It has been rather damp summer and as expected the Norfolk Broads were full of water, but to our surprise the sun shone too. Enough for sunscreen and ice cream.  In total we were five boats, the smallest being Albatross and the largest Wagtail.  There’s an irony in that. In between there was the Edwin James, Elizabeth and Celandine. As always with the EBA there were never two boats the same, there were never two motors the same and there were never two batteries the same. We started from Landamores Slipway in Wroxham promptly at 10.30ish, enroute to the Swan Inn at Horning where we ..read more

Teddington rally from The Tamesis Club. A few facts, I live down a busy single-track road in the land that the Department of Transport forgot aka the Surrey Hills. Towing the Edwin James, which is 21 ft long, 24 ft on a trailer, my final destination was a slip in Teddington.  To get there I had to face school traffic in the Surrey Hills, the M25 roadworks, heavy traffic and google maps taking me down all sorts of tiny roads in the busy London suburb of Kingston-upon-Thames.  I find a playlist of Whale sounds very calming in situations like this. The slip was at the Tamesis Club, a t ..read more

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of meeting the Mother and Son team who plan to set an important new world record of rounding Britain in an E Rib.   Mum Jacqui is the Project manager and Land Support and Son Harry will be on the water.    At the moment Harry is 16 years old and this project was one of the few positive things that came out of covid. An outdoors lad and very at home on the water Harry had too much time to think and out popped the plan.    Nobody this age ever does anything without a little help and someone to believe in them.  Thinking about you ..read more

DCPower DCL48-100 LiFePO4 Battery Corby-based DC Battery Technologies dropped off one of their recently launched DCPower Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries at Mothership marine for Tim and I to evaluate for Narrowboat propulsion.  Unlike the Aceleron batteries, these use larger ‘prismatic’ cells to achieve a relatively high power density and a smaller internal component count, though this cell type requires rigid containment to prevent swelling. The model we were evaluation was the DCL48-100, which, as the name suggests is nominally 48V with 100AH capacity. This appears to be a good size ..read more

NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR 2ND INTERNATIONAL ELECTRIC BOAT AWARDS First year’s awards featured 50 boats from 19 countries Nominations are now being accepted for The Gustave Trouvé Awards for Excellence in Electric Boats and Boating, the international electric boat awards started last year by electric boat website Plugboats.com Nominations are being accepted in four categories:  Electric Boats Under 8 metres/26 feet Electric Boats Over 8m/26 ft Electric Boats Designed for Paying Passengers  Customised / DIY Electric Boats Members of the public as well as manufacturers and others in t ..read more

Awards presented to nine boats, from hydrofoiling speedboats to solar ferries to ocean-going yachts to a refitted classic. Batteries, solar, wind and hydrogen power the new era of water recreation and transport. After tallying the votes from almost 15,000 electric boat enthusiasts all over the world and an international judging panel of 19 e-boat experts, the third annual Gustave Trouvé Awards for Excellence in Electric Boats and Boating – ‘The Gussies’ – has announced the recipients of its 2022 honours.  The awards are the only international boating awards that focus exclusively on elect ..read more

Henley on Thames – Sunday 17th July 2022 My problem is that I’m fascinated by old things and new things and things of wonder and beauty.  I guess, like houses, we like the old ones because over a period of time there’s been a collective decision by our forebearers to maintain the good ones and knock down the dross.  The same is true of boats and there were some splendid examples of beautifully maintained traditional boats very much in the prime of their lives. The difficulty with new things is that we’re still collectively making our mind up as to what is good and what is bad.  ..read more

Wednesday the 13th of July 2022 I am well-travelled and sometimes I get a bit boring talking about the places I’ve been and the things I’ve done.  But a visit to Wroxham and the Norfolk Broads was a first for me.  Why did I leave it so long? Wroxham and the surrounding area are beautiful. Of course, as per usual, the day didn’t start as it should have.  The battery on my recently acquired cedar canoe was flat.  And there wasn’t much point of me dragging her all the way to Norfolk.  Sadly, I left her behind, but as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining ..read more

Marlow 2nd May 2022. The River Thames is such a jewel of a river.  A group of six boats travelled in convoy from Harleyford Marina down to The Bounty in Bourne End.  That’s two Locks and about six miles of very picturesque English countryside, passing through the celebrated town of Marlow.  The Complete Angler looked a bit noisy, so we continued down to The Bounty where the band was playing, the beer was flowing and everybody wore a smile on their face. We were a flotilla of six boats, Adelaide, Azzurra, Billie Bean, Eddy Current, Edwin James, and Silent Adventure.  We hard ..read more

‘The Gussies’ honour 8 boats from 8 countries in 5 categories – from electric ferries to ocean-going yachts to recreational runabouts – powered by batteries, solar, wind and hydrogen.   After tallying the votes from more than 10,000 electric boat enthusiasts all over the world and an international judging panel of e-boat experts, the second annual Gustave Trouvé Awards for Excellence in Electric Boats and Boating – ‘The Gussies’ – has announced the recipients of its 2021 honours.  The awards recognize boats already in production as well as boats not yet on the water but in lat ..read more