Designed-for-electric folding boat enters the market

Following five years of research and testing, AquaNaut Boats enters the recreational market with a new folding boat specially-designed for use with an electric outboard.

The AquaNaut 270 is an 8-foot twin hull boat, folding down to three inches for roofrack transport on any car, with the heaviest component weighing 36 pounds. The company says assembly can be completed in about eight minutes.

The twin V-hull design yields a claimed cruising speed of three to four knots, with four people aboard, on just 300 watts of electric outboard power.

“As a cruising sailor, I’ve used an electric outboard for years, but always struggled with range and performance issues,” said Roland Heersink, founder of AquaNaut Boats, and an engineer by training. “Following trials with various folding and inflatable boats, it became apparent there was no boat suitable for practical use with an electric outboard. Today I’m pleased to help boaters around the world enjoy the outdoors without the noise, smell and reliability issues of gasoline-powered outboards.”

The folding boat market hasn’t seen much innovation recently, with only a patent granted for a folding transom in 2009, which came 15 years after the last new patented folding boat design.

“For years, Roland has been a staunch supporter of Torqeedo, using our outboards on a range of small boats,” said Mary Jo Reinhardt, director of OEM and retail sales for Torqeedo. “We now congratulate him and the AquaNaut team for their contributions to the field and look forward to a surge of interest in electric boating as we together deliver enhanced boating performance to the small boat segment.”

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