Elotri

Añadido: 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]Hi, I'm Sarah from Boating New Zealand and today we're up at Sand Spit on this glorious day to check out this really interesting new boat designed by Tim Clissold. It's the Elo Tri, the electrically operated triaran. It's got some really fantastic features. It's a really innovative design and we're going to find out more about it from Tim as we go up the river. Tim first started drawing lines for what would become the Elo Tri nearly 20 years ago. A small fully electric dayboat for recreational use on sheltered waters. He wanted it to be light and easy to tow and store. The popular 6 m size allowing both of those factors. With solar panels fitted to the cabin roof, the boat's batteries can charge when the boat is parked at home or at the boatyard. Tied up to the dock at Sandspit, the Elo Tri converts from trailer mode with the roof right down to its own water form at the push of a button. The roof can be popped right up to barbecue height providing full standing headroom or set at an intermediate height with seated headroom and the windscreen raed to reduce windage while passage. It's easy to launch and get from trailer mode into cruise mode and simple to operate too.

[00:01:07]Roof up throlls forward and we're off up the Madakana River.

[00:01:12][music] >> [music] >> throttle.

[00:01:22]>> Yep.

[00:01:24]>> Steering wheel.

[00:01:26]>> That's our controls.

[00:01:27]>> Right. And you're using your phone to navigate with?

[00:01:29]>> Uh using the iPad to navigate with.

[00:01:31]Yeah.

[00:01:32]>> The phone uh in my nice custom um steering wheel that is on charge.

[00:01:38]>> Um is doing our electrical information.

[00:01:42]It's using uh 500 W at the moment and we're doing four knots, but we're just trickling along cuz it's really shallow.

[00:01:52]>> It's got 11 kwatt hours of batteries >> and at the moment we could go for 15 hours like this >> because it's recharging with the sunlight.

[00:02:01]>> Uh yeah, no more than that's just the capacity of the batteries, >> right? Okay. And people talk about range anxiety. I guess >> you're never going to completely run out, are you? It's recharging as you go.

[00:02:13]>> That's the interesting thing about what this concept is you go to cow for a weekend and you're sitting at anchor with the the batteries going up, not down.

[00:02:21]>> Yeah.

[00:02:21]>> Um I I I don't have a way of plugging this in. The more and more electric cars we have, the more charging any country has to have.

[00:02:28]>> Yeah.

[00:02:29]>> And this is pleasure boating. We'll get to some points about that shortly, but um I don't see why that has to impact on the national grid.

[00:02:39]Um, so my ethos again for the boat was most people have to work. They go boating on Saturday and Sunday or you know over the weekend and as long as it's charged by next weekend for most people that will be enough. Cost of nothing and cost the country nothing and all those things. But if you're away for extended days um it would be charging while you're at anchor. I've spent three nights at cow and not worried. I can get to cow on 15% battery um and muck around. The the most I've used is down to 40%. That's been about 25 nautical miles.

[00:03:20]>> I've got a 48 volt induction uh stove top coming instead of gas. I'm going to use that. So it's 106 kilos of battery.

[00:03:29]>> So is it recharge to the extent that like if we gone to cow for example, we're going to stay the night there.

[00:03:33]Yeah. that by tomorrow morning, obviously it'll be dark, but by the end of the day, it will have topped itself right back up again.

[00:03:38]>> Not right back up, but it certainly would have could put 10% per day in.

[00:03:42]>> With the confronting reality of climate change and the climbing cost of fuel, electric vehicles are finally gaining traction on our roads. But progress on electric powered boats has been much slower. Increased demand for solar power technology from private users for home systems and on boats has meant some improvements in systems and batteries over the past few decades. I I wouldn't say big, but there certainly have been improvements, but it's gradual. It's it's ev evolutionary, not revolutionary.

[00:04:08]Right?

[00:04:09]>> If I'd put this boat on the water wall, which I did 20 years ago, but 18 years ago, the result was pretty similar.

[00:04:16]>> The hull is made of foam and glass with some carbon components and weighs around 800 kilos all up with just over 100 kilos of that in the batteries. It has a top speed of only around 5 knots and a cruising speed of 4.2, too, which is leisurely, but it's also silent and easy on the environment.

[00:04:35]>> This is a pretty special thing about an electric boat is that you just It's pretty cool to be able to I mean, bird watching a fist.

[00:04:43]Tim is a deep thinker and he set himself the challenge of finding out the most efficient way to create such a boat.

[00:04:49]Doing a deep dive into power systems, propellers, hole shapes, and even investigating foiling. A longtime multi-hole sailor and designer, Tim chose to go with a triaran hole shape.

[00:05:01]While on board it appears to be a traditional monohull with a single central cabin, below the water there is a fine bowed central hull with chines developed into floats on either side for minimum drag and maximum efficiency.

[00:05:14]Tim sourced the 3 kW electric engine from China and wired up the boat himself. The ELO tri has 48vt power for propulsion, 24vt for the linear actuators that lift the solar lid and 12vt for other systems.

[00:05:29]Energy from the solar panels is stored in standard lithium phosphate ion batteries with four 12vt batteries in series. Charging is not rapid about 10% per day, but it is continuous as long as the sun is shining. So, this has got a nearly 400 mm slow turning propeller.

[00:05:47]And again, I wanted to do it light, so I couldn't see where I'd get one of those.

[00:05:52]So, I bought a 3D printer.

[00:05:54]>> Yep.

[00:05:56]>> Figured out how to use it. Designed up a four-bladed prop and covered it in carbon fiber. Um, I've done a little fiberglass work so I can do that. I'm on to this is propeller 4. We're on propellers have been look the same, I'd suggest, for 100 years.

[00:06:13]pretty much I'm doing two propellers that don't look the same. So, they're they're very large relatively, you know, 400 mil nearly. Um, really high pitched, really slow revving at 400 revs. For Tim, the Elo Tri isn't just a one-off boat. It's a challenge for the industry and boat owners to take up to spark a conversation and encourage the development of more electric boat options. The idea of filling a boat up with diesel and spending the weekend burning it up has to change. Not least because of the increased cost. Because this boat is fully solar, it doesn't cost a scent to charge, but can provide days of cruising, topping up its batteries as you go.

[00:06:52]>> Yeah, I think New Zealand and lots of the world should have options at boat shows and purchasing options of buying electric boats. And right now in New Zealand, as far as I know, there's not a locally produced one.

[00:07:07]>> Yeah. And that goes in a slot.

[00:07:09]>> Look at that. Now you got like a day bed.

[00:07:11]>> Now you can just recline on the day bed.

[00:07:14]>> How about that?

[00:07:15]>> Oh yeah.

[00:07:16]>> Is that cool?

[00:07:17]>> That's perfect.

[00:07:18]>> This will be like your little bed.

[00:07:19]>> You going to be the model, Natalie?

[00:07:21]>> Tim has turned his inventive brain to kitting out a practical interior which provides all the necessities in a compact space. He was raised cruising with his parents and two siblings on a 6 m trailer yacht, so he understands the value of making the most of what you've got. There's a long squab down each side with a panel that folds up to create a dayb bed style recliner at the back.

[00:07:43]In the bow cabin is a V-birth with an insert to create a double under which the compact cassette toilet can be stowed. Under the side seats are storage lockers containing such essentials as a 160 L chiller and the components to mount a long central table. The squabs can be taken off the aft sections of the seats to create a pair of tables aft for meal prep and barbecuing or these bases removed entirely and stowed to provide a large open cockpit complete with a deliciously warm handheld shower. Again, thanks to those solar panels.

[00:08:16]Unfortunately, the tide is still a little low for us to go ashore at the warf at Matakana, but we can easily tie it up to an overhanging tree and enjoy our boat picnic under the shade of the cabin roof before heading back down river again to the sea.

[00:08:28]>> Got together and everybody's happy now.

[00:08:30]>> It's all very amicable.

[00:08:31]>> Yeah.

[00:08:31]>> Wow. Okay.

[00:08:32]>> It's just hilarious.

[00:08:38][music] >> The Elo tri just 400 mm and we can easily wind our way through the mud [music] flats. It's a peaceful and comfortable cruise with plenty of time to take in the riverside sights.

[00:08:52][music] With the Elo Tri, Tim has achieved his goal of creating a practical, livable boat for both day tripping and overnighters which operates with zero impact on the environment. he'd like to see it or something similar go into production and he has plans for slightly larger 8 m version.

[00:09:16]>> There's a whole lot of areas in New Zealand. Every harbor has a river like this. There's an awful lot of lakes that are relatively sheltered um and that people go boating on nice days mostly anyway.

[00:09:28]>> Yeah. So why can't we be [music] doing this electrically uh rather than the huge fuel cost and maintenance cost of a um power boat?

[00:09:39]>> It's a good question and one to which the response can only increase in coming years.

[00:09:51]John from Voting New Zealand. Thanks for watching. Uh if you'd like to see more of these videos, please subscribe to our channel.

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