Today Ultra-Yacht announced its first-ever All-Electric Duffy Boat featuring a solar charging option at the St. Petersburg Power and Sailboat Show in Florida. The Duffy Bayshore 18 is a zero-emission, low-maintenance boat that offers up to 12 hours of fun on the water.
The Duffy Solar Assisted Bayshore is 18 feet long with a 7-foot-10-inch beam and offers comfortable seating for up to nine people (five more than that awesomely weird Alibaba duck thing). It can power along under electric power at a top speed of 6 mph, and at cruising speeds of 4-5 mph for up to 12 hours.
“The Duffy Electric Boat Company has been making the first and finest electric boats right here in the USA for over 50 years,” says Ultra-Yacht/Ultra-Duffy CEO Ed Kolodzieski. “Starting today, we are able to offer a great Duffy boat that has been enhanced with a Solar Charging option for a carefree full day on the water.”
With its silent running and low wake operation, the electric Bayshore – like the GM-backed Pure pontoon boat – is able to explore protected waterways and “no combustion” areas that conventional outboard powered boats simply aren’t allowed in – a sentiment echoed by Kolodzieski. “A Duffy is an outstanding way to explore the natural beauty of Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway, bays, lakes and rivers while producing Zero-Emissions. It is great to relax and have fun at five miles per hour without ever stopping for gas.”
The Duffy electric boats have a fairly unique motor design, putting the electric motor vertically above the “weedless” propeller. The arrangement is called “power rudder,” and can “spin” almost 180 degrees, making some really tight maneuvers possible. The batteries, meanwhile, are mounted low in the hull, for added stability. You can see what I mean in these isometric drawings …
And check out this nearly silent video below showing the Ultra-Duffy Solar Assisted Bayshore 18, doing its zero-emissions, no-wake boat thing in Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Duffy electric boats are built in Adelanto, California. The Bayshore 18 with solar-assisted charging is available now, at a starting price of $59,596. The Duffy’s DC motors (which, the company notes, have “only one moving part”) and the composite weedless propellers they’re attached to are warrantied for the life of the original owner.
Electrek’s Take
“Electrify everything” has been a hashtag in the emobility space for a while now, but 2022 seems to be the year where “everything” comes to mean everything. Boats, RVs, airplanes, and even the trailers they’re towed on have electric motors pushing them to and fro.
I couldn’t be happier, and neither could all the fish and wildlife that are sick of getting choked by gas and oil leaking into marinas.
Source | Images: ULTRA-DUFFY, via PR Newswire.
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