Canadian Electric Boat and Torqeedo hit 30mph
A Canadian Electric Boat Company Volt 180 model powered by a Torqeedo Deep Blue 80 and 30kW BMWi3 battery hit an electric boat record speed of 30mph (48kmh / 26 kts) to set a record at the famed Lake of the Ozarks Shootout races in late August.
(Editor’s Note: The Canadian Electric Boat Company became Vision Marine Technologies in November 2020 with a successful IPO on the NASDAQ stock exchange.)
The ‘lake’ is actually a reservoir created in 1929 in the middle of Missouri about halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City. The Shootout was started in 1988 when a bunch of local boat owners set up an informal competition to find out whose was fastest . It has grown since then to host 70,000 to 100,000 spectators during the weekend event and has donated more than US$1 million in the past 10 years to 34 different organizations, fire departments and charities.
Record is 5mph faster than last year
To set things in context, the Volt and Torqeedo were not in the main event. There are over 50 different classes of drag race type shootouts for fossil fuel boats of varying size and power. The overall top speed record this year being 156 miles per hour set by Dave ‘Magoo’ Megugora.
On the electric side of things – MCCO1E1 category – the Volt was piloted by Randy Vance, an Editor at Boating magazine. Last year Randy won the category with a speed of 25 mph in a Torqeedo powered panga style boat from US boatmaker Calypso and then broke his own record this year with the Torqeedo/Volt combination.
While the 30mph speed is an electric boat record for a stock boat, the overall speed record for an electric boat was set by Jaguar Vector Racing in 2018 when it hit 88.6 mph (142kmh / 72kts). You might want to also check out this DIY rib boat with Tesla battery packs that goes over 50mph.
The Volt’s design was inspired by the 1950s Picnic Boats of the Atlantic Yacht Basin in Virginia. With a length of 5.5m (17’9”) and beam of 2.13m (7’) she can hold 11 passengers and can be customized with a variety of interiors, colours and finishes. The fibreglass hull weighs 720kg (1600 lbs). The video below gives you an idea of the quiet speed the Torqeedo 80 can generate in a similar sized boat.
Volt 180 greeted Greta Thunberg
It’s not the only time the Volt 180 has made the news in the past few months. When environmental activist Greta Thunberg landed in New York after her much-publicized zero emission Atlantic crossing she was greeted and guided in the Manhattan harbour by a Volt working together with other Torqeedo equipped boats.
There is a lot of other news on the horizon for the Canadian Electric Boat Company, but the firm has requested that we keep it under wraps until they are ready to make a couple of big announcements. Stay tuned!
