Vision Marine Technologies Testing Electric-Powered 32-Foot Cat With 100-Plus-MPH Goal In Mind At Shootout
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New Products: Vision Marine Technologies Testing Electric-Powered 32-Foot Cat With 100-Plus-MPH Goal In Mind At Shootout
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Building upon its debut appearance at the 2021 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, the team at Vision Marine Technologies Inc., in Montreal, Canada, is eager to get back to Central Missouri hot spot and make a more impactful mark on the 34th annual event, which is arguably the world’s largest gathering of performance boats in the world. Not to dismiss the 49-mph pass Patrick Bobby, VMTI’s head of performance and special projects, reached in the Bruce 22 with an electric E-Motion 180E outboard engine last year, but everyone involved in the latest project—a twin-engine 32-foot Hellkats Powerboats-constructed catamaran—hopes to possibly double that speed and hit the triple digits on the three-quarter-mile course next weekend (August 27-28).
The new Vision 32 catamaran powered by electric E-Motion 180E outboard engines is going to be showcased at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Central Missouri next weekend. Check out the testing video below.
The news of the project was announced in July 2021 so it’s not surprising that the boat, which is powered by two of VMTI’s 180-hp, 160-kilowatt E-Motion electric outboards and Octillion Power Systems batteries, is coming to the Shootout, but the fact that speeds have reportedly surpassed 100 mph in testing this week in Florida is pretty eye-opening.
“We get to the lake next week and plan to do a little more testing before making some runs on Saturday,” said Alexandre Mongeon, the Montreal, Canada-based company’s chief executive officer. “I can’t wait for everyone to see the Vision 32 in action. We’re thoroughly impressed with the boat and I think a lot of people will be just as impressed. This is a ‘real boat’ with real performance capabilities. Everything in it was created with this boat in mind.
“People thought we were crazy, playing around with our little electric boats, but we’ve been learning and developing so be careful, the electric craze is coming,” he added and then chuckled. “We eat and sleep this stuff and are always trying to push the limits.”
Mongeon said the goal for the Vision 32 has always been to smash the 88.6-mph electric-outboard-motor-powered boat speed record that was set on Coniston Water—the famed hotbed of water-speed records in United Kingdom—in 2020 by a Jaguar V20E racing boat designed and built by the British car builder and Williams Advanced Engineering of Formula 1 fame. He and his team are hopeful they can bring the record to North America—”where it belongs,” he added, again with a laugh.
Mongeon made sure to thank to the talented team at VMT and several performance boat luminaries, including two-time F1 H2O world champion and current offshore racing Super Stock-class competitor Shaun Torrente of Shaun Torrente Racing in Southwest Florida and drive and transmission innovator Patrick Weismann of Weismann Marine in Southern California. He also credited the crew at Octillion for its effort with the battery systems.
With STR adjustable brackets, interactive dynamic control and more of his company’s hardware, Torrente has had his hands all over the project boat for some time between rigging it and working with VMTI and Weismann on product development. But being able to test the boat several times this week has made the entire electric-boat concept feel more real to Torrente, who is going to drive the boat at the Shootout and also have his Super Stock-class Raymarine-sponsored boat on hand for the event.
“We’ve been testing this week and it’s gone really well,” Torrente said. “It’s been better than expected actually. I know this isn’t a kilo event and I don’t know what entails becoming the fastest electric boat, but in the court of public opinion, if we can get past 100 mph at the Shootout that will get as much publicity and credibility as an official UIM/APBA record.”
Torrente added that the only hydraulic systems on the boat—for now—are the steering and the engine trim; everything else is electric and the goal is to have the steering and trim systems electric in the near future.
Editor’s note: Speedonthewater.com plans to provide a more in-depth story after taking a closer look the Vision 32 catamaran next week at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout.
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