• Welcome to Jetboaters.net!

    We are delighted you have found your way to the best Jet Boaters Forum on the internet! Please consider Signing Up so that you can enjoy all the features and offers on the forum. We have members with boats from all the major manufacturers including Yamaha, Seadoo, Scarab and Chaparral. We don't email you SPAM, and the site is totally non-commercial. So what's to lose? IT IS FREE!

    Membership allows you to ask questions (no matter how mundane), meet up with other jet boaters, see full images (not just thumbnails), browse the member map and qualifies you for members only discounts offered by vendors who run specials for our members only! (It also gets rid of this banner!)

    free hit counter

How long until our boats are electric?

NewGuy said:
I'd say 10 years+. All of my customers are closely tied to the energy debate (utilities and factories with massive energy demands). The only sound conclusion I've come to is there is no clean energy except hydro and there isn't enough juice generated by hydro to amount to much. Solar is a fossil fuel consuming and highly toxic production process. Most ironic twist I've seen is the riches being generated by coal miners now. Since the much of the financial sector cut off capital to coal, the survivors found themselves not needing it. Scarcity = high prices = they're digging up their own capital now.
Click to expand...

The irony is that hydro is literally an environmental disaster. You LITERALLY have to flood an entire river valley to make your reservoir. But like plowing down a forest to put up solar panels, people will say it's "green" because big money told them so.

Wind power is even worse. It's responsibile for millions of bird deaths per year. Estimates say our current wind turbine levels are killing as many bald eagles as DEET was. Who knows what the meteorological effects of pulling that much energy out of earth's natural process will be? We worry about a few degrees of temperature but don't consider what happens if you take out huge amounts of energy from weather systems?

As far as electric boats... I think they should mandate all non-commercial fishing boats over 50' that enter us waters be all electric by 2030 and all existing ones converted. Is it practical? Absolutely not, but all those Mega yachts, cargo ships, and cruise ships shouldn't get to skate by.

I don't see smaller boats being capable of being electric outside of niche applications. But since coked up venture capitalists and Wall St types think anything battery electric is a diamond mine, I expect to see several companies try it and tout it as the next big thing.

Personally, I'd rather not have tons of high voltage lines in my floating vessel. I could see it being a very good thing for cargo and similar types of ships though.
 
Yes wind turbines are a joke for “green” and “renewable” energy. The blades are only good for 20 years but the reality is most don’t make it 10 years without being replaced by bigger or better designed blades. Aside from what they do horribly to wildlife they do worse for our land since you can’t recycle them. So what do we do with this “green” and “renewable” energy? We bury it of course LOL. Out of sigh out of mind right?

16E360B8-6975-4217-A56D-0EDC4AD02BB8.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Babin Farms said:
I highly doubt most will have an electric boat in my lifetime.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly... I'm sure they will become widely used at some point but it won't be in my boating live time. The key is 'widely used' and not just some start up companies here and there pumping boats out at small quantities.
 
I like the idea, and to have the boat be a lot quieter than our 2015, would be awesome. My concern is how long can one be out on the lake with a battery pack that weighs similar to a full gas tank (if thats possible). What happens if we run out of juice? Not quite as easy to dump some gas in and piddle back to shore. Do we just have to accept the fact that we will be towed in, as it is not as easy to charge while at sea, or it takes too long. What about lakes like mine that technically you are not supposed to have power down to your dock. So unless I install solar panels, I can't charge my boat. That is unless regulations change, which very well could happen. I am all for it if it makes sense and is viable. But I am not going to pay a premium just to have an electric boat. And considering the bit of backlash I am seeing about the constant increase in costs, surcharges, etc. that Yamaha seems to do every year, I think it will be awhile.
 
Premium? What premium? The Gigawave is only $600k. Pony up, peasant!

The Canuck said:
I like the idea, and to have the boat be a lot quieter than our 2015, would be awesome. My concern is how long can one be out on the lake with a battery pack that weighs similar to a full gas tank (if thats possible). What happens if we run out of juice? Not quite as easy to dump some gas in and piddle back to shore. Do we just have to accept the fact that we will be towed in, as it is not as easy to charge while at sea, or it takes too long. What about lakes like mine that technically you are not supposed to have power down to your dock. So unless I install solar panels, I can't charge my boat. That is unless regulations change, which very well could happen. I am all for it if it makes sense and is viable. But I am not going to pay a premium just to have an electric boat. And considering the bit of backlash I am seeing about the constant increase in costs, surcharges, etc. that Yamaha seems to do every year, I think it will be awhile.
Click to expand...
 
Maybe Yamaha can make a retrofit for our boats. Fill the engine compartment with batteries and would double as great ballast for wakesurfing.
 
jetboater4life said:
Maybe Yamaha can make a retrofit for our boats. Fill the engine compartment with batteries and would double as great ballast for wakesurfing.
Click to expand...
... and risk not making more money off of selling a new boat? lol.
 
I posted this yesterday on a web page on face book asking the same question about electric boats.

Jeffrey T. Walkowiak
I always wondered how the oil barons kept us using fuel made from oil when we all knew that water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen and direct current will break it down into those 2 components, that each collects on opposite polls and each is different in weight, oxygen being heavy and hydrogen being lite so we could have just created fuel from water and when it is mixed and combusted it gives off a huge amount of energy while turning back into water. And now the oil barons must be really upset that they are finally running trains on hydrogen. So what's next .
 
What’s not to love about good ol’ “green” battery power? Sure, the manufacturing process is far from “green” and has scalability issues. Plus EVs have limited use due today due to the length of time it takes to recharge and lack of a charging Infrastucture. And we may all end up living on mountains of old batteries because we have not solved for disposing of batteries. Just means we’ll have better views, right? And the price, $600k (for that one example I know) is a small price to pay for the aforementioned peace of mind. With a future this bright, and the waiving of student loans freeing up my kids college funds, sign me up for two ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

haknslash
Thoughts and demo rides of wake / towsports boats: Moomba Max, Axis A22, MB Sports
    • Like
    • Informative
114 115 116 117
Replies
2K
Views
209K
haknslash
haknslash
Bruce
Yamaha Press Release - Yamaha Introduces 2016 Boats Highlighted by All-New Flagship E-Series Models
    • Like
Replies
1
Views
2K
Julian
Julian
Back
Top