Zin Boats’ Bigger, Faster Electric Recreational Boat Is Built From The Hull Up With Pride In The PNW

After taking to the water during the pandemic, Zin Boats is back with a bigger, better electric boat that it built from the hull up—again. And with the first boat off the production line going to none other than Bill Gates, the company’s plan to power a new generation of clean, high-tech boats is off to a promising start.

Like many companies, startups and otherwise, the pandemic has hit Zin hard. Despite strong interest in the 20-foot Z2R runabout, the company, like much of the world, has been unable to get the supply and production lines in place. What’s more, the automotive and marine suppliers that supply hardware like batteries, drives, and the like have proven less reliable than the startup had hoped.

The founder and CEO of the company of the same name, Piotr Zin, took these setbacks as a challenge. If the car industry wouldn’t sell him batteries, he’d find someone else. And if existing boat engines and parts weren’t good enough, he’d design his own. Such determination is admirable, but the plan took some time and money.

“Instead of backing down, we said, let’s use this time to invest in research and development,” said Zin Boats President and COO David Donovick. “We were the first to do an electric runabout, but what haven’t we done yet?”

Apparently: to create something bigger — and much more elegant.

It’s hard to argue with the results. The 11-meter-long Z11, which will act as a tender for the $640 million hydrogen-powered megayacht ordered by Gates, is set to be unveiled at an industry event next week. But TechCrunch got a small preview of what’s under the floor, where the magic happens.

(That said, you’ll have to wait for the full reveal to see the real glamour shots. They were taken by the Zin Boats team at their Seattle headquarters.)

The Weight of a Pickup Truck in Space Batteries

For Zin (who is, coincidentally, my neighbor here in Seattle), starting from scratch provided an opportunity to truly reinvent how a boat like this would work. One of the first decisions the company had to make was about the battery and control systems.

The company has drawn conclusions from its previous use of commonly available car batteries and marine control systems.

Of the batteries he originally got from BMW, Zin said, “We were basically in a subordinate position because we were getting leftovers. We needed a battery supplier who wouldn’t cut us off.” But the batteries still had to be customizable, very energy-dense, and extremely safe. All it would take is one burning boat to sink a marine startup’s ambitions.

The startup found a supplier in Xerotech, an Irish company that makes a heavy-duty battery used in electric ore-transporting vehicles in mines. Its batteries have also been tested and selected by the European Space Agency for deployment on the International Space Station. So pedigree is assured!

These highly configurable cells are super safe and can be assembled in hundreds of configurations to power boats large or small (more on that later). They are also wrapped in the same thermal insulation material used in re-entry vehicles. And if, by some cosmic joke, a cell does catch fire, it is immediately extinguished by a flooding mechanism. No risk taken here.

Zin is proud that his startup has not only found such a great supplier, but also secured global exclusivity for marine batteries.

The first Z11 has a 400-kWh battery — for comparison, the Tesla Model 3 has a maximum of 83 kWh. Zin and Donovick said the batteries weigh as much as a Ford F150 and are placed below decks for maximum stability. The boat weighs 6,266 kilograms (14,300 pounds), which is quite light for a boat carrying a pickup truck — largely because Zin decided to use carbon fiber where no other material was absolutely necessary.

“You just plug this into that”

You might think that the relative simplicity of electric drivetrains compared to their combustion cousins ​​would make them easier to control. And they are — but simpler doesn’t mean simple.

Zin, an experienced industrial and electrical engineer, has done away with the standard components found in most boats to connect controls, batteries and motors.

“I had boxes of random electronics and wiring; their tech came in to put it together. It was supposed to take a day, and it took a week and a half. So with our system, you just plug this into that,” he said.

“This,” to be clear, is Zin’s all-in-one control unit that combines a dozen or so functions into one handsomely machined block of aluminum that translates joystick movements into thrust and prop speed vectors. Whether you have two motors, one, three, extra motors, this or that voltage, or some other variation, you simply connect the control unit to “this,” the drive and general wiring.

In fact, Zin plans to sell that central control unit and all the stuff below deck. The Z11 is a kind of “both a prototype and a viable boat—it shows that the next generation of technology is not only possible, it’s here,” Donovick said.

“Most of our work went into making the damn thing work,” Zin said. “What we put on top, how it looks and feels, it’s not that hard to change.”

Zin will make its own boats, but it also intends to happily sell the basic package—batteries, control unit, and drive—for only about $25,000, and boat builders can (and some already do) build their own boats around it. Smaller Zin boats are planned, but you can buy something from a well-known brand and see a little Zin badge on it.

The startup doesn’t plan to make it the cheapest boat on the market — it’s too fundamentally exclusive — but he said he expects plenty of others to fill other market segments. Lenovo and Apple exist, he noted, and you can pick any of them.

But as Zin points out, the extra money you might pay up front is offset by the near-total lack of maintenance required and, of course, the savings on fuel. Depending on the size of your boat, that could save you tens of thousands a year.

Proudly made in the Pacific Northwest

One aspect of a boat like this that you might not expect to hear about is local pride. Seattle has always been a hub for marine activity—we have large ports, larger ferries, and plenty of recreational boaters. But it’s one thing to create a custom powerboat, and quite another to create an industry-leading, category-redefining, electric utility boat with a size and performance that few have tried.

But it turned out that almost everything Zin Boats needed was located within about 200 miles of Seattle.

“When I moved here, I fell in love with Seattle and the Pacific Northwest,” Zin said. “And as I learned more about the history of this place, I learned that we live on the cusp of an untapped pool of talent. This boat (Z11) serves over a hundred people in dozens of companies throughout the Seattle area. The Pacific Northwest is open for business, for building really cool boats.”

Donovick also noted that the risks of running a global supply chain have only gotten worse. Having everything but batteries within a few hours’ drive is not only convenient, it also makes the company more resilient.

“We love the local influence,” he said. “But the other thing is we live in scary times, with trade wars, tariffs, supply chain issues. Those are real concerns.” Focusing not just on being built in the U.S. but also locally comes with a price, but also significant benefits.

The Z11 will officially debut at the International Boat Builders Exhibition in Tampa on October 1st, where we’ll tell you more about its onboard attractions.