Platypus Craft's Electric Semi-Submersible Boat: A Duck's Tale with a Twist
Image Credit: Platypus Craft.
Monday mornings are the best, catching up to the stuff we've missed over the weekend - the expectations are always quite high. But nothing quite prepared me for Platypus Craft's electric semi-submersible boat. This is not your usual fishing or pleasure boat, oh no. It's a duck out of water, literally and figuratively.
Just for a moment, close your eyes and imagine: cruising along the coast, wind in your hair, sun on your face, when suddenly the boat's midsection dips underwater, transforming your jolly cruise into an underwater adventure. Sounds like something out of a Bond movie, doesn't it?
The Platypus Craft's journey to production has been longer than a Sunday sermon, but the French company has finally partnered with Evoy, an electric outboard manufacturer, to give this quirky concept a zero-emission makeover. Hallelujah!
The original design, the brainchild of François-Alexandre Bertrand, was a two-seater vessel that could lower its midsection, allowing passengers to explore shallow waters without needing scuba gear. It was a bit like a motorcycle with a diving helmet - on paper, quite a useless combo, but once you start going through the potential behind the idea, the more you look into it, the more sense it makes.
Image Credit: Platypus.
Fast forward a few years, and Bertrand had a working prototype. But instead of the envisioned electric powertrain, it was powered by Mercury engines. Why? Well, electric outboards back then couldn't handle choppy waters as well as their smelly cousins. A bit of a buzzkill, if you ask me.
But now, thanks to Evoy's 120-hp Breeze drive systems, the Platypus Craft is going electric. And boy, is it zippy! It can cruise at 17 mph above water and 3.4-5.7 mph underwater. The onboard battery pack provides a range of 30-80 nautical miles, so you can actually explore to your heart's content.
Image Credit: Platypus Craft.
The electric upgrade isn't just about speed and range, though. It's about eco-friendliness. No fuel spills, no bilge water pollution, and it's quieter than a church mouse on Sunday morning, which is good news for marine life.
And the updates don't stop there. The latest Blue Ocean model, the Yacht Edition, features a new waterproof dashboard, a digital periscope, GPS positioning, and an open cockpit for the front passengers. It's like a floating gadget for water enthusiasts.
But all this fancy tech comes at a price. The aluminum-framed Yacht Edition, which can seat 11 but submerges only five at a time, starts at around $490,000. Ouch! That's enough to make your wallet weep.
Image Credit: Platypus Craft.
I really don't like using this phrase, but for marine ecotourism operators, the Platypus Craft could be a game-changer. It offers a unique, eco-friendly way to explore underwater wonders. It opens up new revenue streams, expands the to-do lists of every holiday maker - and all of that without a drop of gas or oil. And let's not forget about the noise, or rather complete lack of it.
So. The Platypus Craft: part boat, part submarine, part duck. It's quirky, it's fun, and it's electric. It's expensive but unique, and it's the future of ecotourism. And it's quackers!
