Like electric cars, electric boats are not a new idea. In the early 1900s Clara Ford preferred driving her electric car around Detroit instead of one of the noisy gasoline-powered Model Ts her husband Henry had begun making. Around the same time, posh electric launches cruised silently along the River Thames in Britain, using dockside stop-offs to top up their batteries with electricity and their bars with champagne.

These days, thanks to worries about climate change, electric cars are making a comeback (in eco-minded Norway, they account for more than half of new cars sold). Now electric boats are following. A number of manufacturers are vying to become the marine equivalent of Tesla, the Californian company which builds some of the most fashionable and fastest electric cars.

Click to read more

When six-time Powerboat World Champion Erik Stark climbs aboard a boat, it’s often to rocket toward a gold medal at around 150 mph (240 km/h). But today we’re all getting a chance to go along for a ride as he tests out a very different type of boat: Candela’s electric hydrofoil boat.

Read More