Ultra-exclusive yacht club invites commercial electric boats to compete in 2023 race

To celebrate its 10th race competition, the Yacht club de Monaco is inviting commercially available electric boats to compete in the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge (MEBC) for the first time. The new commercial electric boat rally will join the Solar, Energy, and Open Sea Classes already in place with hopes to host the world’s largest gathering of electric maritime vessels.

The Monaco Energy Boat Challenge is an international challenge open to the public, which welcomes students and professionals from all over the globe to a week’s worth of race events in three different classes. It began in 2014 with the Solar Class competing across the harbor waters around Monaco.

In 2017, the Open Sea Class was added to allow manufacturers to showcase their electric technology over longer distances, racing from Monaco to Ventimiglia, Italy, and back. 2018 brought the Energy Class, which allows competitors to showcase innovations in clean propulsion technology, as well as Hydrogen powered boats

The 9th edition of the MEBC took place in July 2022 and brought 38 different teams from 20 different countries together to compete in the three classes mentioned above. To celebrate 10 years however, the Yacht club de Monaco – host of the MEBC – has given commercially available electric boats their own race rally.

Commercially available electric boats set to race in Monaco

According to Plug Boats, the ultra-exclusive Yacht Club de Monaco intends to host the first ever electric boat rally for commercially available vessels during the 2023 event, with hopes to achieve its goal of getting over 50 different electric vessels on the harbor of Monaco. The yacht club’s General Secretary Bernard d’Alessandri spoke:

Monaco has always been a yachting mecca and pioneer. To celebrate ten years of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge we want to demonstrate that non fossil fuel technology exists and is efficient and effective. What better way to do this than to organize the world’s biggest meeting of electric vessels with a target record participation of 55+ boats.

Which commercially sold electric boats will register to race on the shores of Monaco has yet to be determined. Sign ups are already underway and will continue into March, but we may see some familiar names as the event looks to expand its categories to allow more zero-emission vessels to showcase their technology. Many of the electric boats we cover are built on the coasts near Italy and France, so they wouldn’t have far to travel in order to race in 2023.

One familiar name we do know will be there is marine charging network Aqua superPower. During the 2023 MEBC event, the company intends to showcase its E-Dock – a floating bamboo pontoon equipped with AC marine chargers the ability to replenish 20 electric boats at the same time. It will be especially helpful during the electric boat races in the Open Sea Class.

Other features of the 2023 event will include Tech Talks and an Innovation lab where teams will compete for prizes based on their propulsion and marine technology. Nominees for the electric boat races will be announced in late March followed by the event July 3-8, 2023.

We’re hoping to attend, so stay tuned!