Plugboats: Voting for Canadian Electric Boats in the international Gussies Awards
Nov 21, 2024
Public voting has begun in the 5th annual Gustave Trouvé Awards, ‘The Gussies’, and there is a strong showing of Canadian boats among the Finalists.
An international jury of 35 electric boat experts that includes past Gussies winners recently narrowed the nominees field to a list of Finalists in nine categories: Electric Boats Up To 8m / 26 ft (In Production and In Development) Over 8m / 26 ft (In Production and In Development), Electric Sailboats, Retrofitted / Customized Electric Boats, Electric Workboats and Electric Commercial Passenger Vessels (In Operation and In Development). The winners will be decided through a combination of online voting by the public and weighted votes of the panel.
Almost 150 electric boats were nominated in this year’s competition, and there are 6 electric boats from Canada that made it as Finalists.
In the category ‘In Development Electric Boats Under 26 ft / 8 m’, the ENVGO 1 by ENVGO of Waterloo, Ontario, is a 25-foot electric hydrofoiling cruiser that blends luxury with high performance. Its striking sleek design and lightweight carbon fibre hull are matched with advanced flight control technology, giving the boat a range of up to 80 miles and speeds reaching 50 mph.
In the category ‘In Development Electric Boats Under 26 ft / 8 m’ there are two Canadian Finalists. The North Channel Thirty is a compact eco-friendly and truly unique 30-foot HYBRID aluminum catamaran that sleeps six. A wind-solar system with diesel generator powers twin 120-hp EVOY electric outboards. The boat has been designed for extended cruising as well as a proposed bareboat charter business in the North Channel of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. A large centre windshield opens to provide a safe and secure walk-through to the bows. Solar panels and wind turbines keep the HOTEL operating quietly at anchor without running the generator.
Salmo Craft is based in Ottawa and has developed the Salmo Craft HB1. The Salmo team set out to rethink the houseboat with modern design, sophisticated minimalism, and sustainable innovation as its signposts. This next-generation houseboat is powered by the clean, sustainable energy of the sun, engineered for complete self-sufficiency, architecturally designed, beautifully crafted, and finely appointed.
Another category with two Canadian Finalists is ‘Retrofitted / Customized Electric Boats’, where the ACME Aqualiner from Vernon B.C. and the Isola Solaretto from PEI are in the running.
The ACME Aqualiner was retrofitted by Vernon’s Petawatts Marine with electric propulsion supplied by Vancouver’s ACEL Power. The mahogany hull from the 1950s was restored, with the transom and keels reinforced to create a strong structure. The final build includes ACEL’s 75HP electric outboard, a 43kWh battery pack, controls, smart charging, digital throttle and an onboard computer with an intuitive touch screen. The torque is immediate and the boat goes into planing in seconds to reach a top speed of 30 knots.
The Isola Solaretto is the last boat from a fleet of cruise boats at Montreal’s Expo 67. She underwent a $1.3M, 8 yr retrofit/repower from 2015 – 2023 and is now doing dining and cruise tours from May to October in Charlottetown Harbour. North America’s largest solar-powered boat and the world’s first solar-powered dinner cruise boat, her 6kW of panels allow her to travel using the sun alone, charging the 20kwh batteries and feeding the 20kw Lynch electric motor.
Finally, there is the HaiSea Wamis electric tugboat in the ‘Electric Workboats’ category.
This is a powerful zero-emission tug measuring 65 tonnes of bollard pull that allows regular ship-berthing and undocking operations to run on battery-operated power. It is the first of three electric tugs to operate in the traditional territories of the Haisla First Nation in Kitimat, BC, providing ship-assist and escort towing services to LNG carriers. She won the 2023 International Tug & Salvage Tug of the Year Award in 2023 and is the first tugboat to receive the underwater noise notation from the American Bureau of Shipping.
The other categories in the Awards are: Electric Sailboats, Commercial Passenger Vessels and the ‘In Production’ subcategories of the Up to 26
The Gussies are named to honour Gustave Trouvé, a prolific French inventor with over 75 patents – among them the world’s first outboard boat motor, which he devised so that he could detach the motor from his prototype electric boat ‘Le Teléphone’ and take it home for further work in his Paris apartment.
They were founded by the electric boats website Plugboats (also based in Canada!) and are the only international boating awards that focus exclusively on electric boats. You are invited to see all of the boats in all nine categories and place your vote at https://plugboats.com/vote-in-the-2024-gussies-electric-boat-awards Voting ends December 8, 2024 at midnight EST.
