America has Hinckley and its electric boat, the Dasher. Now Finland has Janne Kjellman and his electric boat, the Q30.
More than a decade ago, Kjellman, a Finnish sailor, wanted to have a silent propulsion system for sailboats. In 2004, he founded Oceanvolt, and since then his variable pitch, electric saildrives have been installed in dozens of manufacturers’ boats.
Now, Kjellman has taken it a step further by creating a new company called Q Yachts. Its first boat, the Q30, is a stunner. The vessel is optimized to produce minimal wake, is silent and has zero emissions. It doesn’t hurt that it looks great, to boot.
The Q30 cruises at 9 knots and has a top speed of 15 knots. Its range with the standard Oceanvolt 30 kWh lithium battery pack is 42 nautical miles, but that extends to 89 nautical miles with the optional 60 kWh battery pack.
You can see the boat in action here.
