Solent-built electric boat circumnavigates Isle of Wight
Optima’s CEO David Kendall says his company’s Optima e10 is the first electric boat to make the 51 nautical mile passage, circumnavigating the Isle of Wight.
The circumnavigation took just under six hours, starting and finishing at the Royal Lymington Yacht Club’s platform at the river entrance.
The e10 is a 100 per cent electric 10m boat, built in the Solent and launched in April this year at the Green Tech Boat Show. It’s billed as a luxury dayboat/weekender and is said to be capable of a range of up to 150 nautical miles.
Its low resistance hull-form is described as a “stabilised monohull” by Kendall. He says this provides the efficiency and stability of a multi-hull, within the confines of monohull, and has significantly reduced energy consumption, which makes electrification viable for longer passages.
The e10 is powered by a single 40kW drive from RAD Propulsion and 120kWh of batteries from Kreisel Electric. Future boats will have twin steerable drives to give easy docking with joystick control.
The entire passage used 73kWh of energy costing only £20 to recharge at the marina on a standard shore power supply. Very impressive for a 10m vessel weighing over 3 tonnes.
“It was an incredibly comfortable, relaxing and enjoyable trip,” says Kendall. “We were able to have lunch and engage in relaxing conversation on passage thanks to the good sea keeping of the innovative hull and noise reduction from the electric drive. We arrived back in Lymington as relaxed and refreshed as we started, despite some challenging conditions south of the island including thick fog and lively seas off St Catherine’s Point.”
Optima is currently developing larger models for both the leisure and commercial markets – to include a 44ft luxury cruiser with a choice of enclosed or open cockpits, water taxis for 12-16 passengers and a luxury holiday resort transfer vessel.
“We are currently in the transition from three years of R&D into production and commercialisation and are inviting discussions with investors and partners to accelerate this growth,” says Kendall.
