TRUCKEE, California – Ruckmarine is a US company that partners with producers to market electric sport boats. One such collaboration – with Edorado Marine of the Netherlands – has led to an 8m high-performance sport boat that blends hydrofoil technologies and smart design.
Ruckmarine is the exclusive US distributor for the Edorado S8, a premium electric powerboat. It is a direct competitor of the Swedish-built Candela C-7, a newcomer to the Dutch market and first all-electric speedboat.
Like the Candela, the Edorado S8 rises on underwater hydrofoils to quietly ‘fly’ above the waves to massively reduce friction and get more distance from battery propulsion.
Edorado was founded by entrepreneurs Giel Groothuis and Godert van Hardenbroek. With designer Ivo van Hulten, who has worked on Porsche interiors, they have been working on the design of the S8 since last summer.
The S8, their project since 2014, had them collaborate with foils expert Tom Speer, the designer of Team Oracle that won the 2017 America’s Cup. By 2019, some 24 orders had been received, notably in the US.
The 8S prototype was spotted doing trial runs in the Netherlands recently and a radio-controlled model was used to develop the software for the foils. An 80kWh battery bank powers a 24V system with a step motor (a brushless DC motor that divides a full rotation into several steps).
The foils and propeller drive, both developed in-house, are retractable which makes the S8 trailerable and that’s a big difference from the Candela, which uses a Torqeedo electric outboard for propulsion.
Van Hardenbroek, a graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven, has worked on electric race cars. At Shanghai’s Tongji University, he helped form Dian Racing, a student team dedicated to the development of fast electric cars.
