Jon Roskill, a onetime tech CEO in the Seattle area, with the Eelex 8000 electric boat from X Shore at the Seattle Boat Show at Lumen Field Event Center on Monday. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

The tagline for a Swedish electric boat company called X Shore, exhibiting one of its models at the 2023 Seattle Boat Show this week, is “The Power of Silence.”

The scene around the boat on Monday was anything but silent, as visitors clamored to get a look at the unique vessel, and a Seattle tech veteran spoke enthusiastically about why he got involved with the company.

Jon Roskill is the former CEO of business technology company Acumatica, and now serves in an advisory role with EQT Partners, the private equity firm that acquired Acumatica in 2019. An active investor and advisor, Roskill previously spent 14 years at Microsoft, including as corporate vice president in charge of the tech giant’s Worldwide Partner Group.

This week, Roskill is hyping X Shore, the company where he has a new board seat — and a seat behind the throttle of a 100% electric boat that is primed to turn heads among recreational boaters.

“These guys tracked me down through a combination of my interest in water sports,” said Roskill, noting that EQT has deep Nordic roots which helped connect him to Stockholm-based X Shore. “They were intentionally looking to get somebody from North America on the board, not in the marine business, with more of a traditional tech background.”

Jon Roskill at the controls of the Eelex 8000 electric boat by X Shore. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

Roskill joined X Shore shortly after touring the company’s factory in November and coming away impressed with an all-encompassing approach to sustainability.

“I’m really big on what we can do to decarbonize the world,” said Roskill, who owns everything from a sailboat to a Fliteboard eFoil.

He said X Shore is not out to compete by producing 200 or 300 units a year. To have an impact, the company’s goal is to get to 1,500 units a year by 2026-27. And the factory has the ability “to go further beyond that,” Roskill said.

X Shore isn’t competing with much of anything when it comes to electrification at the Boat Show. It’s the only fully electric boat on display among 289 exhibitors and approximately 800 boats. There are some manufacturers with electric outboard motors on display.

Boats fill the Lumen Field Event Center in Seattle for the 2023 Seattle Boat Show. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

George Harris is the president and CEO of the Northwest Marine Trade Association, which owns and produces the Boat Show. After 24 years with the event, he’s seen plenty, and in his estimation electric boating is still several years behind the pace of electric vehicle innovation and adoption.

“There’s a huge amount of interest in it,” Harris said. “But the thing we need to keep in mind is boating means something different to everybody.” Electrification is a much different discussion for boaters puttering around on Lake Union or Lake Washington than it might be for someone on Puget Sound or further offshore, as issues related to power, load capacity and range come into play.

Because most boat manufacturers pair with separate engine manufacturers, such as Yamaha or Mercury, Harris believes larger scale electrification will start with the motor makers.

There are still plenty of big gas-powered motors on powerboats at the Seattle Boat Show. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

In Seattle, Pure Watercraft has raised $37 million to build quieter, more environmentally friendly motors. General Motors acquired a 25% stake in the startup in 2021.

A November study by The Insight Partners found that the global electric boat market is expected to grow from $5.26 billion in 2022 to $11.35 billion by 2028.

Harris said new data shows that the No. 1 demographic visiting the Seattle Boat Show website is the 35 to 44 age group, supplanting the previous No. 1, 55 to 64 years olds. He credits younger tech money and a robust interest in outdoor recreation, one lingering silver lining from the pandemic for the outdoor industry.

The X Shore Eelex 8000 on display would command a chunk of that money with a starting price of $295,000. The 26-foot, center-console boat features a 170 kW electric motor, a top speed of 30 knots, cruising speed of 20 knots, battery capacity of 126 kWh and range of 100 nautical miles at lower speeds. The boat can charge with shore power in five to eight hours, or reach full charge on a supercharger in less than two hours.

The 24-inch touch screen display and the cork flooring and cap rails on the X Shore boat. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

The dual 63 kWh lithium-ion batteries weigh 800 pounds apiece, and the boat has a stout, simple Scandinavian workboat design that doesn’t call into question its ability to haul such a load.

But the technology and materials such as a carbon-fiber captain’s canopy give it all a very modern feel. There’s a 24-inch touch screen and the boat is collecting data as you go, helping with everything from navigation to real-time battery life measurements. Updates are sent automatically, and the X Shore app and a paired wrist watch function as remote keys. Even the throttle is different, with a large knob next to the steering wheel instead of the traditional shift-stick-like design.

The modular design of the Eelex 8000 features at least 10 layouts that can be quickly adapted to satisfy different types of recreation — it can feel like a fishing boat, ski boat or a pontoon party cruiser. The boat also features cork decking and cap rails that speak to its sustainability aspect.

X Shore is also offering the smaller X Shore 1 at 21 feet in length and a starting price of $139,000.

(X Shore Photo)

Roskill thinks the company is ideal for a Pacific Northwest audience that is already leading the way in electric vehicle adoption. He pictures having an X Shore boat docked in Anacortes, Wash., and using it to run to the San Juan Islands.

He’s glad he came aboard when he did.

“I feel very lucky,” Roskill said. “I went out and looked at what else was going on in the electric boat industry and I said, ‘This is where I want to be.’ I don’t like to do things small, I want to do something that’s going to have impact. And I think this can have a significant impact.”

The Seattle Boat Show runs through Saturday at the Lumen Field Events Center and Bell Harbor Marina.

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