The Promises and Pitfalls of an All-Electric Yacht
The Swedish-built Arcona 435Z – with its lithium-ion batteries, Solbian solar panels and new Oceanvolt ServoProp drive leg- is the first all-electric cruising boat we’ve ever reviewed. How does it measure up?
This past October, I saw one of the most interesting exhibits in more than 500 new cruising sailboats I’ve reviewed over two decades. It was the Arcona 435Z, built in Sweden and introduced by Graham Balch of Green Yachts in San Francisco. Balch describes his business as “a new brokerage dedicated to the electric revolution on the water,” and it was the “Z” in the boat’s name, which stands for “zero emissions,” that made this boat so interesting. This was the first electric propulsion system—not hybrid but all-electric—I’d ever seen on a cruising sailboat.
