ZeroJet has a stand at this year's Cannes Yachting Festival, at the Palais des Festivals. The New Zealand company builds electric jet propulsion for tenders and small craft; we caught up with the team at the Auckland Boat Show and a closer look at what they had offer showed us there was no exposed prop, no exhaust, and a quieter run ashore than a conventional outboard. MC-ZERO, its joint venture with composite builder McConaghy, is presenting alongside it. McConaghy's own résumé covers America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race builds, One Design fleets, and decades of results at the Rolex Sydney Hobart – it's a name Kiwi sailors will recognise from well outside the tender market. Together the two are building electric tenders around that pedigree.
It's a small footprint on a show floor with hundreds of exhibitors, but it means New Zealand propulsion tech is on the ground at Cannes this year, in a show carrying a noticeably strong electric and hybrid presence across several categories.
Two new models making their debuts sit squarely in that space.
Numarine's 27XP makes its world debut at Cannes, though the first hull was actually delivered back in May – Cannes is its first time in front of the public. Worth noting, the 27XP isn't a hybrid boat in the propulsion sense. Its twin MAN diesels do the driving. What's new is the onboard energy system, a 48-volt setup Numarine calls the Mk2 Super Silent Pack, combining solar generation, a substantial battery bank, shore power and smart load management. In practice that means less generator noise at anchor and more time running the fridge, the aircon and the rest of the boat's systems on stored and solar power instead. Five hulls were sold before the boat had even been shown publicly, the first going to a repeat Numarine owner trading up – a decent signal that buyers are already backing the idea.
Pioneer Yachts is putting its energy system to different use with the PY60, having its industry debut and first public showing at the Vieux Port. This one was designed from the outset around solar generation and battery storage, with a diesel generator kept as backup, rather than having batteries fitted afterwards to an existing hull. Founder Mike Frank plans to operate Pioneer One himself once she's launched, using her specifically to gather real-world performance data that'll feed into future production boats.
Sailing boats are chasing efficiency from a different angle again. Grand Soleil's new flagship, the Plus 80 Long Cruise, runs a Torqeedo electric propulsion system backed by two 40kWh battery packs and two 45kW generators. It's a story that belongs with this year's sailing debuts, and we'll cover it in full there.
