On an American lake, a team from Princeton University takes the prototype to 183 km/h. But the record of the Candela C-8 in Stockholm is also impressive: 777 km traveled in just 24 hours
They are still niche and very expensive compared to traditional boats, with a ratio even higher than that between endothermic and battery-powered cars. But it is clear that the electric powered boats they are starting to make themselves known and the increasingly tight race towards records confirms the trend. Previously we clearly focused only on the environmental issue in the name of safeguarding the sea, today we are working more and more on the performance one without abandoning the former. And universities are also playing if it is true that the new speed record on water comes from a prototype developed by Princeton University: it reached 183 km/h – an enormity on water – beating the previous record of 143 km/h, set in 2018 by the Jaguar Vector Racing V20E.
THE NEXT OBJECTIVE
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Princeton students modified an old H1 Unlimited – the racing boats that compete in the United States – by equipping it with a 147 kWh battery powertrain. The boat was entrusted to the expert hands of champion John Peeters, who pushed it to record speed on Lake Townsend, North Carolina. Speed attempts have always been contested on inland waters, where wave motion is often completely absent. The result was obtained by averaging the various maximum speeds reached in the outward and return stretch of the straight created on the lake. Curiosity: the new record should not last long: due to the damage to the propeller, the hull was unable to reach what was the students’ original goal: 120 miles per hour, equal to 193 km/h.
MEANWHILE IN SWEDEN…
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The Swedish Candela shipyard is working hard on the record-breaking front. Recently, the C-8 set a new world record, traveling 420 nautical miles, i.e 777 km, in 24 hours, on inland waters around the city of Stockholm. The boat, equipped with the very useful hydrofoils, is powered by an original powertrain Polestar and uses the same 69 kWh battery pack as the Polestar 2: hence the shipyard’s strength in claiming that the C-8 is the electric boat with the longest range on the market, with a wide margin over the competition. For the distance record, the crew sailed for 24 hours doing 45-minute legs at a maximum speed of 31 miles per hour and stopping to recharge on DC power using a Voltpack mobile battery and a charger supplied by Northvolt. For the record, C-8 boasts a range of 66 nautical miles (approximately 122 km) on a single charge and a cruising speed of 23 miles per hour, equal to approximately 43 km/h. According to the shipyard, it is the one that allows maximum efficiency to be achieved, with consumption of 1 kWh per nautical mile. Candela also made a calculation on the cost of the record: the electricity consumed by the boat in 24 hours was around 120 euros. For an equivalent boat with a combustion engine, you would have had to pay around 1,400 euros. Not bad, but at the same time it’s worth remembering that the C-8 requires a ticket of at least 400 thousand euros…
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