Electric Boats Turning Heads at Traditional Awards Shows
By Jeff Butler
With the Gustave Trouvé Electric Boat Awards coming down to the final week of voting, it seems a good time to look at how electric boats and boat have been doing in other awards. The ‘Gussies’ are the only international award focused exclusively on electric boats and boating, while in these other shows the best of electric is up against traditional and longer established fossil fuel boats and equipment.
Electric seems to be doing very well in that competitive environment thank you very much, taking prizes in a few of the end of year competitions, including the DAME Design Awards, IBI Boatbuilders Awards and Best of Boats. Here’s a look.
DAME Design Awards
The DAME Awards are one of the highlights of the annual METS international leisure boat industry trade show held in at Amsterdam’s RAI Convention Centre each November.
Now in their 33rd year of celebrating marine product design in all its forms, the awards take into account all aspects of the products entered: styling, functionality, innovation, ease of use, and packaging.
Entrants submit a €150 fee – which goes to a charity – and a Jury made up of a mix of experts in areas like naval architecture, boat design, interior design, user application and marine market experience and skills decided the winners. This year’s Jury was Chaired by Naval Architect and Yacht Designer Andre Hoek of Hoek Design and Hoek Brokerage.
Propulsion and Dynamics category
Yanmar e-Saildrive
Last year at the DAME Awards the Oceanvolt 25 Servoprop won not just the best propulsion award, but also the best product overall. This year there was another electric double winner. The new Yanmar e-Saildrive, which was launched just a couple of months ago at the Cannes Yachting Festival, took home top honors in the Propulsion and Dynamics category (making it two in a row for electric propulsion), and also won the overall DAME Environmental Design Award.
Jury Comments: “The 7-15kW 48V E-saildrive fits on existing footprints as a drop-in replacement for combustion engines with no major structural changes needed to repower. At a stroke this eliminates a major obstacle for electrifying a large global fleet of Yanmar-equipped yachts of up to 40ft. The E-saildrive is noticeably well engineered, supported by Yanmar’s global service network, and features an internal closed loop oil cooling system, further reducing installation time.”
Honorable Mention: Mitek REVOLVE
There are numerous advantages to electric propulsion over burning fossil fuels – like much less noise, much less vibration, and no emissions of carbon or the thousands of toxic chemicals that come out of the exhaust of an ICE boat.
Electric motors are also much more flexible in how they can be configured. Quite a few e-outboards now have a set-up where the motor itself stays in a fixed position on the boat while the lower unit (or lower leg) rotates to do the steering. Now Italian motor manufacturer Mitek has a whole new take on the theme, the REVOLVE.
Jury Comments: “A ‘we haven’t seen this before’ talking point for the Jury, this 6hp – 20hp electric drive system steers 90° either side of centre. The leg rotates up to stow in line with the transom, with the propeller clear of the water and easily inspected. Revolve is defined as a sterndrive by its manufacturer, but the motor is part of the leg more like an outboard, meaning no intrusion on interior space.”
Environmental Design Award
In addition to their comments about the Yanmar e-Saildrive in the Propulsion and Dynamics category, the Jury added these regarding the Environmental Award: “Much to admire about this product, but the E-Saildrive specifically wins this DAME Environmental Award for its exciting potential to accelerate electrification in a very large global fleet of yachts. It fits on existing footprints as a drop-in replacement for combustion engines with no major structural changes needed to repower. At a stroke this eliminates a major obstacle for electrifying Yanmar saildrive-powered yachts of up to 40ft.”
IBI Boatbuilder Awards
The prestigious Boatbuilder Awards are another highly anticipated event each year at METS. They are organized jointly by METSTRADE Show organizer RAI Amsterdam and IBI publisher Boat International Media, with Raymarine as the lead sponsor. This was the 10th anniversary of the Awards, and this year electric boats were recognized in three categories.
Innovative Design Solution: Faro Powerdock
In this category, sponsored by Fusion Marine Audio, “nominees will have innovated a specific single new feature or design solution that enhances the appeal to end customers and/or to improve the function or efficiency of a production boat or one-off yacht.”
The Faro Powerdock, from Faroboats (winner of the 2022 Gussies Electric Boat Awards in the Under 8m category) is a movable dock/boat port with solar panels that can house and charge any electric boat using the energy of the sun. The IBI Award is their latest accolade, with the Powerdock having been featured in TIME Magazine’s list of the “200 Extraordinary Innovations Changing Our Lives” in 2023.
Judges’ Summary: “A difficult decision for the judges with truly impressive layout features from Azimut and WiderCat and plenty of innovative ideas on the multirole B-Craft Akoya. But the judges kept returning to the Powerdock, liking the way it complemented infrastructure requirements for smaller electric boats and how it would work particularly well in warmer climates to preserve the boat and minimise the need for cleaning.”
Collaborative Solution between a Builder and its Supply Chain Partner: Azimut and Volvo Penta
This award celebrates both a boat builder and their supply chain partner for have co-operating closely to improve an aspect of a new build’s sales potential, performance, or services. Azimut and Volvo Penta won for application of Volvo Penta’s new hybrid IPS Drive system in the Azimut Seadeck 7 yacht. The system integrates a 160 kW (≈ 220 hp) electric marine engine with any of the brand’s four D13 models (700, 800, 900 and 1,000 hp), with the electric machine and diesel engine working in parallel on the same drive shaft.
Judges’ Summary: “In this pilot project, Azimut Benetti’s R&D department worked closely together with Volvo Penta to introduce the first ever hybrid-electric version of the IPS Drive on Azimut’s new Seadeck 7. Trials have continued through 2024 to optimise the installation. The Seadeck 7 can cruise in pure electric mode up to 11 knots and anchor with zero emissions for up to 12 hours.”
Eco-focused Launch of the Year
There are two division in the Eco-focused Launch of the the Year – Under 10m LOA and Over 10m LOA. In each, nominated boats and yachts will show demonstrable reduction in environmental impacts compared to immediate past practice across development, manufacturing, and lifetime use.
Under 10m LOA: De Antonio Yachts – E23
Last November the De Antonio E23 electric boat was named the first Official Electric Boat of the America’s Cup, selected for the 37th edition of the event as it embraces a core value of sustainability. The E23 is designed for a single owner, couple, or family that wants a fun and relaxing stress-free day on the water – but are not particularly looking for high speeds. The design decisions were based on the best way to deliver that experience and include a modified catamaran hull and fixed hydrofoil.
Judges’ Summary: “De Antonio Yachts has cleverly taken design themes from the larger monohull models in its range, but the E23 is in fact a foil-assisted electric outboard powered catamaran, the first in this company’s history. It enjoyed a high-profile launch thanks to being selected as the official electric boat of the recent America’s Cup. De Antonio has now entered series production with this model.”
Finalists in the category were also electric boats – the Riva El-Iseo and the IMPACD 680 from IMPACD boats (more about them below.)
Over 10m LOA: Beneteau Group – Island Cruising Concept
This is a interesting project from the world’s largest boat manufacturer. Beneteau has mountains of data from its Seanapps boat management app and used information from 1,000 connected boats covering the practices of 180,000 users. It showed (not surprisigly) that sometime people want or need to go fast for some periods of time and sometimes they need or want to go slow (or stay in one place). The concept Island Cruising boat, which has a new new-generation ‘monomaran’ hull, uses hybrid electric and fossil fuel propulsion with autonomous energy management to reduce fuel consumption by 50%.
Judges’ Summary: “What boat would you design if you created it to match peoples’ real world boating experiences? This is precisely the way in which Beneteau created its Island Cruising Concept, drawing on a lot of data from boat users over the summer and letting that inform a design that meets their most likely needs and usage habits. The result is very different to the yachts that many are using today and thought-provoking for Beneteau and the wider industry.”
Finalists in this category were the Hanse 410 sailboat with optional electric propulsion and the Greenline 58 hybrid which has an impressive range of 20 nautical miles in silent electric mode with speeds up to 6 knots.
Rising Star Award: Marieke de Boer, Founder of IMPACD Boats
As the name indicates, this award Entry is presented to a person who has been making a growing impact on any aspect of their business, from design and production, to management, buying and any other boat building discipline.
The winner is Marieke de Boer, Founder of IMPACD Boats, a company which produces all-electric boats made with additive technology, better known as 3D printing.
Judges’ Summary: “Less than four years ago Marieke de Boer left a safe job within the fast-moving consumer goods sector for the uncertainty of becoming a boat builder with a mission to use sustainable but unproven manufacturing techniques and materials. The company she founded has gone on to create a complete range of electrically powered 3D printed motor launches between 4.7m and 6.8m. Around 45 boats have rolled off this future-focused production line so far, establishing viability and market acceptance for something completely new to boat buyers.
Marieke is a passionate believer in sustainable manufacturing. She shares her knowledge with enthusiasm and has spoken at many marine and wider industry events and since 2021 has guided around 40 university students on their research into life cycle assessments and recycled plastics. This must surely be just the start of a very impressive journey for this personable and determined sustainable boat building advocate.”
Best of Boats Awards
The Best of Boats Award was launched in 2014 by boat journalists from a variety of countries and magazines/websites. This year the Jury was made up of X journalists from X countries. Hundreds of new boats are tested each year by the jury members in confirmed full-scale boat tests are are judged in user-oriented categories, such as ‘Best For Beginners’ and ‘Best For Families’. There is also a ‘Best Electric’ category introduced in 2023. The winner in 2024 is the which won out over the De Antonio E23 and Lasai 22 GL.
Best Electric: Frauscher x Porsche 850 Fantom Air
That’s the Frauscher / Porsche crew celebrating in the photo at the top of this article, and with good reason. In late 2023, Frauscher Boats and Porsche automobiles unveiled the first production model of their collaboration in electric boating, the 850 Fantom Air. The Best of Boats Award is a great testament to what the designers and engineers of the companies created when they married a Frauscher hull with the all-electric drive technology of the Porsche Macan compact SUV.
Jury Comments: “The collaboration between Germany’s leading sports car manufacturer Porsche and the Austrian Frauscher shipyard, with its long history in the field of electric boats, brings together the best of both worlds: In the opinion of the Best of Boats Awards jury, the Frauscher x Porsche 850 Fantom Air is the first electric boat to combine the performance and class of a fast day cruiser with a state-of-the-art electric drivetrain on a powerful, elegant boat for continuous daily use.”
In the overall scheme of things, electric boats and motors are still a very small percentage of all of the new boats and motors being manufactured every year. But what they lack in quantity they make up in the quality of innovation and pushing boundaries. It seems the Judges and Juries of award shows are taking note – so congratulations to all winners of these tough competitions!