Magonis Wave e-550 – electric boat style at any speed

Some boaters love to enjoy the moment and cruise at a leisurely pace, while others crave the thrill of speed. The creators of the Magonis Wave e-550 took a fresh look and came up with an e-boat for each.

One is a concert promoter who presented acts like Jamiroquai and Snoop Dogg and developed a wildly successful electronic dance music festival. The other is a marketing and computer wiz who put together Barcelona’s biggest short term rental business before AirBnB was even a concept. Neither of them had ever built a boat – but they obviously know what people are looking for when it comes to enjoying the water.

Hence the Wave e-550 was born, an electric boat with an extremely light hull, luxe detailing and high tech accessories that laid back cruising enthusiasts can order with one motor and speed fanatics can order with another.

Magonis Wave e-550 starts with ultra light weight hull

As you can imagine, music festivals and short term apartment rentals were two businesses impacted significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic – particularly in Spain, which was one of the first countries to suffer.

François Jozic was familiar with the country’s Belearic islands (he had done festivals on Ibiza) and was spending some time in Menorca when he found a boat yard working on a stylish hull made with vacuum resin infusion (VRI) – a process that delivers high strength and light weight. The boat was being made for fossil fuel motors under 15 HP – the upper limit at which users do not need a license to operate a boat.

The yard was also having some difficulties during the pandemic and Jozic, always on the look out for an opportunity, called his apartment rental friend Mathieu Quintart to ask if he would be interested in the boat manufacturing business. We should add here that Jozic is a boating enthusiast while Quintart could count on one hand the number of times he had been out on the water in a private vessel.

A traditional boat business didn’t interest Quintart, but if it were a new kind of boat…well, maybe. As a marketing man he knew that interest in electric boats is growing, and his knowledge of software told him that there are all sorts of technological options available, ideal for an all-electric boat, that could make everything both extremely efficient and incredibly enjoyable.

Friends, family and potential investors they had met through their previous businesses (Jovic started out as a banker) had the same reaction – sounds great! Within a few months they had the first financing in place, the rights to the hull mold and designs and a facility in Sabaudia, Italy with state-of-the-art VRI equipment ready to go.

Adjustments made for a pure electric boat

Everything starts with that lightweight hull. The company works with Chimpex composites and the Sabaudia yard has a 5-axis CNC (computer numerical control) machine that guarantees high-precision coupled with speedy production.

Target launch date was set for March 2021.

“If it was easy, everyone would be doing it” Mathieu’s wife told him a few months later as the assembled team got deep into the details with the target date still within reach but rapidly approaching.

Tweaking the ultralight hull for an all-electric boat was more involved than they had foreseen. The hull had been designed for a <15hp gasoline motor, but of course the original designers knew that it could also be used by people in search of a faster ride.

“With a fossil fuel ICE boat, if you want it to go faster, you just add a bigger motor” said Quintart. “But with an electric boat, a more powerful motor means different batteries, with different weights and proportions. We knew that we wanted to have both cruising and speeding options available, but maybe because we’d never built a boat before, we didn’t know exactly what was involved!”

The designers, engineers, craftsmen and technicians knew, though, and quickly got to work.

What they decided to do was maintain the essence of the hull and how it moved through the water, but work with the dimensions so that it could accommodate one motor and power system for those wanting a cruising experience and a different drive package for those in a hurry.

Working with Torqeedo, Huracan, Stealth

For boaters looking for the cruising experience nothing could be more aptly named than the Torqeedo Cruise line of electric motors, batteries and accessories ranging from a 4kW package to 10kW package. This is the kind of motor the ultra light weight of the Magonis was designed for – the larger Torqeedo delivers 10 kW continuous power with a 12 kW boost that has propulsion akin to a 20 hp combustion engine.

The revised Magonis Wave e-550 design can hold up to 3 of the accompanying Li-ion batteries in parallel (to extend range) and the packages include the Torqeedo fast charger and TorqTrac system that monitors and displays location, range, battery level and distance.

The design modifications necessary to handle the larger Mag Power 18.0 kW and 30.0 kW systems of motors and matching batteries were coordinated with Stealth Electric Outboards (18kW) of the USA and Italian manufacturer Huracan (30kW), who build electric drives for motorcycles and cars as well as boats. The 18 kW version can deliver a top speed of 16 knots / 30kmh while the 30kW reaches 22 knots / 40kmh – enough for wakeboarding and towing as well as island-hopping and cruising coastal waters.

Aside from the speed, each motor gives the boat a distinct look. The Torqeedo’s angular head visually extends the gunwale line, the Huracan has a truncated shaft rather than a ‘powerhead’ profile, and the Stealth gives the Wave e-550 the appearance of a day cruiser with a traditional fossil fuel outboard.

Fine details and plenty of options

Anyway you look at it, an electric boat, motor and battery system is a significant long term investment, so Magonis wanted to make sure that the passengers and pilot would enjoy a comfortable time on the water – whatever speed they like to travel.

The Magonis Wave e-550 has a big bowrider area that gives the 5.5 metre / 18 foot boat a 6 person capacity. A dolphin striker of stainless steel and real teak extends from the bow with a hinged roller for the anchor. At the stern there is a convenient swimming platform with a 4 step telescoping ladder that tucks away beneath the platform. The full deck, including swim platforms, is covered with high style/low maintenance Flexiteek® and there are some thoughtful accessories like stainless steel cup holders and retractable cleats that fit flush with the sleek gray gelcoat.

Then there are the electronics and other options Mat wanted to incorporate.  They include a 12’9” iPad Pro with liquid retina display and Navionics® charts with 12 month subscription, 6 USB charging ports around the craft and an anti-theft solution with satellite tracking system, pre-configured and ready to go.

Of course, with one of the founders being a music promoter, you would expect a great sound system, and Magonis delivers with a surround sound experience by Fusion® with 2 x 120 W speakers, ready for Bluetooth and Apple Airplay. There are also options like a telescopic teak table to convert the bow area to a dining space, 2m x 4m (6’x 12′) awning system, 42 litre (1.5 cu.ft) fridge/freezer and a deck shower with 25-litre (11 US gal) tank.

Finalist in the 2021 Gussies Awards

As things turned out, the Magonis Wave e-550 was not ready for the self-imposed March deadline. However, it did make its debut at the world’s 1st e-Regatta in Venice on June 2 and was eligible to be nominated in The Gussies electric boat awards, where the newcomer went on to become one of 6 finalists in its category of Electric Boats Up To 8m / 26ft.

The team is on its way to from Barcelona and Italy to the USA in September where they will be delivering a boat to a customer on the northern seaboard and showing the boat in Miami. The cost ranges from 33.485€ / US$40,000 for the lower kW cruising model to 68.960€ / US$80,000 for the 30kW model. Those prices do not include the options noted above.

Whether you’re looking for lazy day cruising or a thrilling open water ride is more your speed, you can book a test drive on the all electric Wave e-550 and get a full quote by visiting the Magonis website. You can also catch it at the Barcelona Boat Show October 12-17 and Boot Dusseldorf January 22, 2022.