powered watercraft concept that lets you dive under the water at will, pulled back up by the wind. No word on just how windy it has to be in order to pull you at the claimed ‘high speeds’, but it sure sounds fun.

Zipper Boat

(image via: inventor spot)

When Japanese artist Yasuhiro Suzuki looks at the wake behind a boat, he thinks of a zipper – which is why he chose such an unusual shape for his own watercraft, the Zipper Motorboat.  It’s certainly unlike anything else on the water, seemingly unzipping the ocean as it cruises.

Duct Tape Boat

Who else but the Mythbusters can you count on to determine whether duct tape is actually durable enough to use as the main material for a boat? Adam and Jamie used 690 square feet of duct tape to create the hull and sail of ‘Stuck on You’, which they then sailed out in the San Francisco Bay. It worked well enough for a while – and when they sprung a leak, they repaired it with more duct tape.

Pykrete Boat

On their own, the two materials used to create pykrete – water and sawdust – are the last things you’d ever consider using to build a boat. But when you freeze sawdust and wood pulp in a 14%/86% mixture, it becomes a literally bulletproof material that is stronger than ice. The Mythbusters built a pykrete boat that actually managed to float and withstood speeds of about 23 miles per hour, but it quickly sprang leaks and melted, earning a “plausible but ludicrous” conclusion to the myth.

Paper Boat

(images via: the daily mail)

If waxed paper can hold in liquids like milk, why can’t it be used to float on water? That’s what artist Frank Boelter asked himself one morning over breakfast while looking at a carton of milk, and this is what resulted. The 30-foot boot, which weighed only 55 pounds and took just two hours to construct, is made from ‘Tetrapak’ material and was expected to last 40 days on the water before disintegrating.

Model Kit Boat

(images via: michael johansson)

Artist Michael Johansson created a life-size ‘model boat kit’ from a real dinghy, boat equipment and a welded metal frame. “The real boat is transformed into a model of itself, and its original purpose has given way to something else,” says Johansson.

Pumpkin Boat

(images via: trendhunter)

You might think that JR Hildebrandt was awfully disappointed when he asked his fairy godmother for a new boat and got this instead. But Hildebrandt made this curious canoe from a 760-pound pumpkin and spent 8 days rowing in it to raise money for charity. It’s about as low-tech as watercraft gets, but surprisingly, giant pumpkins serve as relatively stable boats – there’s even a Giant Pumpkin Boat Race every year in the town of Ludwigsburg, Germany.