10142366Design and development of electric hire boatsClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKThe West Country has many tidal estuaries with a long history of public boat hire, often using vessels designed and made locally. The modern regulations for small public hire boats, less than 6m in length, recognises vessels with an appropriate CE Design category as being safe for public use when tested to ISO 12217-3\. The use of vessels manufactured prior to the introduction of CE marking (around 2000), requires vessels to be approved by a surveyor. This together with the higher maintenance costs associated with older boats, makes them increasingly uneconomic to use, as seasonal revenues cannot support these additional costs. The replacement vessels are often based around rigid inflatable designs, which bear no resemblance to the West Country designs they replace, still use petrol or diesel engines and are most often imported. In addition, they provide no weather protection for the customers, which is an increasingly significant issue as the climate becomes wetter and windier, even in the summer months. The aim of this feasibility project is to design a boat optimised for the hire industry in tidal estuaries. Complete with traditional West Country design features, customer weather protection, and zero emission electric propulsion. It should also be suitable for recycling at the end of life unlike glass fibre composite boats, which end up abandoned on the shore or going to land fill at the council's expense. From our initial discussions with boat hire operators (who have in total more than 75 vessels in this class), and an online review of other hire company vessels, we believe this type of vessel would be ideal for the many local hire companies operating in tidal estuaries as well as those operating on in land waters in the UK. The West Country has an abundance of boatbuilding skills to locally manufacture this type of vessel. This feasibility phase will be to produce an initial design concept for a 5-6m vessel that meets these requirements. Then the design, specification and projected costs can be market tested with potential customers.