Latest / How To Protect The Ocean / The Electric Boat Revolution Is Here
Transcript
- 0:00Today on the podcast, we're going to be
- 0:01talking to Alexandra
- 0:02Mangiau, who leads the Vision Marine
- 0:06Technologies Boating Company, sells
- 0:09boats, so sells gas powered boats, also
- 0:12electric boats. We're here
- 0:13to talk about the new era of electric
- 0:16boating. We've talked a
- 0:18little bit about electric boating
- 0:19earlier this week when we talked about
- 0:21sort of the rent to use type
- 0:24of boating model. And today,
- 0:25we're going to be talking to Alexandra
- 0:27about how this new industry
- 0:29or you part of the boating
- 0:31industry has kind of taken people, you
- 0:35know, by surprise, I
- 0:36guess, I think a lot of times,
- 0:37and where people are like, "Hey, this is
- 0:39actually really cool. We're
- 0:40really going for this. And this
- 0:43is something that we really want." We're
- 0:44going to talk about
- 0:44electric boating, electric motors,
- 0:46how it differs from like, from gas
- 0:49powered motors, all on
- 0:50today's episode of the How to
- 0:51Protect the Ocean podcast. Because this
- 0:52is the podcast where you
- 0:53find out all about ocean news,
- 0:55all about new technologies that can help
- 0:57the ocean here Monday to Friday, every
- 1:00week. If you want to know more, if you
- 1:02want to find out this is the type of
- 1:03information that you like, hit that
- 1:04follow button right now on your favorite
- 1:06podcast app so you can
- 1:08listen to the next episode.
- 1:10Okay, so today we're going to be talking
- 1:12to Alexandra Mangiau, which is great
- 1:13because he's Canadian, he's from
- 1:14Montreal. He has a business where he's
- 1:18actually recently expanded the business
- 1:20for Vision Marine Technology.
- 1:22And his vision of the future is electric
- 1:25boating. And I think what we get to talk
- 1:27about on today's episode is really
- 1:30special because it's a new way of boating
- 1:32that actually provides a benefit not only
- 1:34to the environment, but also to the
- 1:36people who use it. And you're going to
- 1:38hear why that's happening in this
- 1:40interview. Before we get into that,
- 1:42though, if you want to support the show,
- 1:43all you have to do is go to
- 1:44speakupforblue.com forward slash Patreon,
- 1:46join our Patreon community. I would love
- 1:48to see you there. I would love to hear from you. It supports the show.
- 1:50We have editors and all that kind of
- 1:54stuff and it just helps get more
- 1:56information out there. We do stuff on
- 1:58YouTube. We're just stuff on on on TikTok
- 2:01and on Instagram and on Facebook and we'd
- 2:04love to get your support to help us do
- 2:06that as well. So speakupforblue.com
- 2:09forward slash Patreon. And of course,
- 2:11here is the interview with Alexandra
- 2:13Mangiau. Enjoy and I'll talk to you
- 2:15after. Hey, Alexandra, welcome to the How
- 2:18to Protect the Ocean
- 2:19podcast. Are you ready to do that?
- 2:20I'm ready to talk about electric boats. I
- 2:23was born ready, Andrew. So let's start.
- 2:26All right. I'm super excited. There's a
- 2:28couple of reasons why I'm saying one.
- 2:30We're talking about boats over the last
- 2:32month or so. I had an itch that I want to
- 2:35buy a boat at some point in the next five
- 2:36years or so. But also I get to talk about
- 2:40electric boats today, which is which is a
- 2:41lot of fun. And I get to talk to a fellow
- 2:43Canadian fellow Quebecer, which is a lot
- 2:46of fun. My family's from Quebec. So it's
- 2:47always great to be able to talk to people
- 2:49that, you know, we've got some
- 2:50some things in common and we love boats
- 2:52and we're going to talk all about being
- 2:54on the ocean, being on lakes and what
- 2:56it's like to have an electric vehicle on
- 2:59the water. So I'm super excited for this.
- 3:01Before we get into all that, though,
- 3:03Alexandra, why don't you just let us know
- 3:04who you are and what you do.
- 3:06So my name is Alex. CEO and co-founder of
- 3:10Visionary Technology. I was born and
- 3:13raised in Montreal, Canada, and I'm an
- 3:16avid boat racer and an electrician by
- 3:20trade. And I've been boating for the past
- 3:2230 years and I've been living on the
- 3:25water for the past 25 years.
- 3:28So I know how cool boat could be. And
- 3:30also I was enjoying every second I could.
- 3:34So to be on the water when I was living
- 3:36in Montreal. So I would say eight weeks
- 3:38out of the 52. I was able to go boating.
- 3:42But I can tell you crazy stories. I was
- 3:44cutting ice to get my boat out on the
- 3:46water to test them because
- 3:48we got icy water starting.
- 3:49I would say November till April. So I
- 3:52could not wait. And I was. But we'll
- 3:54discuss about that. But that's where I
- 3:56am. And I've created along the way an
- 3:58electric outboard system that could fit
- 4:00almost any boats between 18 to 30 feet
- 4:03single motors or twin motors.
- 4:06And we've built different types of boat
- 4:07for rentals operation a bit like the golf
- 4:09cart. They were very popular back then.
- 4:12And today we are actually providing a
- 4:14technology that could be installed on any
- 4:16manufacturer that wants to use an
- 4:18outboard motor from the
- 4:1820 doors power to 400 hours. So I will be
- 4:23pleased to give you more information
- 4:24today. Yeah absolutely. I'm super excited
- 4:27about this because we've seen the advent
- 4:29of the electric vehicle like the electric
- 4:31car or an SUV or something on the road.
- 4:34That's a hit popularity. No matter what
- 4:36people are saying in the mainstream when
- 4:39people are like oh forget EVs or forget
- 4:41this or forget that. A lot of people are
- 4:43buying electric vehicles or hybrid
- 4:45vehicles. And we're seeing that sort of
- 4:47increase. A couple of years ago, I was working with the
- 4:48electric vehicle. I did an interview with
- 4:50somebody from a flex Marine who talked
- 4:52about electric vehicle electric boats and
- 4:54I was like, oh, this is a really cool
- 4:56concept. I'm like, I wonder how this all
- 4:57works. I haven't seen a lot of talk about
- 5:01electric boats before. Especially on the
- 5:04ocean. Especially on like larger lakes or
- 5:06even like cottage lakes and so forth. So
- 5:09I'm super excited to talk about the
- 5:10system that you built and how you got
- 5:12into that. So I want to talk a little bit
- 5:14about your origin story. You mentioned a
- 5:16little bit. You've always been involved
- 5:17in boats. You've always been involved in boats. It's just a little bit about the nature of the ocean. It's a little bit about the nature of the ocean. It's a little bit about the nature of the ocean. It's a little bit about the nature of the ocean.
- 5:18So I want to know what you think about this, the ways that you're working in the industry, how you started your career and how you started your career in the boats
- 5:18and racing and with your electrician
- 5:20background. I imagine that is something
- 5:22that always interested you. When did you
- 5:24start working in the industry? Like, in
- 5:27the boating industry.
- 5:28Were you always out of
- 5:49out of the blue, a small business with
- 5:51the co-founder with me,
- 5:53my prior partner, Patrick
- 5:54Bobby, we started a
- 5:56currency traded office.
- 5:58So we were trading currency and we were
- 6:01ritual fitting and
- 6:02importing boats as early as 1980,
- 6:0598 and 99 were importing both from US.
- 6:09And most of those boats were speed boats
- 6:11because they're not, they
- 6:13don't build them in Canada.
- 6:14So most of those boats were built in
- 6:16Florida, started
- 6:17importing them smaller and bigger
- 6:19and bigger and was pretty good.
- 6:21And we learned about the market and we
- 6:23also, we were also very
- 6:24successful during the crash
- 6:27of 2008.
- 6:29There were no crash in Canada and we were
- 6:30successful by importing that.
- 6:32It was a hobby during the
- 6:33weekends and we're racing boats.
- 6:35And after racing and racing boats, we
- 6:39sold the business,
- 6:39bought ourself, got two kids
- 6:41with our wife and we had started enjoying
- 6:42life and racing more.
- 6:44And in 2013, after a
- 6:47boat race in Toronto,
- 6:50Thousand Island, I rent into a gentleman
- 6:54named Ian Bruce, Olympic sailor and very
- 6:57well-known architect,
- 7:00boat designer who actually designed and
- 7:02owned laser sailboats.
- 7:04He sold over 200,000
- 7:06sailboats in 141 countries.
- 7:09So I was pulling out from the boat ramp
- 7:11with a 46 footer outer limit.
- 7:14And I saw Ian Bruce polishing.
- 7:16He was probably 75 years old back then or
- 7:1870 years old polishing small sailboats.
- 7:20And I look at the sailboat and it looked
- 7:22like a boat that that we had in storage
- 7:26in a building that me and Patrick had
- 7:28purchased earlier with tooling.
- 7:29So we bought a building and
- 7:30they were tooling of boats.
- 7:32And long story short, I've parked a big
- 7:34raceboats after a boat race and Ian Bruce
- 7:37looked at me and
- 7:37started talking and asking me
- 7:38how much fuel we've burned during the
- 7:40race with that big boat and that one at
- 7:43over close to 3000 horsepower.
- 7:45And I was ashamed to give him the right
- 7:46number and I will never give you the
- 7:48number of how much it was expensive to
- 7:50race one of those boats.
- 7:51But that's the place to
- 7:52drive at 140, 50 miles per hour.
- 7:55It's very competitive.
- 7:57And he looked at me, gave me his business
- 7:59card and says pass by my office in St.
- 8:01Catherine close to the St.
- 8:03Lawrence Yacht Club on Monday.
- 8:05And I want to show
- 8:05you something very cool.
- 8:07So I didn't know Ian Bruce was back then.
- 8:10So I was excited.
- 8:11I went to the fact that it's little shop
- 8:13on the next Monday
- 8:15with my partner, Patrick.
- 8:17And Ian Bruce showed us an amazing
- 8:19classic replica of 1947
- 8:22Chris Craft back barrel.
- 8:25But it was used with
- 8:26mahogany and that thing was a lake.
- 8:29And you're talking 2000 electric.
- 8:32Wow.
- 8:32Tesla was actually using Lotus frame.
- 8:35So we was in 2008 was
- 8:37already building those boats.
- 8:39And we took that boat out for a spin and
- 8:42the St. Lawrence and run
- 8:44about 38, 40 miles per hour.
- 8:46And for me, I was driving the weekend
- 8:48earlier, 48 hours earlier, I was doing
- 8:50driving at 2000 horsepower gas boat.
- 8:52It was impossible.
- 8:54That guy was a rocket scientist.
- 8:56He was very talented, smart, kind,
- 8:58generous of his time.
- 8:59And he showed us also pictures of boats
- 9:02that he was yet design in the past.
- 9:04And he says, we own those tooling.
- 9:06It's one of in one of our building.
- 9:07We've been working on those small
- 9:08electric boats, me and Patrick for like
- 9:10hobby and the designer of those boats.
- 9:13And we still produce today those boats
- 9:15because we started
- 9:16that business around that.
- 9:18It's called the Fandale.
- 9:19I think we sold like five
- 9:20or 600 of those since 2013.
- 9:22From a small, you don't, you never know
- 9:25who you're going to meet.
- 9:26So Ian Bruce, Ian Bruce started
- 9:28negotiating with us, helping asking us if
- 9:30we want to take over his production and
- 9:32crazy story happened.
- 9:34He had an accident with
- 9:36the last boat produced.
- 9:37It was on the way to do the delivery.
- 9:39We helped him out, getting out of that
- 9:42situation by fixing the boat with him
- 9:43because we use, we have a shop and the
- 9:46race boats and we have space and we
- 9:48became friends and we ended up purchasing
- 9:51the tooling to produce those.
- 9:52Bruce 22 and he started building the
- 9:55first electric one with us showing us how
- 9:58to build it and who were the
- 10:00suppliers to get those parts.
- 10:01Most of the suppliers
- 10:02were car suppliers back then.
- 10:05And sadly, half in half of the production
- 10:07of the boat, I didn't told us that, but
- 10:10he was fighting a cancer.
- 10:12He passed away.
- 10:13I'm sorry to hear that.
- 10:14So we had two, two major last.
- 10:17We lost a mentor and we also lost the
- 10:20person that was guiding us along the way
- 10:22of the assembly of that boat.
- 10:25Once it happened a few times in my life,
- 10:28we had to complete half
- 10:30of the work by ourselves.
- 10:33But it's prices because you're learning a
- 10:34lot when you're stuck with an I like
- 10:36resolving challenge.
- 10:37I resolve challenge 10 times a day.
- 10:40And I started resolving challenge and the
- 10:43boating space with with that first
- 10:45project and others
- 10:47following following that project.
- 10:49And we started working on that and we
- 10:50became very passionate.
- 10:51Me and Patrick and we said, this is
- 10:54pretty, pretty awesome.
- 10:56But people, the technology was not there.
- 10:58The price of parts were very expensive.
- 11:00So we were building smaller golf cart
- 11:03type of boat with the
- 11:04trolling motor that everyone knows.
- 11:07They're very fishing boats as a small 48
- 11:09rolling motor that
- 11:10the six miles per hour.
- 11:11So we're building small
- 11:12gondolas and selling them.
- 11:14And in 2014, I started doing boat shows
- 11:18and I ended up in
- 11:21Newport Beach, California.
- 11:23And we flew in.
- 11:25We shipped two boats for the first boat
- 11:26show in California and Newport Beach.
- 11:29And I landed at the airport, walked by
- 11:33the restaurant at night to have a
- 11:34cocktail and a meal.
- 11:36And I started seeing
- 11:37electric boats couldn't eat.
- 11:40I've seen at least that night 100, 150
- 11:42boats driving around in Newport Beach.
- 11:45And I've learned the next morning because
- 11:47we had received our boat
- 11:48the morning the next morning.
- 11:50And we had to launch the boat to bring
- 11:51them to the boat show because the boat,
- 11:52the boat was on the
- 11:53water in Newport Beach.
- 11:54Of course.
- 11:55And I've discovered that there were 8000
- 11:57electric boats in the
- 11:58Newport Beach Harbor back then.
- 12:00In 2014?
- 12:02Yeah, he's Duffy, the mayor and the
- 12:05founder of the Duffy boats was he opened
- 12:08that thing in 1967 or 60.
- 12:11So this guy was a genius back then.
- 12:14He took golf cart motor with Trojan
- 12:16batteries and he started
- 12:17building and selling boats.
- 12:19And everyone or everyone around Newport
- 12:21Beach and Huntington Beach
- 12:23were the beach boys were.
- 12:24And Duffy looked like a beach boy.
- 12:26And he started.
- 12:27He built over 14,000 of them and he
- 12:30changed the rules and regulation in the
- 12:32harbors in California.
- 12:33So you're limited at six miles per hour.
- 12:35So we are in 2015 me and Patrick were
- 12:38freaking out because we don't know what
- 12:39how to sell those boats from Montreal.
- 12:42And we were building 25, 30 boats a year
- 12:44shipping them in Italy, UK and one year
- 12:47and sending them on eBay.
- 12:48And when we came here, wow, this is the
- 12:51place we want to be.
- 12:52And Patrick told me it's not happening.
- 12:54We're too poor to live in California.
- 12:56We're too poor to it's impossible to find
- 12:58a lease, find a place, become successful.
- 13:01You're dreaming.
- 13:03Yeah, the worst thing in life
- 13:04with me, you say you cannot.
- 13:06Don't ever do it.
- 13:07You can't.
- 13:07Yeah, it's it's fuel.
- 13:10So in 17 with so that the boat show left
- 13:14it and I saw myself living here and
- 13:16having him Newport Beach as we speak
- 13:18today and right over 85 over 85,000
- 13:22rentals from that location.
- 13:24That I did my first boat show.
- 13:25So the location where I am, it's the
- 13:27location that the boat show is being host
- 13:29the day that I came.
- 13:31So I fight my way through because if he
- 13:34was the mayor, so permit city permits and
- 13:36he's the manufacturer and the biggest
- 13:38electric boat builder as we
- 13:39speak again today in the world.
- 13:41So it was challenging.
- 13:43So he didn't eat like somebody up and
- 13:45coming, you know, having something like a
- 13:47competitor essentially coming in.
- 13:49It makes it a little difficult to to like
- 13:52kind of get get headway, right?
- 13:55It was nasty, but oh, really?
- 13:57I told you earlier.
- 13:59I like I like I like when people say no.
- 14:01Yeah, this is fuel.
- 14:03So love it.
- 14:04We've built we scaled up production
- 14:07starting to use the rental operation as a
- 14:10showroom on the water.
- 14:11We started with a personal lease with a
- 14:14million dollars in guaranteed in 2016
- 14:16where Duffy wanted it to be.
- 14:18So we took the spot, the new spot that
- 14:20was becoming very
- 14:21popular in Newport Beach.
- 14:22It's called the Little Village Marina
- 14:23took that space, uh, sign up personally
- 14:26for a million dollar lease.
- 14:28Patrick was building boats in Montreal
- 14:30shipping them to me and I started renting
- 14:32and operating that place in 2017.
- 14:3610 boats and we grew up up to 30 boats in
- 14:39that location, but it was stuff.
- 14:41There's one boat ramp.
- 14:43It's a city boat ramp.
- 14:44So you need the city approval.
- 14:45You need to be a citizen.
- 14:46And I was Canadian.
- 14:48I was a foreign.
- 14:49It was challenging.
- 14:51It was challenging.
- 14:52Yeah, I can imagine while we were
- 14:55successful doing that.
- 14:56We were also working on the development
- 14:58of the technology that became the emotion
- 15:00because now we were successful.
- 15:01We were small building smaller boats,
- 15:03putting them in rentals,
- 15:04exposing them on the water.
- 15:05People could rent them, test them.
- 15:07And if they loved it, they can write a
- 15:08check and leave with them.
- 15:10So it was like a rent.
- 15:11They could they could try it out.
- 15:13Get on the boat that you
- 15:14have the new technology.
- 15:15You're like, okay, let's
- 15:16just give this for a spin.
- 15:17We'll come on the boat with you to show
- 15:19you all the ins and outs.
- 15:20And then you're like, oh, I really like
- 15:21they basically fall in love with it.
- 15:23And then and then you just
- 15:25be like, all right, cool.
- 15:26Do you want it?
- 15:27You could buy it.
- 15:27So like they're renting it, but they're
- 15:29kind of in the back of their head.
- 15:30They're looking at
- 15:30purchasing a boat as well.
- 15:32And I'm still using that same technique
- 15:34today because I'm sold out.
- 15:35So today, Andrew, his wife once is
- 15:37calling one of my salesman.
- 15:38I want to buy one of those.
- 15:40Can I come to your dealership?
- 15:41We're sold out as we speak.
- 15:42So I'll make you and your
- 15:43family fly to Newport Beach.
- 15:45Now we have different
- 15:45locations in Florida as well.
- 15:47So I would make you fly in.
- 15:49You'll test the boat.
- 15:50It's free.
- 15:50It's on the house for the next two hours.
- 15:52And if you're buying the boat, we'll pay
- 15:54the travel because you've moved with your
- 15:55family.
- 15:55So it's been a very nice travel
- 15:57experience and you're
- 15:59going to be driving that thing.
- 16:00And you're going to be seeing about seven
- 16:02or eight thousand electric boats around.
- 16:04So it's the standard.
- 16:06This is where because California is
- 16:08between 10 to 15 years ahead of everyone.
- 16:10If you should see how
- 16:11many electric cars around.
- 16:12So you're not crazy.
- 16:13If you live upstate New York that you
- 16:15want to buy an electric
- 16:16boat and you want that
- 16:16thing to be delivered to you because you
- 16:18see where the market is
- 16:20going and all things are.
- 16:21This is the future.
- 16:22Correct.
- 16:23So I'm still using that same technique
- 16:26that I start using back then.
- 16:28Having a small rental
- 16:30operation and using it as a showroom.
- 16:32And I was scaling production and the
- 16:34cash, the money that
- 16:35Patrick and I were making
- 16:36were reinvested in developing the high
- 16:38power technology with
- 16:39the Bruce 22 electric.
- 16:41And two years after stop stopping, stop
- 16:46stopping to race on the with the big
- 16:48outer limit boat.
- 16:49So in 2015, if I'm right or 16, we
- 16:54brought three electric
- 16:55Bruce to be the official pace
- 16:59boat for those gas race boats.
- 17:01So when you're racing, you've got a line
- 17:03of 15 big powerful boats and you got a
- 17:07A
- 17:09pays boat that leaves with the flag and
- 17:11then it gets away and
- 17:12and you need a pretty fast
- 17:16boat to be the pace.
- 17:18Yeah, you're going to need and people
- 17:19were looking at us because you got
- 17:22thousands of people looking
- 17:24at those races.
- 17:24So they were looking at us like you but
- 17:26the attention we got
- 17:27back then and I felt I felt
- 17:29the energy system.
- 17:30If they're looking at us and I get more
- 17:32attention on my 22
- 17:33foot criss craft replica,
- 17:36it means that I'm not crazy.
- 17:38Those guys on million dollars boat and
- 17:40they know that there's
- 17:42an I seen the interest.
- 17:44So from that it was the
- 17:45push and never raised boats.
- 17:48I got a lot of friends, throw a
- 17:50professional world
- 17:51champion in the boating space.
- 17:52I'm still friend with them.
- 17:53I've been racing electric boat now, but
- 17:57long story short, it's
- 17:59small boats brought us into
- 18:01the real space of having
- 18:02vision marine technology.
- 18:03So back then company was called Canadian
- 18:05electric boat from the
- 18:08operation in California in 2019.
- 18:11I've met some bankers 24th of December.
- 18:15They came and look at they heard about
- 18:17the company that we
- 18:18could probably scale up.
- 18:19And if I had the funding, I could
- 18:20probably develop the
- 18:21emotional board because
- 18:23you have spent millions of dollars from
- 18:25the profit we made over the past.
- 18:27We see from 17 to 2013 to
- 18:292018, 19 million Patrick.
- 18:31Everything was invested.
- 18:33But now we could add fuel
- 18:35to bring it to another level.
- 18:38And the space was getting very hot with
- 18:40NASDAQ and tech companies.
- 18:42So those two gentlemen met
- 18:43me on a Saturday morning.
- 18:45I think it was December 24th.
- 18:47Long story short,
- 18:48they love what they saw.
- 18:49They were, they never drove any boat.
- 18:50So I put them on the rental
- 18:51operation on a small boat.
- 18:52They never drove a boat of their life and
- 18:55they were bankers from New York.
- 18:57They loved it.
- 18:58It's just wow.
- 18:59This and I tell imagine driving that
- 19:01thing at 40, 50 miles per
- 19:02hour in a space that you
- 19:04have the right to drive them around
- 19:05because in Newport
- 19:06Beach, you cannot go fast.
- 19:07It's limited because stuff.
- 19:08Yeah.
- 19:08I put restriction a bit like everywhere
- 19:10in Florida, as we speak
- 19:11today, most of the waterways.
- 19:13Yeah.
- 19:13Ocean wise, you're good, but but in their
- 19:15coastal, it's you got to
- 19:17watch your speed, right?
- 19:18Correct.
- 19:19So certain sign a term sheet and we went
- 19:22public in 2020 and
- 19:24November did the IPO myself
- 19:26with my assistant straight IPO and from
- 19:29there we never stopped.
- 19:32And this is where we started out
- 19:33developing great relationship with both
- 19:36manufacturers taking their
- 19:38boats, removing the fuel tank, putting
- 19:41the batteries developed to
- 19:42replace or mimic the size
- 19:44of a fuel tank, develop the great
- 19:47relationship with McLaren
- 19:48engineering, because we've been
- 19:50testing our system for since 2015.
- 19:53Yeah.
- 19:53I need someone that will validate that.
- 19:55So we did the McLaren engineering dino
- 19:57testing about for 24 months, they
- 20:00validate the power at the
- 20:02propeller. If it was not overheating and
- 20:05they were swapping engine
- 20:06every 30 days and learning
- 20:09how to do the commercialization and doing
- 20:11the mass assembly with Lenimar, the
- 20:13motherhead companies,
- 20:15the building market cap company.
- 20:16So we think it's for
- 20:18making me even more than that.
- 20:20Um, build the team to improve and
- 20:24increase the volume of
- 20:26production and get also the system
- 20:30protected with patent.
- 20:32So these are all they were all new things
- 20:34that we've put in
- 20:35place and slowly from one
- 20:39integration to a second to another one
- 20:41doing boat shows with
- 20:42manufacturers because back then
- 20:44we couldn't have the right to sell boats.
- 20:45We were taking a boat from a
- 20:47Winnebago that owns Barletta.
- 20:49So we get a boat for free.
- 20:52We put the system on.
- 20:53We do the testing together with their
- 20:55engineering teams, the CG.
- 20:57It can still be certified
- 20:58with the US Coast Guard.
- 21:00Okay.
- 21:00Let's now let's go.
- 21:01You're going to go out there at our
- 21:02dealer meeting and you're going to
- 21:03present in front of 400 dealers.
- 21:05And if you're getting 10
- 21:07thumbs up, we're going to move for.
- 21:09And then if we get a hundred thumbs up,
- 21:10what are we going to do?
- 21:11And you get a hundred
- 21:12thumbs up because the deuces.
- 21:13Wow, it's good.
- 21:14But this is 2021, 22,
- 21:1623 and things are moving.
- 21:18And we cannot actually do
- 21:20integration as fast as we can.
- 21:23There's it's too heavy.
- 21:24So we said we're going
- 21:25to choose the right one.
- 21:26So we choose most of the manufacturers we
- 21:28choose were NASDAQ listed companies or
- 21:32big boat manufacturers.
- 21:34Yeah, it was, it was probably a mistake
- 21:36as, as I see it today, it
- 21:38was giving a lot of credibility
- 21:39to the product.
- 21:40But when the market slows down, those big
- 21:42guys are putting the
- 21:44handbrake and it did happen in 24.
- 21:46So EV space market too much boat produce
- 21:51after COVID because
- 21:52during COVID it was insane.
- 21:54But in the small carbon glass
- 21:55boat, you couldn't get them.
- 21:58And this is where the market start.
- 22:00The EV space start cooling down for us.
- 22:02So end of 2024.
- 22:05So 2025 was challenging, but I'm
- 22:08forgetting a big part of the story.
- 22:11In 2016, after the
- 22:14Fort Lauderdale boat show,
- 22:17as it was September, I said, I need to
- 22:20expose boats in Florida.
- 22:21It's about 25 hours of driving.
- 22:24It's closer to California.
- 22:25So I started advertising and putting
- 22:26boats in malls close to
- 22:28the Christmas tree during
- 22:30Christmas time and putting them in
- 22:32fountains in malls, Galleria
- 22:34malls and places like that in
- 22:36Florida and putting one
- 22:37in the water in the canal.
- 22:38So people could go in to
- 22:39do the Christmas shopping.
- 22:40They see the boat at the mall.
- 22:42They want to, they want to see trial it
- 22:44putting them on a, on a
- 22:46golf cart, bringing them right
- 22:47away on the water and full experience.
- 22:49And I met a gentleman, correct.
- 22:53And people, 99.9% of the boats we sell
- 22:56electric, they don't get financed.
- 22:57The consumer of an electric boat or an
- 23:00electric car is a different
- 23:01buyer than your regular gas
- 23:03car or interesting.
- 23:05Yes. It's interesting.
- 23:08And, uh, met a man called Roger Moore.
- 23:11Uh, his nickname is, uh, double seven.
- 23:15And he had a huge dealership
- 23:16group that it was building.
- 23:17It was called nautical venture.
- 23:18They were all orange dealerships and they
- 23:20were all wearing shirts,
- 23:22became friends with him.
- 23:23And I love what he said the story.
- 23:25He owns both dealership and we became
- 23:27friends and he became a mentor.
- 23:29So he was the one along the past 10 years
- 23:33presenting me to
- 23:35Benito CEO Starcraft, uh,
- 23:38actual part.
- 23:39So he had those connections because he
- 23:41was one of the best dealerships in the U
- 23:42S selling their product.
- 23:44So it was, it was easy for him to present
- 23:46Alex as the new guy
- 23:48with the tech and the,
- 23:50the, the, the electric outboards to be
- 23:52installed in a Benito
- 23:53boat into a Starcraft boat.
- 23:55So when I was arriving with Roger, the
- 23:57relationship with manufacturers were, and
- 24:00Roger was very successful
- 24:01building a number one dealer in 2024 over
- 24:05the U S top 100 dealers in
- 24:07the U S building nautical
- 24:08venture, but Roger was, uh, selling big
- 24:13brands and, uh, he was
- 24:15stuck after COVID because during
- 24:17COVID, he was running out of boats,
- 24:18started ordering more
- 24:19boats, more boats, more boats.
- 24:21And then COVID crashed.
- 24:23Yes. Yeah. Everything stopped selling.
- 24:26He had about a hundred million dollars
- 24:28worth of boat in 13 of his dealership,
- 24:33uh, all across Florida
- 24:34and couldn't actually,
- 24:36uh, survive like that.
- 24:37He needed plan B. So he was looking at
- 24:40for an equity for company to come and
- 24:42rescue him or buy him out.
- 24:44But it came with a lot of, uh, challenges
- 24:46because he owes those boats to the bank.
- 24:49So, but for me, I was seeing it in a
- 24:52different way that I would use those
- 24:54dealerships for distribution,
- 24:56uh, marketing and actually, uh, recon for
- 25:00the market. You want
- 25:01to buy an electric boat,
- 25:02come in one of our dealerships, and I
- 25:03could use the legacy
- 25:04business to still keep selling gas
- 25:07boat. So, uh, we did a, about eight
- 25:09months due deal on the acquisition, uh,
- 25:13sign up the deal and
- 25:14finally closed the deal in June 20th,
- 25:172025. So about a year ago
- 25:20from now, with a lot of debt,
- 25:22a lot of debt, a lot of boat. And we
- 25:25cleaned the house. We sold a 94, 90 over
- 25:2990% of the inventory
- 25:30on real reduce almost all debt to close
- 25:32to $5 million. So from
- 25:34what they had in floor plan,
- 25:35now it's, yeah, but we were able to push
- 25:38the same time. The inventory
- 25:40we had built in Montreal on
- 25:42the EV boats sold out, sold everything in
- 25:44during that period and built
- 25:46a book of orders because now
- 25:48people have a place to go to talk to
- 25:51discuss. And we have a lot of footprint
- 25:54in boat shows and the
- 25:56presence of nautical ventures in this
- 25:58space is very well
- 26:00respected in its big Roger built
- 26:01something very strong. Uh, he built a
- 26:04very nice empire, uh, but he
- 26:06got stuck by the market. It's
- 26:08not because of bad decisions. It was
- 26:10just, yeah, it was just the way I mean,
- 26:12COVID screwed a lot of people over in
- 26:13terms of what happened. Businesses going
- 26:15up and down and yeah, I can see that.
- 26:1995% of the dealer in the US were in the
- 26:21same position as Roger were, but they
- 26:23were not as proactive as we were during
- 26:25the past 12 months of, uh, the stocking,
- 26:28the inventory, some of them
- 26:29were very stiff on pricing.
- 26:31Yeah, it was time more change. We reduced
- 26:34the inventory, reduced the operation. And
- 26:37instead of having in one country four
- 26:39dealerships, we ended up having one and
- 26:41we are actually improving services and
- 26:43parts and having different types of
- 26:45revenue with the EV space adding on top
- 26:48of that. So we ended up
- 26:50having our own distribution. So if you do
- 26:52a quick recap, so we do build boats in
- 26:54Montreal, we built also outboards.
- 26:57Yeah, we have the dealerships that sells
- 26:59gas boats, but also electric boats and we
- 27:01do maintenance for any electric boats,
- 27:04but also, and no one does that in the US.
- 27:06No one has the knowledge to do high
- 27:07voltage because we've
- 27:08created a system with my team.
- 27:10Yeah, with an architecture of 800 volts.
- 27:13So you cannot find a guy that
- 27:14will fix your electric boat.
- 27:16Right. And but the guys in Europe were 10
- 27:19years ahead of us are building those
- 27:20system and they don't have anyone in the
- 27:22US. So we came a very
- 27:24knowledgeable source for them.
- 27:26Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking a lot here.
- 27:28So I'm going to let you know, it's it's
- 27:30it's perfect. It's perfect. Because like
- 27:32I kind of want to get into that
- 27:34technology in terms of because, you know,
- 27:37you kind of mentioned earlier
- 27:39that, you know, the gas market, the
- 27:40market for gas boats, gas powered boats
- 27:42is kind of going down and the EV boats
- 27:45are coming up. You mentioned obviously
- 27:46Newport Beach, California, usually ahead
- 27:48of time in terms of this type of
- 27:51technology, like
- 27:51environmentally friendly technology.
- 27:53Can you just talk about let's start off
- 27:57with just the benefits of having an EV
- 27:59boat, you know, from a, from an
- 28:02environmental perspective and then a cost
- 28:04perspective as well for the boater
- 28:05because that always kind of comes in
- 28:07hand. Both you and I, we drive electric
- 28:10vehicles on the road.
- 28:10You obviously drive electric vehicles on
- 28:13the water to when you when you get the
- 28:15chance. We'll talk about some of the some
- 28:16of the accolades around that in a second.
- 28:19But can you just talk about like the
- 28:20environmental and the financial benefits
- 28:22of having an EV boat?
- 28:25The first thing that people notice, as I
- 28:27mentioned earlier, if you're coming to
- 28:29buy a gas pontoon, I will let you drive
- 28:31it and then I will make you drive the
- 28:32same boat with an electric engine. It's
- 28:35quiet as hell. And then as a captain
- 28:38perspective, the torque is insane.
- 28:41So it jumped on plane because that's the
- 28:42cool part on a boat. It's when it jumps
- 28:44on plane because if it drags, it takes
- 28:46forever. Then it jumps on plane very
- 28:47quickly. You don't feel the vibration of
- 28:51the engine. It's pretty smooth. And I can
- 28:54talk to my wife, my kids, my
- 28:57father-in-law at 20, 22 miles per hour
- 28:59and having a nice discussion because it's
- 29:02also social. If you're
- 29:04boating alone, it's not fast.
- 29:06So and then the so the noise first, then
- 29:11the torque, the experience, a bit like an
- 29:13electric car. But once you know that it's
- 29:16like having a Tesla, you don't see just
- 29:17racing every corner because people know
- 29:19the power they have. They don't have
- 29:20anything to prove. So on the boat, it
- 29:23jumps on plane. You like it. But most of
- 29:25the boat of the boat user do less than
- 29:27nine nautical miles every time that their
- 29:29boats out because we did a study before
- 29:31getting into the market. And that's the
- 29:33average coming from
- 29:34the boat club members.
- 29:36From a carefree boat club, people are
- 29:40doing nine nautical miles and most of
- 29:41that they're doing nothing at trolling
- 29:43and then they push it for four or five
- 29:45minutes, 25, 30 miles per hour.
- 29:47Just more enjoyable that way. Like for a
- 29:48lot of people who are on the boats, it's
- 29:50the point of being out on the water and
- 29:52stuff. Yeah. And then something also, it
- 29:54doesn't smell. I'm going to tell you why,
- 29:56because when you're driving one of the
- 29:57electric pontoons and
- 29:58you cross another gas boat.
- 30:01You smell it.
- 30:02But when you're on it and
- 30:03you have those fumes. Yeah.
- 30:06It's just so used to it sometimes because
- 30:08that's what you're used to, right?
- 30:11And the other thing is when you're done,
- 30:14your day is done. You're coming back
- 30:15after seven, eight hours of boating. You
- 30:17bring that thing back home if you have a
- 30:18dock, regular shore power, same shore
- 30:21power that your gas owner would use to
- 30:24get his boat charged because every boat
- 30:25needs to be charged at night.
- 30:26Most of them because they have bilge pump
- 30:28and they have accessories that needs to
- 30:30make sure that they work if the rain gets
- 30:32into it. So we're
- 30:33using the same power cord.
- 30:35And if you're so that's a very good point
- 30:36because as I told you, I've been owning
- 30:39houses on the water for the past 25 years
- 30:41and the challenge was Saturday morning.
- 30:43And when I want to take my boats out on
- 30:45the water, I need to go buy some gas, but
- 30:47that thing in the back of my truck. Yeah.
- 30:50And then I have to walk
- 30:50with those head. Yeah.
- 30:52And down the down whichever way you need
- 30:54to go, like especially I'm thinking
- 30:56cottages in Northern Ontario down a hill
- 30:59up a hill downstairs. Yeah, for sure.
- 31:00Yeah. You have to take your wife range
- 31:03over and then you spill some gas on the
- 31:06carpet and you just ruin it or an
- 31:09escalator Yukon and it's a hundred
- 31:10thousand dollar car that smells gas.
- 31:13And for sure. You need a second car
- 31:14almost to do the maintenance of your boat
- 31:16and to pull those boats out and and
- 31:18you're using it so little.
- 31:20So back home, get that thing on charge.
- 31:25So the benefit is how easy is it to run
- 31:28or operate and the system of the tail
- 31:31trim of the boat adjust by themselves as
- 31:33well. So the knowledge to drive a boat
- 31:35around is very, very easy.
- 31:37It's much easier system has come with a
- 31:40huge screen as big as twice the size of
- 31:42your iPad, iPad, like a Tesla screen.
- 31:45Yeah. Gives you the range with a big
- 31:47number things that you have with your gas
- 31:49boats. What's the range of your gas onto?
- 31:51Good luck when the needle is down.
- 31:53You screwed. What's the mileage you can
- 31:54do with a system we have created because
- 31:56the experience we have made around over
- 31:58the past 80,000 rental, 88,000, 85,000
- 32:02rentals. You have a big
- 32:03number. That's the mileage.
- 32:04You the range in miles or kilometers,
- 32:07depending where you are at the speed
- 32:09you're doing. So at 10, 10 miles per
- 32:10hour, the number, let's say it's a
- 32:12hundred miles. If you go 20 miles per
- 32:15hour, it will decrease. So the numbers is
- 32:17adapting with the speeds you're doing a
- 32:19lot like your car today. Your cars have
- 32:21that. But both don't have that. Right. On
- 32:23top of that, you have a screen, a map
- 32:25with a shadow and the shadow is the range
- 32:28that you can achieve at that speed. Okay.
- 32:30At 15% we have a limp mode. So if you're
- 32:34doing 24, 45, 45, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50,
- 32:3450, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50. 50,
- 32:3450, 50, 50. 50, 50, 1.5 miles per hour.
- 32:35And you have 20% you're having a good
- 32:37time when you're going to hit 15% it will
- 32:40slow down slowly. You won't even feel it.
- 32:43Yeah, you're going to hit about nine
- 32:44miles per hour. It will give you range
- 32:46for about an hour 15 minutes. So there's
- 32:51no reason for us to see one of our
- 32:54electric boat running out of gas and we
- 32:56see a lot of gas boats running
- 33:04stuck on a boat, a gas boat without gas,
- 33:07then you need to find
- 33:08someone that will bring gas
- 33:09on any of our boats or you bring to
- 33:13someone else's house and
- 33:14they don't have fuel, so
- 33:15you're screwed.
- 33:16You bring the boat to any places, any
- 33:18houses can get our boat
- 33:20charged, as I mentioned earlier,
- 33:22because they can be charged with, they
- 33:24don't need any grid
- 33:25because the charging system
- 33:27is installed in the boat.
- 33:29So 120 volt or 240 and if your boat is on
- 33:35a trailer and you want
- 33:35to use your power wall
- 33:37because it's on a trailer, you have a
- 33:39power wall at home, you
- 33:40use a power wall, we have
- 33:41to develop an adapter that goes from the
- 33:43power wall adapter or
- 33:44the regular fast charging
- 33:47to your your shore power charging outlet.
- 33:50So it's convenient.
- 33:51It's so it's easy.
- 33:53It looks crazy when you don't own a boat,
- 33:55you don't see them on the water.
- 33:56Once you're in one of
- 33:57them, you just see everything.
- 34:00Yeah, it's like driving an electric car
- 34:02for two years, then OK, I'm going to get
- 34:03back to a big 6.6 gas liter.
- 34:06Yeah, I think what's interesting too is
- 34:09like, you know what?
- 34:09Before I bought my electric car, I was
- 34:12fascinated and very concerned about
- 34:17running out of electricity.
- 34:18Like, you know, like before you buy an
- 34:20electric vehicle, you're like, OK, like,
- 34:22are there enough, you know,
- 34:24chargers like what do I have to worry
- 34:25about, like all this kind of stuff.
- 34:27And when you get a car like an electric
- 34:30vehicle, you start to drive it and you
- 34:32start to realize that there
- 34:34are enough charges around.
- 34:35You can charge at home, as you mentioned,
- 34:37like it's easy to plug
- 34:38in at night in Ontario.
- 34:39You get like super cheap
- 34:41to to plug in overnight.
- 34:43And so it's really, really easy to
- 34:45navigate around when you're doing this.
- 34:48Now, I'm not talking about Saskatchewan
- 34:49and minus 40 for three weeks after the
- 34:52year or anything like that.
- 34:53But I'm talking about southern Ontario
- 34:55going to northern Ontario.
- 34:57It's really easy to you're not going to
- 34:59run out of electricity if you plan
- 35:00properly and usually gets
- 35:02planned for you on a boat.
- 35:04You just mentioned that, like, even when
- 35:06you're on in the middle of the water,
- 35:07middle of the lake, say, or along the
- 35:09coastline of the of the ocean, you know,
- 35:12I'd probably be I would imagine that's
- 35:13probably one of the
- 35:14biggest questions you get.
- 35:16Right. The most of the most questions you
- 35:17get is like, hey, you know,
- 35:20like, am I going to run out?
- 35:21But you just mentioned it. It already
- 35:22does it automatically where it slows it
- 35:24down, you know, to
- 35:25like nine miles an hour.
- 35:27And then you guys like that you have
- 35:28basically have an hour and 15 or whatever
- 35:30amount of time to get back
- 35:32to wherever you're going.
- 35:34And you're pretty much good or even get
- 35:36to a charging station or a cord just to
- 35:39get you that charge.
- 35:40I feel like that would like settle a lot
- 35:43of people down in terms of getting, you
- 35:45know, around the charging aspect of an
- 35:49electric electric vehicle.
- 35:51On the water or even on the on land.
- 35:54Yes. And as I mentioned earlier, we do
- 35:56sell a lot of gas boat from our nautical
- 35:59venture dealership. And I would say that
- 36:02I never hear heard or saw one of our
- 36:04electric customer calling us because they
- 36:08run out of electricity.
- 36:09And they know what to do. But I can tell
- 36:10you on the gas site. Yeah. It's going.
- 36:14They don't know what's going on, but the
- 36:16boat doesn't work anymore. Right.
- 36:18Okay, so I think you have gas.
- 36:21You've been driving electric cars.
- 36:23How many times were you stuck on the
- 36:24highway on the street
- 36:25without power and the car doesn't
- 36:27work?
- 36:28Never.
- 36:29Never.
- 36:30So the biggest challenge we have is to
- 36:36actually have people to
- 36:38look at the product because
- 36:39they don't think it exists.
- 36:40So once they see it, it's the visibility.
- 36:43So what I've been asking God to bring in
- 36:45my life is Mercury or
- 36:47Honda to start working
- 36:49on something close to what they've been
- 36:51building for decades,
- 36:53200 horsepower gas motor.
- 36:55So I wanted 200 gas, 200
- 36:57horsepower electric motor.
- 36:58So people say would say, you
- 37:00know what if Honda is doing it?
- 37:01It makes sense.
- 37:02Keep in mind in 2010, 12, 13, the only
- 37:04guy that was doing
- 37:05really electric cars was Tesla
- 37:07and people were betting against him.
- 37:09And today you're buying electric car.
- 37:11People will say, no, no, no, no, no, no.
- 37:13It could be an RBMW, but
- 37:15yeah, it's, this is where we are.
- 37:17We are in 2010, 11.
- 37:18So it's very, very new and we need a big
- 37:21player to come on board
- 37:22after Tesla, then Ford came
- 37:24on board and GM and BMW and everyone's
- 37:28doing something electric.
- 37:30And it's not for everyone.
- 37:31And I'm not trying to change the world.
- 37:33I'm just giving the options.
- 37:35And if we can get 1% of the market per
- 37:38year, that would be
- 37:39awesome because it's huge in
- 37:41the US.
- 37:42Well, I feel like it can get big in
- 37:44Canada too, you know, in
- 37:46terms of how many people
- 37:47buy boats.
- 37:48You've got the Great Lakes.
- 37:48You've got so many lakes in and around
- 37:50and you've got the
- 37:51coastlines, of course, you
- 37:52know, Vancouver, like on the BC side on
- 37:54the East coast, you've
- 37:56got all those Atlantic
- 37:59provinces and anything within Quebec and
- 38:01more and more people
- 38:02are getting out on the
- 38:03water there, you know, and with climate
- 38:05change, it actually
- 38:05benefits people because it'll
- 38:07probably be warmer longer.
- 38:08You can probably be on the water longer.
- 38:11You know, there's it seems to be like a
- 38:14really easy sell from a
- 38:17lot of different perspectives
- 38:19because, you know, not only from an
- 38:20environment, so
- 38:21environmental it is, you know, it's not
- 38:23you're not using gasoline,
- 38:24you're not using fossil fuels.
- 38:25So right there,
- 38:26you're you're reducing it.
- 38:28There's no leakage of oil or gas because
- 38:31you're not using oil or gas.
- 38:34And then the noise is down.
- 38:35So if you think about a lot of boats that
- 38:37are on the ocean and
- 38:38you worry about marine
- 38:39mammals that have to worry about noise
- 38:42and communication, you
- 38:43know, you're pretty good,
- 38:45you know, other than getting out of their
- 38:47way so you don't hit them.
- 38:48But in terms of noise, they're not going
- 38:50to hear you coming
- 38:51because, you know, you're
- 38:52quiet.
- 38:53So that's that's always nice.
- 38:55But then from a from an actual user
- 38:56perspective, you know, which is what
- 38:58probably most people
- 38:59will focus on.
- 39:00Like you mentioned, it's quiet so you can
- 39:02be social on the boat
- 39:03while you're in motion.
- 39:05It's easy, like it's less, less cost to
- 39:09charge and to, you
- 39:11know, you don't have to
- 39:12focus on gasoline and
- 39:13all that kind of stuff.
- 39:14You don't have to buy it
- 39:15and everything like that.
- 39:17And then, you know, it's just it's like
- 39:19less maintenance
- 39:20because there's less parts to
- 39:22maintain.
- 39:23So it seems like a pretty easy sell.
- 39:27Why don't we see is it just because it's
- 39:29just limited and the
- 39:31technology is kind of
- 39:33coming onto the market now where people
- 39:34are starting to realize why don't we see
- 39:36it in more markets other
- 39:38than like California and
- 39:39Florida? Like why don't we
- 39:40see it up in Canada as much?
- 39:43We see we see it much.
- 39:45We see them much more
- 39:47on the across the ocean.
- 39:49So I would say in Europe, I would say
- 39:51it's about 10 to 15 percent of
- 39:53the market is going that way.
- 39:56And there are there are
- 39:58a few years ahead of us.
- 40:00We see them here without
- 40:02knowing that they are electric.
- 40:03As I mentioned, Duffy had
- 40:05built 14 or 50 thousand of them.
- 40:08And we did build the fan tails and the
- 40:10vault, probably three, twenty five
- 40:13hundred or three
- 40:13thousand bolts like that.
- 40:15So it's not a lot.
- 40:16It's still 17000.
- 40:17There's flux and other smaller guys.
- 40:20It's not a big segment of the market
- 40:21because keep in mind there's about three
- 40:23hundred and thirty thousand outboard sold
- 40:25per year only in the
- 40:26U.S. And it's a very small market
- 40:28compared to the European market.
- 40:30The problem that we have is there's no
- 40:32big players going that direction because
- 40:35they have built an
- 40:36infrastructure and a product chain
- 40:38assembly for ice engine.
- 40:41And if you start changing that and
- 40:42because it's much it's
- 40:44a much different animal.
- 40:45The only thing you have is the calling.
- 40:47That's the same.
- 40:47I'm using I won't lie to what's who
- 40:50calling and to what's who are actually
- 40:52doing mercury and under
- 40:53depending the size of it.
- 40:54So we're using what's
- 40:55been used by the industry.
- 40:56So it's well, it's it's it's saltwater
- 40:59tested and it's a very
- 41:01solid Japanese product.
- 41:02Yeah, the calling, the
- 41:04engineering around it, it's amazing.
- 41:05The core is another design.
- 41:08But if you're building 50 or $100,000 gas
- 41:11outboards and some of them, not some, all
- 41:14of them, let's say, I
- 41:16mean, makes troubling here.
- 41:18From the 90 horsepower to the 140, it's
- 41:20the same base, but they change the
- 41:22exhaust and they change the mapping.
- 41:24If you need to change everything and go
- 41:26back to a new technology by the time that
- 41:29you're up and running, you're dead.
- 41:31They're too big.
- 41:32So what they will do once they're ready
- 41:35and they feel that they can get a big
- 41:37segment, I think they will buy a company
- 41:39that's already exist.
- 41:40It's going to be interesting here.
- 41:42Then starting from scratch, I've been
- 41:44investing a lot of millions of dollars,
- 41:46but it's not only about the money.
- 41:48It's about the time invested to create
- 41:51what we add and fighting the patterns and
- 41:54having the right chains of suppliers
- 41:55because 95 percent of the parts that we
- 41:58are using, except the calling, are parts
- 42:01built by our own tooling.
- 42:03So the battery pack, we own the tooling,
- 42:05but we have a pack maker.
- 42:07So we're using Octillion is one of the
- 42:0910th biggest pack maker in the world.
- 42:12So is packaging a battery made for the
- 42:14size of the casing we need?
- 42:16That certification is on by us.
- 42:18The tooling is ours and we have patents
- 42:20for the BMS and the information that
- 42:22drives around the system.
- 42:24So it's same thing with the motor using a
- 42:26very large electric motor company after
- 42:29using their off the shelf product,
- 42:31they've manufacture a motor that will
- 42:33cool and be able to
- 42:35last on saltwater for us.
- 42:37So by having all those things been put
- 42:39together for the past 13 years now and
- 42:43got now 20,000 hours of testing.
- 42:47Yeah, plus that it was expensive to do
- 42:50the McLaren engineering
- 42:50testing for two years.
- 42:52So just the cabinet to withdraw 700 or
- 42:55700 volt, 24 hours a day, because you
- 42:58have to mimic the power of a battery
- 42:59nonstop for 24 hours a day.
- 43:01It's long story short, it's much easier
- 43:04to to get something built by someone like
- 43:07Vision Marine instead of
- 43:08building it from scratch.
- 43:10Mercury tried it.
- 43:11They've worked on it and they've started
- 43:14developing a five horsepower, a 10 horse.
- 43:17And then we start pushing out on our end
- 43:18and we did build a race boat to show to
- 43:22the world that we were better than
- 43:23Jaguar, Jaguar, the car company.
- 43:26Yeah, you can go on YouTube and check it.
- 43:28It's pretty cool what they did. 2020 21.
- 43:31They did. They took the e-pace electric
- 43:34race car motor and put that thing on a
- 43:36small 20 feet boat one seater.
- 43:39So we cannot even have your glass of
- 43:40water in that boat. It's very small. It's
- 43:42a formula one boat. Very, very small.
- 43:44They put the technology on it.
- 43:46Spend millions of dollars in two years of
- 43:49development with a crazy story around it
- 43:51and hit 88 miles per hour with maybe
- 43:54four, 30 seconds or one second.
- 43:56Yeah. One minute. Yeah. And when we saw
- 43:59that. It's cool. But I don't think Jaguar
- 44:02is going to build motors and I don't
- 44:04think Jaguar is going to
- 44:05build outboards or both.
- 44:06But let's do a team building project. So
- 44:08we start working on that.
- 44:11Start poking around because I cannot
- 44:13drive fast boats anymore because the
- 44:14board doesn't allow me that for
- 44:16liabilities and other reasons. Of course.
- 44:19Yeah. So I reached out to Sean Torente,
- 44:21who's actually the world
- 44:23number one race boater.
- 44:25I raised driver and he's racing for
- 44:28Mercury and other big team Abu Dhabi and
- 44:31Qatar and he's a former he's the man on
- 44:35the planet. He's the man. Yeah.
- 44:37And he says, Sean, I want you to we will
- 44:40build the boat, the 32 footer boat that
- 44:43could be used with twin motors race on
- 44:45the gas division. And I want the same
- 44:47boat to be pushed by our same motors that
- 44:50we sell to consumer.
- 44:52Yeah. And show to Jaguar. We're going to
- 44:54be better than them. And there's a
- 44:57documentary on Amazon Prime and also on
- 44:59YouTube. It's a 24 minute documentary
- 45:01from it's called Can't Stop Won't Stop.
- 45:04So you got the full story. We've built
- 45:05that. So when we did the first boat, it
- 45:08was a pleasure boat. No top.
- 45:11Six passengers, 32 footer race cat. And
- 45:14we did 109 miles per hour. Shattering the
- 45:18world record by John. Yeah.
- 45:21And like almost like a school project.
- 45:23It's in a regular boat like in a boat
- 45:25that you was a production boat to receive
- 45:27gas tanks in it. And we.
- 45:30And when we did that, then Sean says, you
- 45:33know, we're going to take a real race
- 45:34boat now with capsule that could actually
- 45:37be racing with Mercury engines on
- 45:39weekends. Remove the engine, put electric
- 45:41ones on and we can be on the real circuit
- 45:44with real professional. No
- 45:45one can say you're doing.
- 45:47You're taking a and we that's part of the
- 45:50documentary. You'll see that. And with
- 45:51that one, we did 116 miles per hour. And
- 45:54as we speak, we've been challenging
- 45:56everyone. And with the same boat, it's
- 45:58faster with electric engine than with
- 46:00Mercury gas 300. Yes. And I'm challenging
- 46:04anyone in the world that say that there's
- 46:06something powerful on the electric
- 46:07because there's always a news flavor of
- 46:09the month. We've got the most powerful
- 46:10boats. Yes, please. We want
- 46:12that. We want the companies.
- 46:14And that it's showing that it's the right
- 46:18way. And there's probably some way I want
- 46:19someone to shatter that record because
- 46:21it's going to show to the industry that
- 46:22it's good. Now we see that every car
- 46:24manufacturer as a model, that's very
- 46:27powerful. And it's for early adapters.
- 46:29But on the on the car side, there's no
- 46:31more early adapters. It's it's a right.
- 46:33It's a community. And yes, on the both
- 46:36side, it's still early adapters. And I
- 46:38would say that the bike
- 46:402030, it's a 20 billion business.
- 46:44It's a growing business. And as we speak,
- 46:49I don't see who's bigger than us. I
- 46:51don't. There's and we need someone bigger
- 46:54than us. And we want that. And the market
- 46:57is huge. And we want to be sure that we
- 46:59see at least five, six percent of
- 47:01electric boats and marinas
- 47:02when we're traveling or one.
- 47:05That'd be cool.
- 47:07I've been driving electric boats in the
- 47:09ocean here in California. So I go to
- 47:11Huntington Beach or Laguna Beach and and
- 47:14I can have a very decent connections with
- 47:17dolphins and turtles or and moonfish
- 47:22because they're ready. There's no
- 47:25vibration. And I don't know why they love
- 47:27just the fact that you're moving like a
- 47:29little bit. And it's like, yes, yes. And
- 47:32the connection you mentioned earlier,
- 47:33it's what even in Florida, when you're
- 47:35driving that thing in the canal, you see
- 47:36manatees very, very because they don't we
- 47:39have to be cautious. Yes, of course.
- 47:42It's it's it's you're connected to the
- 47:44nature and being on the water. That's the
- 47:46most beautiful part. That's why people
- 47:47have so close because you've got that
- 47:49way. And you don't. And the only thing
- 47:52you hear on the electric boat is the
- 47:53water touching the
- 47:54hole. And that's amazing.
- 47:56I'm I'm getting excited. This is to be on
- 48:00one of them to understand that when
- 48:02you're in the market, that's the thing to
- 48:04do. And but it's not made for everyone.
- 48:06It's not a boat that you will move and do
- 48:08four hundred miles on a day. But no
- 48:10matter no matter what, no one does four
- 48:11hundred miles on a boat.
- 48:12Yeah, exactly. And when you're a voter,
- 48:15you need when you know when you do three
- 48:16hours of voting at 40 miles per hour, the
- 48:19only guy who enjoys it, it's the it's the
- 48:21captain. People in the boat cannot have a
- 48:22drink, a glass of water or something to
- 48:24eat. It's yeah, you're still on the
- 48:27ocean. You're still on the water. It's
- 48:28bumpy. And it's all that. Right. Yeah.
- 48:31Yeah. For sure. For sure. It's it's not
- 48:33made for that. Like you don't see big 53
- 48:36footer trucks on the highway electric.
- 48:37It's made to move people for from three
- 48:41passengers to seven passengers.
- 48:42It's not made now. It's not there yet,
- 48:45but it's made for people for family
- 48:47boaters boats between 18 to 30 feet and
- 48:50enjoying weekends for a full day of
- 48:53boating. And after it's overnight, the
- 48:54night you have to get that in charge in
- 48:56the next morning,
- 48:57you're back on the water.
- 48:58Love it. I think that's phenomenal. I
- 49:00think it's I think it's the future. I
- 49:02hope to see more in Canada more and more
- 49:04as we as we go along. I hope to be one of
- 49:06those owners at some point the next five
- 49:08years. And yeah, I think this will be
- 49:11it'll be a lot of fun.
- 49:12Before we go, you know, we talked about
- 49:14breaking the record, but you've also been
- 49:16involved, you know, as as we talk about
- 49:18EVs and the environmental benefits,
- 49:22you've also been involved with a
- 49:23conservation organization
- 49:24that's a friend of the podcast.
- 49:25We've had, you know, four oceans on huge
- 49:28talk a lot a little bit about that
- 49:30relationship and how
- 49:31they used your boats.
- 49:33Yes, I was in 2023, the year that we
- 49:37decided to build the second boats to do
- 49:39160 miles per hour. My father and my
- 49:42mother and I used to actually go sailing
- 49:45in the wintertime. So they were taking
- 49:46their sailboats from like Champlain
- 49:48driving down to Florida and then crossing
- 49:50to the exuma for the winter. And I did
- 49:52that for the past 20 years with them. And
- 49:53I love quite I like I like talking with
- 49:56people and having a good time on boats.
- 49:58So they were a little bit sad because we
- 50:00were not close to them and
- 50:01they were not close to the kids.
- 50:02Because we were working hard on building
- 50:04that race boats. And I said to Patrick,
- 50:06let's do a crazy challenge while we're
- 50:08doing the fastest one. Let's do the one
- 50:10that can has the more
- 50:11more more range in the world.
- 50:13So Pat took a 26 feet pound to add a huge
- 50:20solar panel canopy on its structure with
- 50:23enclosures because we're Canadian. So we
- 50:25know when it's raining, it's windy.
- 50:27So we said to the inlas, you're good to
- 50:30do the Hudson River from New York and
- 50:32you're able you know the route straight
- 50:34to Florida and let's bring it to Florida
- 50:36and we'll put Starlink on it, a coffee
- 50:39machine on it. And you have to drop the
- 50:41anchors and the solar panel will get that
- 50:43in charge during the
- 50:44day and you can move.
- 50:45Well, but you a tracking device people
- 50:47could follow you on YouTube and Instagram
- 50:50during your trip. You did it in your
- 50:52cellboat many times at seven miles per
- 50:54hour. Let's do it because most of the
- 50:56places you cannot go fast on that river.
- 50:58And for challenging purposes and stunt,
- 51:02we started from statue of liberty in New
- 51:05York. We dropped the pontoon there with a
- 51:07friend of mine who
- 51:08owns electrified Marina.
- 51:10Rick and he's a dealership that sells a
- 51:13lot of electric boats and he's a place to
- 51:15go in your net in that area electrified
- 51:18Marina. So we dropped my father in law,
- 51:2065 years old back then retired chief of
- 51:24police with my mother in law.
- 51:25Drop that thing there. Put our CBO on it.
- 51:28Chief vending officer with the GoPro
- 51:30drones and we'll see you in Florida and
- 51:33they made it and when the boat right. It
- 51:36was a sponsor given to for ocean because
- 51:38the deal with for ocean is when we were
- 51:42building was selling electric boats.
- 51:43We were giving X amount of dollar per
- 51:46electric boat sold and also for rentals
- 51:49and funny fact is as as this morning, my
- 51:52kids are distributing bracelet from for
- 51:54ocean door to door for and we're giving a
- 51:57dollar back to each rentals from our
- 52:00location in California for people who are
- 52:02coming down with a bracelet to our rental
- 52:03operation to sponsor and give more love.
- 52:06People don't know all for ocean is being
- 52:09proactive. There's like cleaning
- 52:11waterways. Alex is a rock star superstar.
- 52:14Amazing. And we need we need hundreds of
- 52:16those guys. They're doing an amazing job.
- 52:19And so it became when we arrived in Boca,
- 52:22we gave them the pontoon. It was was a
- 52:25very luxurious pontoon. I thought at
- 52:27first that I could use it to put, I would
- 52:30say remove garbage or floating plastic
- 52:33bottles from the ocean.
- 52:36I think I think it didn't make sense for
- 52:39them to use that. So they use it more
- 52:40like an office on the water because
- 52:42that's from the back to the front. A huge
- 52:44solar panel like very nice in glass with
- 52:48windows that you can remove. And then you
- 52:50can use that thing if it's raining
- 52:51because keep in mind, they may they were
- 52:53sleeping and moving from
- 52:55that boat with the solar.
- 52:57The the for the day that they did that in
- 53:00a week and a half or two weeks slowly
- 53:03driving down. So they did 13,000 miles on
- 53:07that electric boats.
- 53:08Along the coastal, like not just in the
- 53:11river, but along the coastline, like
- 53:13along the eastern US is that like they're
- 53:15they were hugging the coast as they go
- 53:17through. Yeah, from statue Liberty down
- 53:19to Boca and got told a few weeks ago that
- 53:23they sold it and they're using the funds
- 53:26to actually grow the business because it
- 53:28was it was too, too beautiful.
- 53:32And it's better for them to have a skier
- 53:34for different type of boat for what
- 53:36they're using a bar. They needed a barge.
- 53:38Yes, that's the thing. It was it was more
- 53:40described to them as a barge when they
- 53:42saw that thing coming
- 53:42to their their places.
- 53:46Well, and you're not putting your
- 53:47mother-in-law father-in-law on a barge to
- 53:49come down. It was and I could use that
- 53:55pontoon anytime in the day because it was
- 53:57covered. It was nice.
- 53:59Beautiful. Beautiful.
- 53:59And we have a great relationship with for
- 54:02ocean and we need more people like them.
- 54:05Yeah, absolutely. I think we had them on
- 54:07the pot. We had Alex on the podcast
- 54:09couple of years ago, talked about it's
- 54:11just how he does everything the way he,
- 54:13you know, in powers coastal communities,
- 54:16not just in Florida, but all over the
- 54:18world and, you know, pays them a living
- 54:20wage and they get to you.
- 54:21They get to their own management within
- 54:24their own area, like in Bali and Haiti
- 54:26and all over the place. I just think what
- 54:27they're doing is absolutely fantastic. So
- 54:30it's no doubt in my mind why it made
- 54:33sense for you guys to partner with them
- 54:35and to help them out.
- 54:36I think it's I think it's fantastic.
- 54:38Listen, Alexander, this has been
- 54:40phenomenal. Like this has been eye
- 54:42opening. It's gotten me very, very
- 54:44excited about where
- 54:46boating is going in the future.
- 54:47And I think it's just it's a very helpful
- 54:51thing when you think about people who
- 54:53want to be more environmentally friendly
- 54:54and they're in the boating community. And
- 54:57I just feel like it's a it's a it's the
- 55:00most logical next step for people who
- 55:02want to who want to do wonderful boat. So
- 55:05we're boating with their families and
- 55:07stuff. I think it's I think it's great.
- 55:09I want to thank you for taking time. I
- 55:10know you're very, very busy man. So I
- 55:12appreciate you taking the time. Love to
- 55:14have you back. Talk more about electric
- 55:15boats and where we're going to go in the future with them.
- 55:16You know, down the line and it'd be a lot
- 55:20of fun. Thank you for having me today.
- 55:22But I would like to invite you on a boat
- 55:26for the next interview. So you could
- 55:28actually and the people could actually
- 55:30have the touch and feel of it. So I think
- 55:33it would be amazing.
- 55:35If you want to do it, they deserve that.
- 55:36And they're going to have a better
- 55:38understanding. And that's my job. I need
- 55:40to educate people. That's what I've been
- 55:42doing for the past 15 years now. 14 years
- 55:44I've been educating people. And I think the best thing to do is to help them out.
- 55:45And I think that's what I've been doing for the past 15 years. I've been doing a lot of work with people and I think the
- 55:46best way is using people like Alex or
- 55:50yourself. People who have the touch of
- 55:53what we're doing because you understand
- 55:55it. So if I could put you on a boat with
- 55:57your team, it would be a would be honored
- 56:00to do that. And you're twisting my arm
- 56:02here. This is what I'm doing.
- 56:10We're going to be able to chat. It'll be
- 56:14a lot of fun. Yeah, that would be
- 56:16awesome. Thank you so much Alexander.
- 56:19Thank you for joining us on today's
- 56:21episode of the How to Protect the Ocean
- 56:23podcast. Isn't it great to be able to
- 56:25know that when you go out boating that as
- 56:27you using your boat, as you're going from
- 56:29one place to another, you're not going to
- 56:31hear the motor. You can actually speak to
- 56:33your family. You can actually speak to
- 56:34the people in there and enjoy a quiet
- 56:36time on the ocean. Not only that, but
- 56:38think about how that reduces the amount of time you're going to be able to do that.
- 56:39How that reduces noise underwater, just
- 56:42not having that noise of a motor. I think
- 56:45that's really important. I think there's
- 56:46a lot of benefits that I was on the
- 56:47mentioned in this episode and it's just a
- 56:51new way of voting. It's going to be
- 56:52something that's going to happen more and
- 56:54more. And even though it doesn't take up
- 56:55a huge amount of the, I guess the
- 56:58recreational boating fleet, but it will
- 57:00eventually. And I think it'll overtake it
- 57:02as we get closer and more understanding
- 57:04about electric boating is had by
- 57:07everyone. So I want to thank Alexander for his time.
- 57:08I want to thank Alexander for joining us.
- 57:10You can go to Vision Marine technology.
- 57:13So visionmarinetechnologies.com. And of
- 57:16course, yeah, we'd love to hear from you
- 57:18what you what you think of the of this
- 57:20type of boating. Have you do have an
- 57:22electric motor on your boat? If not, what
- 57:25what entices you to do something in the
- 57:27future like that? I get an electric boat
- 57:30and what are your concerns? I'd love to
- 57:32hear them. Hit me up on the socials with
- 57:34links in the show notes. And of course,
- 57:36if you want to support the
- 57:37show, go to speakupforblue.com.
- 57:38For slash patreon will put vision Marines
- 57:41and Alexander's connect us connections
- 57:44with social media connections in the show
- 57:46notes as well. We want to thank
- 57:46Alexander. We want to thank you for
- 57:48joining us on today's episode of the how
- 57:50to protect the ocean podcast. Have a
- 57:51great day. We'll talk to you next time
- 57:52and happy conservation.