Electric concept boat charges onto scene

‘A great idea’ — vessel to debut at Parade of Lights tomorrow

By Mike Lee, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Saturday, December 12, 2009

An environmentally friendly concept boat that a group of fishing buddies dreamed up five years ago will make its public debut tomorrow night during the 38th annual San Diego Bay Parade of Lights.

If plans pan out, the holiday show will be the first of many appearances for a line of solar-electric boats fashioned by Electro-Mariner Corp. of Sorrento Valley. The vessels will cost about 20 percent more than their conventional counterparts, but they won’t emit all the air pollutants of combustion engines.

The first boat, Charge It, is a 25-foot express-style vessel that its owners call a “mule” because it’s an amalgam of parts and ideas. A more sophisticated, shallow-hull prototype on the drawing board for next year will be about 8 feet longer and 15 times more powerful.

“We have got a winner here,” said Robert Ferran of Clairemont, an engineer and avid fisherman who founded the company. “We are talking about jobs for hundreds and hundreds of people in San Diego if this company gets off the dock.”

Boaters are intrigued by the concept, though some say widespread adoption probably will be driven by fuel prices. The higher they go, the more attractive solar-electric models look.

“It’s a great idea,” said Mike Anderson, director of the Massachusetts-based American Boating Association. “The marine industry should applaud because we have been really fuel inefficient. It’s been driven by years and years of inexpensive fuel. … Stuff like this starts to bring the marine industry into the green world, too.”

At the Boat Owners Association of the United States in Virginia, spokesman Scott Croft said electric boats aren’t likely to gain mass appeal for several years. That’s partly because makers of conventional boats are introducing environmentally conscious designs that will compete with electric models.

But Croft sees a future for companies such as Electro-Mariner. “The good news is it’s in California, and Californians appreciate the green aspect more than a lot of other folks,” he said. “They may be in the right spot.”

Ferran has spent $600,000 of his own money to finance Charge It. He expects the bigger, commercial version to sell for about $500,000. Electro-Mariner’s officials figure their technology will cut fuel expenses by 90 percent and allow buyers to quickly recoup the premium.

“I think we can change the boating industry over to something that the public wants and can afford,” Ferran said.

His goal is to broaden the market base by adding Electro-Mariner’s propulsion and energy-storage systems to boat brands that customers already know.

“What’s exciting to me is the fact that nothing like this exists,” said Alan Leff of Point Loma, one of about a dozen sweat-equity partners in Electro-Mariner. “All of the other electric boats are not oceangoing. They are mainly for calm inland waterways.”

The company emerged in 2004, when Ferran decided to do something about the thousands of dollars he was spending on fuel for his fishing adventures. He also saw the need for green transportation — something like how the Toyota Prius has affected the auto world.

“(Ferran) looked at me and said, ‘What do you think about an electric boat?’ ” Leff recalled. “I said, ‘You mean one with a diesel generator?’ ”

That wasn’t what Ferran envisioned. Driven by concerns about water and air pollution, he insisted on a solar-electric model that could be recharged by the sun or dockside power. The approach allows for a machine that’s much less noisy and requires much less maintenance than one with a combustion engine.

The concept inspired Ferran’s team.

“I look at it like our Hewlett-Packard project,” said Scott Harris of Mira Mesa, referring to the computer maker that started in a Palo Alto garage. “I get off work, and then I go work on the boat.”

By 2006, Electro-Mariner had a patent for a hull design and tested small-scale models in swimming pools. The company focused on a catamaran hull at the time but eventually switched to an express-style hull because it’s more popular with fishermen.

Next, the partners restored a dilapidated, 25-foot boat and retrofitted it to haul batteries, electric motors and solar panels, which sit atop the cabin canopy. During two years of tinkering, they encountered challenges such as how to safely place batteries near water and people.

The team ended up using a 48-volt system, which minimizes the exposure risk. They also designed an electronic system to monitor the batteries and the “power plant” area, which is expected to consist of one or two 150-horsepower motors.

Charge It can be recharged overnight when connected to dockside power outlets that are readily available at Southern California ports, or it can harness sunlight. The solar option takes at least a week to fully recharge the batteries, making it best suited for boaters who go out a few times a month.

Inventors around the country have spent decades developing and marketing electric boats. Their designs generally are limited to placid waters such as lakes and slow rivers.

“It is certainly a niche market,” said Ellen Hopkins at the National Marine Manufacturers Association, a Chicago-based trade group for boat makers. “For the most part, (electric models) are smaller boats because … they just don’t have the overall speed that a lot of boaters are looking for.”

Ferran is betting his prototype will change that perception as battery technology improves. His company’s literature said Electro-Mariner boats will be able to run at 20 knots for one hour or at nine knots for four hours.

“It’s comparable in all respects except range,” Ferran said.

Mike Lee: (619) 293-2034; mike.lee@uniontrib.com

>>Watch "Charge It" in the 2009 San Diego Bay Parade of Lights!