Cobaltchat.com

Electric boats are coming.

This is pretty impressive on paper.

https://arcboats.com/arc-sport

Charging is going to be a pain for the time being. No DC fast chargers at marinas right now and on-road chargers are very rarely set up to accommodate a trailer.

Still, though, I bet this thing is amazing and as close to maintenance free as a boat can get.

There are electric Nautique wake boats at the North end of Tahoe. Can do around an hour of wake surfing with it before you need to go back in and charge. That's about how long we go out on our friend's wakesurf boat.

They have fast chargers at this dealers dock.

bruceb58 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 12:35 pm They have fast chargers at this dealers dock.

Yeah, if you're gonna sell them, you gotta be able to charge them.

It's inevitable that this happens over time.

Honestly, I'd love to have an electric boat. Quiet and powerful, tons of interior storage space, etc.

- Mark, not a Captain's Call guy, obviously

bruceb58 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 12:35 pm There are electric Nautique wake boats at the North end of Tahoe. Can do around an hour of wake surfing with it before you need to go back in and charge. That's about how long we go out on our friend's wakesurf boat.

They have fast chargers at this dealers dock.

One of those electric boats caught fire last year on Tahoe, I think it was while it charging....No thanks.

Lifelongbtr wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 1:06 pm
One of those electric boats caught fire last year on Tahoe, I think it was while it charging....No thanks.

Yeah...I will take the gasoline boats that never catch on fire.

Electrify American charges about 48 cents/kwh nationwide, and I'm sure it's more like 60 cents in California. Assuming that the on-the-water charging is no more than that, the 22-foot Nautique would cost about $80 to fill up for that 2-hour run time. I don't see much fuel savings over an ICE-powered wakeboard boat. An electric boat might be doable for those with a charger on their lake and if they don't boat for more than a couple hours each day. Still, from what I heard from our ex-condo neighbors on the north side of Lake Tahoe, there are only about 10 chargers for electric boats on the lake, and it's a big lake at 190 square miles with lots of boaters, especially on weekends.

We've owned a 2015 Telsa since it was new, and it's been convenient and inexpensive to own/drive for 150,000 miles(as long as it's not below 20ºF), but the charging and range issues for electric boats are not easily solved. For a boater like me who can easily go through 300 gallons of fuel in 10 days, that would equate to about 21 charge cycles of 6+ hours in those 10 days if I had 80 amp service on the water. I'll guess that it would cost me at least $5,000 to upgrade the electric service at my home and put a charger on my dock, and it would have to be pulled out/winterized each fall and reinstalled each spring. With a typical lake boat getting about 2-3mpg, the current energy density to weight doesn't work for electric boats. The battery on my Tesla weighs 1,300 pounds and gives me the same range of about 65 pounds of gasoline in one of our ICE vehicles. For our Range Rover, 42 pounds of diesel fuel will give me the same range as that 1,300-pound battery in our Model S.

MnLakeBum wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 4:57 pm Electrify American charges about 48 cents/kwh nationwide, and I'm sure it's more like 60 cents in California.

I have a house in Lake Tahoe in California. My electricity cost is $0.28/KWH. Not sure what it is around the lake though. If it's PG&E it's running around $0.40/KWH

EDIT: Looking at PG&E's service map, it is not PG&E

I'm not considering electric vehicles.
I looked at a Tesla and told my wife if we'd bought one last year, we would be getting a tax refund instead owing.
Then I bought the top end Eco lawn more. They claimed it would cut up to 1.5 acres and run up to 1.5 hours.
I sometimes have to charge it twice just mowing my 18,000 s.f. lawn.
Telsa won't even make it from my house to our boat and back.

bruceb58 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 1:32 pm

Lifelongbtr wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 1:06 pm
One of those electric boats caught fire last year on Tahoe, I think it was while it charging....No thanks.

Yeah...I will take the gasoline boats that never catch on fire.

.
Ya..never heard of an ICE boat catching fire.

AsLan7 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 6:35 am

bruceb58 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 1:32 pm

Lifelongbtr wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 1:06 pm
One of those electric boats caught fire last year on Tahoe, I think it was while it charging....No thanks.

Yeah...I will take the gasoline boats that never catch on fire.

.
Ya..never heard of an ICE boat catching fire.

Blowers are just a suggestion .

bruceb58 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 5:30 pm

MnLakeBum wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 4:57 pm Electrify American charges about 48 cents/kwh nationwide, and I'm sure it's more like 60 cents in California.

I have a house in Lake Tahoe in California. My electricity cost is $0.28/KWH. Not sure what it is around the lake though. If it's PG&E it's running around $0.40/KWH

EDIT: Looking at PG&E's service map, it is not PG&E

At that .28 cents rate, it would cost about $38 to charge up that 22 foot electric boat for 60-90 minutes of run time time in surf mode. Of course it wouldn’t be easy or cheap to get 100 amps of power down to the lake for that 5-6 hours of charge time.

We had a condo on the water in King’s Beach from 2006-2018 and had a buoy field and a 85 yard long pier that the 31 owners shared. We have lots of great memories with family and friends spending summers and winters at Tahoe. I miss frequenting the mountains and that lake.

MnLakeBum wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 7:15 amWe had a condo on the water in King’s Beach from 2006-2018 and had a buoy field and a 85 yard long pier that the 31 owners shared. We have lots of great memories with family and friends spending summers and winters at Tahoe. I miss frequenting the mountains and that lake.

I love Lake Tahoe. I have a place in Tahoe Keys, Nice having a boat in the backyard.

The Nautique claims a 125KWH battery and 2 to 3 hours of run time for watersports. $35 from empty to full for the GS22E.

Not bad for a 1st gen electric boat. As battery tech improves with higher battery density, it will definitely be a choice at some point besides a specialt deal how they are used now on Tahoe.

only a matter of time. Eventually the tech will improve enough to have long enough run times and folks wont look back.

Unless of course some competing, alternate, clean fuel source engines are developed that overtake EV tech.

I've been thinking about electric.
Told my wife our taxes would not be so high if we'd bought a Tesla last year.
Then I bought a top-of-the-line Ego lawn mower. I'm anti-electric now. I have to charge it in the middle of mowing my yard, which it less than a half acre. When it's really hot, I have to charge it twice before finishing. The first time out, it wouldn't run. It's been in the shop for 4 weeks. Yesterday, the repair shop told me there is only on mechanic that works on Ego. After 4 weeks I'm still 5th in line.
Sorry Tesla.