Bringing the last two parameters into line may seem like trying to square the circle. But it is also an excellent way to first explore the jungle of potentially suitable shipyards. Has anyone ever been to the boat show in Düsseldorf? At the world’s largest boat show, which is always held in January, more than 1,500 exhibitors showcase their products and ideas – everything can be combined with one another or builds on one another – pure sensory overload! Ordering a car that is exactly right for your own purpose is ridiculous in comparison…

So we have been traveling from shipyard to shipyard with our list of requirements for some time now, listening to ideas about technical feasibility and design with a wow effect.

Here are some highlights of this exciting journey:

First stop Meppel

Meppel is located in the typical, windmill-studded, but otherwise unimpressive North Holland. This is where Alumax builds the boats for Watertaxi Rotterdam. The water taxis that have been zipping around Rotterdam for 30 years and are now an integral part of the cityscape were not just the blueprint for our concept – for the last 3 years we have been enjoying regular exchanges with Daan and Hans, the founders of Watertaxi Rotterdam. One of the many tips from our mentors was: Take a look at Alumax – they have been building the boats for us for 15 years.

And indeed: the Alumax roller door opens and there they are: sleek yacht-like boats in various stages of development. With a wide variety of drive systems. From 300 HP Cummins diesel with jet propulsion, battery-electric boats for shorter distances where speed is not an issue, and even a boat with a fuel cell that can be fueled with green hydrogen. Remko and Jarno, the owners of Alumax who are related to each other, make everything possible and were immediately ready to incorporate our initial idea of ​​dual fuel drives into the Alumax water taxi functional design, which has been continuously optimized over the years. Various video meetings with Remko and CMB Tech, a subsidiary of the largest Belgian shipping company specializing in the construction of sustainable ship drives, followed and gave us insights into the galaxies of maritime drive revolution research. Dual fuel – ammonia – hydrogen – methanol reformer fuel cells (i.e. submarine technology) – battery electric – serial or parallel hybrid… – a seemingly endless world in itself. It’s nice to see how many experts are now working on energy and drive revolution at the highest level! But more about that in one of the next logbook entries on the subject of drive technology of the future.

Detour to the East Frisians

In Norddeich we look at the Discovery boats built in Ukraine. Stig Macherhammer from the Weselmann engineering office, which has been advising the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) on all technical issues in the Port of Hamburg for generations, is on hand to assess the suitability of these boats for Hamburg’s conditions.

As can be seen in the Hamburg Journal report, the Discovery boats are not beauties, but have proven themselves as robust workhorses on the rough North Sea for the Töwerland Express shipping company for the past 5 years. These boats already have federal approval for commercial passenger transport.

After an impressive 2-hour test drive on the suspiciously smooth North Sea, we head to the Töwerland technology workshop. Here, Holger, a true East Frisian and agricultural machinery technician, greets us and takes us into the hallowed halls where one of the Discovery boats is being upgraded to a double engine system. During the expert discussion with Holger and Stig, an idea immediately emerges as to how these boats could be used to safely transfer passengers at the typical piers in Hamburg harbor.

Next stop: Faaborg in Denmark

Jonas Pedersen, one of the founders of Tuco Marine, is not wrongly proud of the company’s 25-year history and his highly motivated team of designers, constructors and boat builders. Fast boats for professionals are built here in modular series construction under the brand name ProZero. The offshore industry, pilots, ferry companies, authorities and the military make up the customer base for ProZero boats. Customers’ special requests for design and functionality are important motivation factors for the experts at Tuco Marine and are innovated by them in series-ready quality. And Tuco Marine is already at the cutting edge when it comes to sustainable drive technology: the e-foiling technology developed by Artemis Technology, the technology partner of the Swedish America’s Cup Syndicate, is installed in the hulls manufactured at Tuco Marine.

A first preliminary draft for a possible Elbtaxi type boat from ProZero has already been made:

Carbon hydrofoil made in Sweden

Candela’s clearly defined goal is: To redefine the range and speed of electrically powered boats

To achieve this, the company in Stockholm is relying on carbon-fiber construction, software-controlled wings and next-generation battery technology from the Swedish electric car manufacturer Polestar. Once the flight speed of 16 knots has been reached, the energy requirement of a Candela E-Foiler is only 20% of that of a comparable conventional boat… At the In Water Boat Show in Neustadt, we were able to test-fly the C-8 model designed for the leisure market: it was extremely impressive how it can float over the water at 25 knots without noise or vibration.

With 25 million US dollars raised in the last investment round, Candela now wants to push ahead with production of the P-12 model developed for local public transport.

We will keep an eye on Candela’s planned development to series production readiness. With the ride-pooling operation planned for the Elbtaxi concept with frequent stops and short intermediate routes, flight experiences would probably be rather rare, but would be absolutely interesting for later expansion stages when long distances are to be served with high-speed boats.

Then engineering from Finland came into view

David, junior manager of the creative agency accompanying us, gave us the tip that Callboats in Helsinki is developing an app for on-demand water taxis. So we contact Peter, the founder of Callboats. Even in the first conversation it becomes clear that the catamaran ferries, also developed by Callboats, are even more interesting than the app. 10 meters long, entry height exactly matching the mooring pontoons on the Elbe, designed for 12 or 30 passengers, battery-electric drives with 4 rotating pod drives and lidar technology, so that theoretically even AUTONOMOUS centimeter-precise mooring maneuvers can be carried out without a mooring line. Sensor-controlled gangways that adapt to the given mooring height. The underwater areas of the hulls with a hybrid hydrodynamic concept: a bit Swath-type, as a displacement vessel, but with underwater foils – top-of-the-range engineering…

Over to the US West Coast - Los Angeles also wants to play along

Thanks to the networking of an Elbtaxi supporter from the very beginning, Arc Boats in the Sunshine State of California has recently announced the big hit for the Elbtaxi concept. Founded in 2021 by a software entrepreneur and his former school friend and later senior engineer at SpaceX, Arc Boats now employs more than 100 people. With the 100 million investment collected in several financing rounds, the B2B market for electric workboats is now to be targeted. The Arc Boats design team can hardly wait to receive a detailed construction specification from us…

What a ride! You can see that no village is too small for us, no shipyard is too far and no video call is too late. The next step is to analyze the ideas we have already received and, above all, to overlay them with the requirements of other subject areas. So that the Elbtaxi concept is the hit that our city deserves right from the start!

Our next logbook entry gives you an insight into another topic that concerns us a lot. Look forward to: Registration regulations – bureaucracy ahoy! The wild ride through EU federal and regional regulations!

Your Elbtaxi team