Plymouth Boat Trips Wins Prestigious Clean Maritime Award for Electric Vessel Design
Apr. 2022
Plymouth Boat Trips has been named as a leading light in the UK’s £40bn maritime sector after being awarded the title of Clean Maritime Operator at the prestigious Maritime UK Awards ceremony in Glasgow. The Plymouth based cruise, ferry and fishing company scooped the award for its e-Voyager project, which launched in 2020 and saw the pioneering electrification of the first sea-going vessel in the UK.
Owner of Plymouth Boat Trips, Dom Squire said: “We’re thrilled to have won this award for our e-Voyager project. It’s an exciting time for the marine sector as we develop sustainable solutions for the future and we’re proud to be working with local partners to place Plymouth and the Southwest as UK leaders in the conversion and new build of zero-carbon, fully electric commercial vessels.”
Designed and developed in partnership with the University of Plymouth, the University of Exeter, Teignbridge Propellers, MarRI-UK and EV Parts, e-Voyager was funded through the £1.4M Clean Maritime Call: a Maritime Research and Innovation UK (MarRI-UK) initiative supported by the Department for Transport (DfT) and launched to support the UK’s goal of zero emission shipping.
Sarah Kenny, Chair of Maritime UK said: “We were absolutely blown away by the number and quality of submissions this year. Organisations and individuals across the breadth of the maritime sector are making significant progress toward our shared Maritime 2050 ambitions, and this is certainly an exciting time to be in the maritime sector.”
She went on to say: “Maritime is a sector that is now being recognised as critical to the country’s prosperity, sustainability, resilience and future.”
The e-Voyager vessel is now in operation as a support boat across Plymouth Boat Trips operations, with passengers commenting on the smooth and silent journey created by an electric engine. The vessel takes just under three hours to reach full charge, by plugging into 22 kWh chargers installed by Plymouth City Council on the Barbican Landing Stage. The Council continues to work with local ferry companies to further develop a charging infrastructure for marine transport in the city.
Through further technological developments and maritime applications Plymouth Boat Trips continues its ambitious plan to electrify its entire fleet, with the next project already underway.
