After months of hard restoration work in the barn, he launched his beautiful electric picnic boat in September. When Grande, of Connecticut, discovered his 1974 Penn Yan had a cracked head gasket, he opted to repower the boat with electric for $4,000, a fraction of the cost of a conventional installation. 'It just has to do with trying not to use fossil fuels.' He estimates that his install, including batteries and solar panels, cost him the same as a conventional install, 'I could have bought a 14-horse engine for what I've invested in it.' 'In my opinion this has nothing to do with being green,' he says. Repowering With Electricīob Jennings, a New-Hampshire based sailor, repowered his 1980 Sabre 28 with a motor he, too, bought from Thunderstruck-EV. According to Sean Marrero, president of Watershed Innovation and chief strategy officer at Correct Craft, the GS22 provides 'two to three hours of normal water sports activity,' which includes multiple rides and time spent transitioning between riders at the dock. The electric Super Air Nautique GS22 debuted with a whopping 150 kW (201-hp equivalent claimed) motor and 124 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. One project coming to fruition is an electric watersports boat powered by Ingenity (a Watershed Innovation company). These power-hungry applications demand 100s of horsepower, far surpassing the abilities of production electric engines on the market today - though there are signs this is about to change, with an electric watersports boat introduced at the 2020 Miami Boat Show.Ĭorrect Craft (parent company to Nautique, Centurion, and SeaArk Boats, among others) launched Watershed Innovation in 2018 as an innovation lab focused on identifying, researching, developing, and integrating rapidly developing technologies for the marine industry. More difficult still are water sport boats, bass boats, and offshore fishing center-consoles. 'Generally, anything planing is comparatively more difficult because you need substantial power and very low weight,' Ballin says. While there are several electric planing boats on the market, they all have less than an hour of range at planing speeds. Greenline Hybrid Yachts, a Slovenian manufacturer, launched the first serial production hybrid boat in 2008 and has since produced 450 of them - a model line now ranging from 33 to 65 feet - making it the largest hybrid fleet in the world. Some luxury yachts now have hybrid propulsion. It's not just dinghies and sailboats that are going electric, though. He also sees great potential for electric on larger sailboats, 'My target is that in 10 to 15 years, will be the exception on sailing yachts.' What Types Of Boats Are Going Electric?Ĭhristoph Ballin is co-founder and CEO of Torqeedo, a German manufacturer that debuted a small outboard in 2005 and now produces electric outboard, inboard, pod, sail, and hybrid drive systems, offered around the world.īallin estimates that close to 2% of recreational boats are electric, with the greatest adoption in tenders, daysailers, and boats on 'green lakes,' where combustion engines are forbidden. Meanwhile in Florida, visiting boaters, hoping to spot a manatee, peacefully explore the wildlife of the Intracoastal Waterway in silence aboard rental electric boats.

At the 2019 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, a massive annual powerboat race in Missouri, a stock Canadian Electric Boat Volt 180 set an unofficial speed record by clocking 30 mph. In California, Duffy Electric Boats devotees congregate in Newport Beach for rallies and on-the-water scavenger hunts.

Diy electric inboard boat motor