A new boat show focusing on electric narrowboats will take place next week.
Electrika will gather together existing owners, potential owners, equipment manufacturers, boat builders and hire boat companies, with the goal of sharing information and experiences to encourage successful adoption of electric propulsion on inland waterways.
The show is the idea of UK based electric narrowboat builder Ortomarine whose team has organised it in collaboration with inland marina operator Aquavista, with help in particular from Dave Trivett, manager of Brinklow Waterside & Marina and his team.
“Over the last few years, a near silent revolution has been taking place, as a new generation of electric propelled, hybrid narrowboats have been launched on UK waterways,” explained a spokesperson from Electrika.
“Adoption has been slowly gathering momentum, but finding good information is difficult, even at national boat shows.
“Electrika aims to provide a meeting point for early adopters, manufacturers and potential new owners to share information and real-life experience of this exciting new technology.”
Collaboration
The show will take place over two days with the first day a trade day with a B2B focus with expert talks focused on encouraging collaboration and the sharing of ideas to create better products and services.
The talks will include how to successfully build an electric narrowboat, managing an electric hire boat, greening up – going from diesel to electric and prop sizing an electric narrowboat.
The event will also include a number of show boats and equipment manufacturers.
Ortomarine has so far built more than 25 electric narrowboats – a mix of serial hybrid, parallel hybrid and all electric designs.
The boatbuilder is currently collaborating with Aqua Narrowboats to build a 57ft serial hybrid narrowboat that will have a hybrid drive and monitoring system designed and supplied by Ortomarine.
Aquavista operates 29 marinas in across England, five of which are coastal and 24 are inland which offer residential and leisure moorings, boat sales, floating homes and marine services.
The show takes place on May 3-4 2024, at Brinklow Waterside & Marina, Rugby.
