PM of Norway christens Evoy1 electric boat
When Norway Prime Minister Erna Solsberg christened the electric boat Evoy1 on August 2 it demonstrated just how far the company has come in a short time to achieving its goal of creating the fastest serial production electric boat in the world.
Leif Stavøstrand founded Evoy just over a year ago, in early 2018, to fulfill his dream of eliminating boating emissions globally.
As we wrote in May, by the end of 2018 the new company had begun working with boat builder Helgeland Plast, electrical system and battery experts Clean Marine Switchboards, landed investments from Innovation Norway, tech incubator Aksello, bankers Sparebanken Sogn og Fjordane and received numerous awards for environmental leadership along the way.
Having the Prime Minister of the country christen their first boat is not quite the icing on the cake for Evoy – but that will come when they can claim the worldwide speed prize.
Current electric speed record (production boats) is 51.3 knots
They are so close. Currently the owner of the speed record is the SAY29 Electric R Carbon (denoting its carbon fibre/epoxy sandwich hull) which has marked a speed of 51.3knots / 95kmh / 59mph. The Evoy1, though, is entirely different from the stylish and luxurious SAY runabout. It weighs almost three times as much and is an electrified version of a 12 seat Polarcircle workboat from Helgeplast.
To be clear this record is for production boats coming off the line for sale. The overall fastest electric boat speed record was set by the Jaguar Vector Racing last year: 76.7nt / 142kmh / 88.6mph. And if you’re looking for DIY electric speed you might want to check out this RIB put together by Jonny Lee Tempest that zips along at 54 mile per hour (47 knots).
But back to Evoy beating the serial production boat record? Prior to the christening Evoy ran a facebook contest asking followers to guess the speed the boat achieved simply by looking at a video of the wake.
Winners Christian Hammernes, Harland Selnes and Kim Daniel Bråten came closest to the actual top speed achieved by the workboat: just a hair off the SAY record at 49.0knots / 90kmh / 56.4mph.
Optimization being done over the next few weeks
Stavøstrand is optimistic about reaching the speed goal. The team will be working on propeller optimization and he said they are especially encouraged “because the 4800 RPM generated in sea trials so far is still 1200 RPMs from what the engine is approved for”.
Next goal (aside from the big speed prize) is showing off the Evoy1 and hopefully generating some orders at Aqua-Nor – the world’s largest aquaculture conference in Trondheim August 20-23 and putting her on display at the Båter i Sjøen (Boats in the Sea) show in Oslo September 5-8.
