Project eYacht
Designing a solar-electric liveaboard yacht, from first principles
We’re documenting the build, the engineering tradeoffs, and the real-world performance to show what it takes to electrify a liveaboard boat, and to test whether solar-electric propulsion is a practical reality for everyday liveaboard life.
What this project is about
We’re designing and building a 68-foot solar electric power catamaran, intended as a long-range liveaboard cruiser for our family. This isn’t a concept or a thought experiment, it’s a real boat being built to be lived on and used.
Along the way, we share how the design thinking behind the systems: how energy is generated and stored, how our electric propulsion works, how we maximised efficiency and electric range, how safety and redundancy built in, and how everything ties together as a single system. We talk openly about the real engineering tradeoffs involved.
As the boat comes together, we also document real world testing and operation, sharing what works, what doesn’t, and what changes once systems are used in everyday liveaboard conditions.
Who this is for
This project is for people who enjoy understanding how things actually work: technically curious sailors and future boat owners, engineers and technologists, home-automation enthusiasts, and anyone interested in how solar, batteries, propulsion, and control systems behave in the real world.
You don’t need a technical background to follow along — curiosity is enough.
New here? Start with one of these
Start with the boat tour
Get a physical sense of the boat and how everything is laid out.
Start with the system overview
Understand how the systems work together, and why they’re designed this way.
The two videos are designed to complement each other. One shows what the boat is, the other explains how and why the system works.
Dive deeper
Alongside the public videos, we share deeper technical notes, design discussions, and more detailed explanations of how decisions were made and why certain tradeoffs were chosen. This material lives in a small, focused membership for people who enjoy spending time with systems and ideas rather than jumping straight to conclusions.
If you’d like to explore the ideas in more detail, you can go deeper in The Workshop.