About five years ago, at his dealerships all across South Florida, Nautical Ventures Group CEO Roger Moore tried to bring electric-powered boats into his customers’ lives. “We fell flat on our face,” he says. “The marketplace wasn’t ready. There were some pretty good products out there, but nobody wanted to hear about it.”
Today, he says, boaters seem more interested in the idea, so he’s giving it another go. At a time when electric-powered automobiles are becoming a more common sight on America’s highways, Moore’s dealerships are now selling multiple brands of electric-powered boats. Early this year, Nautical Ventures Group became the Florida dealer for Swedish manufacturer X Shore. And the builder’s newest model, the X Shore 1—a 21-footer with a top speed of 30 knots and a range of 50 nautical miles—was part of the Nautical Ventures display at the recent Miami International Boat Show. For many boaters, Moore says, this was the first time even seeing an X Shore boat.
The company launched its first prototype in 2018, and then in late 2020 launched its first Eelex 8000, a 26-footer that could top 30 knots with a range of 100 nautical miles. The idea behind the X Shore 1 is to pack all the technology of the Eelex 8000 into a smaller vessel. The X Shore 1 can be ordered in Open or Top versions at a manufacturer-listed base price of $139,000, a figure that X Shore hopes will make electric-powered boating attainable for the masses.
Heading into the Miami show, Moore said American boaters seemed intrigued, with their biggest questions being about what he calls “range-itis.” Another term for the feeling is “range anxiety.” It’s a fear of being stranded if the boat’s battery loses its charge before the day’s cruising is complete. “Everybody says, How long will it go? How far will it go?” he says.
It’s a concern that people worldwide share about making the switch to electric-powered anything. In 2021, Automotive World reported that range anxiety was the biggest reason consumers eschewed electric vehicles. In 2022, Forbes reported that automotive behemoths such as GM and VW were investing hundreds of millions of dollars in building out charging-station infrastructure on the roadways, so drivers would feel like a battery top-off was always close at hand. Moore doesn’t see that level of charger-station investment happening in the marine world anytime soon, but he also isn’t sure it matters, because most boaters don’t use their vessels for long-distance cruising.
“A good friend of mine has three franchises with Freedom Boat Club,” Moore says. “The average distance is 8 miles. They’re going to a sandbar. They’re going to a restaurant. They’re not going to Bimini or to the Keys. So this range concern that people have, I think this is the educational barrier that we need to break.”
In fact, he says, for a trailerable boat like the X Shore 1, concerns about range anxiety should be even less frequent. “If you’re going to charge it at your home and keep it on a trailer at your house, it’s going to take you a week to charge it. If you’re only using it on the weekend, no big deal,” he says.
According to X Shore, a fast-charging station at a marina will bring the boat’s battery up to 80 percent in less than an hour. A three-phase charger will get the job done in about three hours—say, while the boaters are at the waterfront restaurant eating crab cakes for lunch.
X Shore designed the boat as a day cruiser with some overnighting capability. It has all the basics: There’s a cabin with enough room for two people to sleep or children to nap, along with dedicated space for a cooler and a portable toilet. Space for sunning is both forward and aft, so adults and kids can each have their own hangouts on the hook. A built-in swim platform eases water access, and a retractable awning provides shade from the midday sun.
And for boaters who are thinking about switching to electric power because they care about eco-friendly lifestyles, the X Shore 1 is built without styrene. It also contains “significantly less plastics than comparable hulls,” the builder says. The deck surfaces are covered in cork, a lightweight and sustainable material.
Many of the other standard specs on the X Shore 1 are comparable to those of traditionally powered boats that have a similar length overall. Draft is a little over 2 feet, and air draft in the Open version is about 5 feet, 4 inches. With the Top version, the air draft increases to a bit more than 7 feet—still low enough for passing under most bridges that boaters will ever encounter.
In fact, Moore says, the idea that the X Shore 1 is not a unicorn is likely to help consumers feel even more at ease about considering an electric-powered boat. “It’s becoming mainstream,” Moore says. “We need to get some people out there on the water.” — Kim Kavin
This article was originally published in the April 2023 issue.
