POWER TO THE PEOPLE

For many years electric propulsion was seen as a niche market, but it’s rapidly approaching a tipping point and a wide range of competitive raceboats are now specifying it as the default option. The future is rapidly becoming reality.

At this year’s Düsseldorf boat show, for instance, almost every daysailer, as well as a number of larger yachts, were designed for electrical power as default. Some notable recent designs, ranging from the RS21 to the ClubSwan 36, don’t even offer a conventional outboard motor or inboard diesel as an option.

“For day sailers and tenders the uptake of electrical propulsion has already past the innovator and early adopter stages, and is already into early majority,” says Christoph Ballin, co-founder and CEO of Torqeedo. “It’s also interesting that the electrical propulsion share in the marine industry is in the same order of magnitude as automotive,” he adds, “so the marine world is not lagging behind.”

An electric drive system, developed by designer Shaun Carkeek, was also the natural choice for Niklas Zennström’s latest Fast 40+ Ran. This is highly optimised with an ultra