Public voting now open for 5th annual ‘Gussies’ electric boat awards

Nov 26, 2024

Finalists in 9 categories selected by International Judging Panel
 
An international panel of electric boat experts has narrowed down the entries in the fifth annual Gustave Trouvé Awards for Excellence in Electric Boats and Boating – The Gussies – and the public is now invited to weigh in with their favorites by voting online at plugboats.com. 

The voting page has photographs and descriptions of each boat with links to the Finalist company’s website for more information.

This year’s awards are being presented by three leaders in the electric propulsion revolution: 

            • Aqua superPower, the first fully marinized dockside network of fast chargers for electric boats,

            • BlueNav, developer of innovative hybrid solutions enabling more leisure and commercial boat owners to reduce their carbon impact

            • Oceanvolt, pioneer and leader in electric motors and propulsion systems for sailboats, non-planing motorboats and small passenger ferries and watertaxis

Almost 150 electric boats were nominated in this year’s competition, ranging from high-speed runabouts to leisure cruise and pontoon boats, to electric hydrofoiling ferries, to electrified jet propulsion tenders, electrified sailboats and tugboats to autonomous river boats. Categories for both production boats and boats ‘In Development’ show off a variety of innovations.

There are 24 countries represented, with boats from every continent except Antarctica:

Argentina, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal Singapore Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, the UK and USA.

“What the Finalists demonstrate  – and indeed all of the nominated boats – is that ‘an electric boat’ is now any kind of boat that just happens to be powered by batteries and/or hydrogen instead of by burning fossil fuel.” said Jeff Butler, Editor/Publisher of Plugboats.com, the international electric boats website that launched The Gussies in 2020. 

“The ‘In Production’ categories of the Gussies are filled with boats that are in use every day by recreational and commercial owners who are not just interested in protecting our waters and air, but love the quiet of electric boats, the lack of noxious fumes and minimal maintenance. They are also proving that electric propulsion can satisfy the range requirements of the vast majority of boaters.”

The criteria for the public to choose their favorites boats is simply those that best represent excellence in electric boats. The definition of excellence is up to each individual judge or public voter. 

The page for voting is https://plugboats.com/vote-in-the-2024-gussies-electric-boat-awards/

Having narrowed the field through a multiple vote process, the panel members will each vote again in a few weeks to select a single boat in each category. The winners will be decided through a combination of the online voting and the weighted votes of the panel.

All voting ends December 8, 2023. 

The Gussies winners will be announced Saturday, December 9.

Awards will be presented in 9 categories and sub categories:

            •  Electric Boats Under 8 metres/26 feet:

                        • In Production

                        • In Development 

            • Electric Boats Over 8m/26 ft: 

                        • In Production

                        • In Development

            • Electric Sailboats

            • Retrofitted / Customized / DIY Electric Boats

            • Electric Workboats

            • Commercial Electric Passenger Vessels:

                        • In Operation

                        • In Development

The Gussies are the only international boating awards that focus exclusively on electric boats and were created to recognize the inventors, designers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs and visionaries who are making advances every day to develop clean, quiet, zero emission technologies and designs to reduce reliance on fossil fuel for marine propulsion.

They are named to honour Gustave Trouvé, a prolific French inventor with over 75 patents – among them the world’s first outboard boat motor, which he devised so that he could detach the motor from his prototype electric boat ‘Le Teléphone’ and take it home for further work in his Paris apartment.

The International Panel of 35 electric boat experts includes representatives from boatyards that have won the awards in the first four years, along with members of national electric boat associations and IEMA, the International Electric Marine Association. IEMA is the first industry-backed association advocating national and international policies to enable the global marine sector’s transition to zero-emission by 2050.

Past winners on the panel include Axopar, Artemis Technologies, Boats and Cars of Kingston, Candela, Cantiere Ernesto Riva, Echandia, ecomarine, FarEast Boats, Faroboats, Freepower Solar Boat, Kochi Metro Water Taxi, Lamarca Engenharia, Maid of the Mist, ABB, MobyFly, Navalt, NERO Yachts, Silent-Yachts, Soel Yachts, , Swiss Sustainable Yachts, Sunreef Yachts, Tideman Boats, , Wildtech, ZEN Yachts and Zodiac Nautic.

For more information please contact

Jeff Butler
Editor/Publisher Plugboats
jeff@plugboats.com