100% electric powered ski boat

[beast 496]

Has anyone seen the 100% electric powered ski boat? I am not sure about posting the link but Nautique has one in operation. It works great. Supra should be looking into this I believe. It would be great on private ski lakes or lakes which ban gas engines. Al

[supra wacko]

In Zwitserland Europe Boesch already had one since I thought round 2008.

http://www.boesch-boats.ch/boote/serie-560/560-sundeck-electric-power

And its used for waterskiing and wakeboarding.

[BigCity444]

I emailed Skier's Choice on this very topic less then a month ago.

[jet]

Yes, look on youtube, I just watched a vid last week on a 100% electric drive ski boat. It was pretty cool.

[87SunSportMikeyD]

You can post links here, it's okay. The Epic Hybrid has been out a few years with battery power backed by gas.

I had not heard of a Nauti elec, thanks for the tip and here's the links

http://waterskimag.com/ski-boats/2011/01/25/nautique-boats-unveils-all-electric-ski-boat/
Video: http://waterskimag.com/ski-boats/2011/01/25/video-ski-nautique-e-electric-ski-boat/

[jet]

Here's the one I saw. It was on WakeWorld. Pretty nice looking engine compartment. Jet


http://blog.teamnautique.com/2011/01/100-electric-nautique/

[BigCity444]

While I applaud Nautique and others for attempting this. The winner has yet been crowned.

In automobiles, many complain about the added weight but for those on this forum, it would be a benefit. Hybrids need to have the gasoline engine charge the battery's. I think this can be done by adding something to the bottom of the boat that provides slight resistance and spins.

[cadunkle]

I think this is pretty worthless. 3 slalom runs on a 4 hr charge. Load it up in a larger deeper hull to make a better wake and you'd be lucky to get a single set out of it, but charges would be longer since you'd have more betteries to charge.

Beyond that, what is the benefit? Does it cost less $$ per hour to run an electric boat? The benefit certainly isn't environmental as electric just moved the pollution elsewhere.

Hybrid designs like hte Epic seem marketable. At first glance there seems to be benefits in reduced fuel consumption and the option to plug in to charge. I don't know the cost of a Regular Epic 23v vs a 23e. With that info, life of the batteries, replacement cost of the batteries, and GPH figures we could make a comparison to see if there's a true long term benfit over the years and where the break even point is as well as if it's still saving money after replacing batteries at 5-7 years.

[firstdogriver]

I agree with cadnuckle. I thought I misheard them when they said 3 to four ski sets on one charge. Then I replayed the vid and sure enough that is what they said. Spend 40-70K on a boat that you can use 60 minutes a day, I don't think so.

[Swamplandkarl]

I live about 40 miles from the Epic plant and have seen this boat in action...
and for lack of better words its a real peice of crap and handles like the titanic and in person its not much to look at either....

Just my 2 cents.........

[BigCity444]

You can't pay much attention to looks. The Prius was hideous until gas starting hitting the roof in '08. Then all the yuppies with North Face jackets and Starbucks coffee ran out to get them. They became fashionable because of what they do not how it drives.

You have to ask yourself, how much of this hobby's financial budget is spent on gas?

My answer is 60% The other 40% is launch fees and misc. upgrades I do the boat.

[chrisk]

I think people that use their boat for nothing but their private, 3-event ski lake, the Nautique IS practical. 3 or 4 full sets is more than the cardio capacity of most 50 year old men so that's really not a problem. I'm sure the boat is ridiculously expensive so the only people that will use them are the people who can afford them - guys who have busy lives and no desire to go more than a set or two at a time. When a guy like Andy Mapple says a "set" he's referring to many more passes down the lake than most of us can take or accomplish. That said, we obviously won't see this boat at any tournaments anytime soon, definitely not practical there.

[saltare inverts]

Big City444, I am still laughing about your North Face comment. I see people all over with the North Face jacket walking like they are royalty. It reminds me of 20 years ago when people wore a thick gold bracelet to look rich and werent.