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As we look at trends emerging in 2024, boating is undergoing a transformation. From advanced electric models to luxury power cats, today’s designs combine evolving tech, style, and performance to rise to the demands of boaters today. These are some of the developments we saw while at the 2024 Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show last fall.
While there was plenty of breeze blowing across the beach by the show that everyone calls “FLIBS,” we found winds of change in the assembled fleet, too. Sometimes we think boating doesn't change much—and its essential values certainly don’t—but there are always new trends.
Let’s start with the narrow, angular European look of fast, versatile designs that have been popularized by builders like the Axopar. That Finnish company turned 10 years old recently and has built more than 5500 of its moderate-price boats on the way to becoming one of Europe’s top 10 producers. At Fort Lauderdale, they rolled out a new high-speed 25-footer, introducing a new brand called the AX/ E, which stands for Axopar Electric. At 25 knots, the boat has a range of 25 nautical miles, farther at slower speeds, and charging time is 45 minutes with a DC fast charger. They are also producing the AX/E 22, and both models were presented at the Cannes boat show earlier in 2024.
Key to the development of the new line is a long-term partnership with the Norwegian electric propulsion company Evoy. In the electric boating design awards known as the Gussies, the prototype for the AX/E 25 was a category winner in 2023.
Introducing the AX/E 25, the new electric line from Axopar
Axopar isn’t the only innovative brand from Finland making waves while building boats at factories in Poland. This year the five-year-old brand called Saxdor announced that it has passed the 2000-boat milestone boats already. Do the names sound similar? That’s in part because they were founded by the same person, Sakari Mattila, who when he names a new brand likes to bring along bits of his previous brand startups Aquador, Paragon, XO Boats, and Axopar. His goal in starting Saxdor was to create a less expensive alternative to Axopar with layouts that emphasize innovation. For example, at Ft. Lauderdale, the models we checked out had fold-out cockpit-area bulwarks.
The Saxdor 400 GTC features an outdoor kitchen and fold-down bulkwarks.
Brunswick, the largest boat builder in the world, has been paying attention to the Finns, and at Fort Lauderdale, where they celebrated the 65th anniversary of the Sea Ray brand, they also launched a new brand in North America called Navan.
Navan clearly follows the path toward “adventure boats” started by Axopar; it was first unveiled in late 2023 in Europe and has now made it to the U.S. The Navan S30 and Navan C30 are open and pilothouse models, respectively, with the narrow hull shape, plumb bow, walk-around layout, and modest-size cabin typical of the new category. The boats seem comfortable for a family with a small cabin and a pilothouse that can be air conditioned or heated. Yet they are also ready for outdoor and water-based activities with an opening roof and large pilothouse doors. One of the models at the show was equipped with roof racks carrying kayaks and paddle boards.
Brunswick’s entry in the adventure boat category, the Navan C30
The push for electric-powered boats is not only coming in Finland. We saw the prototype Sialia 57 Weekender in Ft. Lauderdale, as well. This is a new electric hybrid brand of day boats, also built in Poland.
The Sialia might best be termed a luxurious super-sized day boat with expanses of social outdoor space including a submersible stern platform and fold-out aft bulwarks. What struck us as unique while visiting the boat is that it’s a massive day boat yet also has a full-beam master stateroom, so for one couple, at least, it's a luxury weekender, too.
The prototype electric hybrid Sialia 57 Weekender
But the goal of the of the company founders Stan Szadkowski and Tomasz Gackoski is to create not only luxurious but no-compromise electric boats in terms of performance and range. This is no small challenge, especially for a larger and inevitably heavier (19 tons) vessel. One key to meeting Sialia’s goals is Gackoski’s area of expertise, advanced lightweight structures of carbon fiber. In this case, the boat can be much lighter weight and allows the pair of electric engines to drive them a lot more efficiently and carry the weight of the batteries. Speaking of batteries, that’s where Szadkowski’s brings to bear 15 years of experience with ICPT, a large lithium-ion battery manufacturer focused on the electric bus market.
To meet the goal, the boat is equipped not only with a pair of 400 kW electric motors and a 256 kWh battery bank but also “range extenders”—diesel generators that keep the batteries topped up for a range of 280 nautical miles. Without the generators, range is 11 knots at a cruising speed of 16 knots, or 28 nautical miles at 8 knots. At top speed, the boat can run at 25 knots but after eight miles the range extenders are needed. We’ll look forward to learning about the 46-foot model when it goes into production and, no doubt, the technology keeps improving.
New from Australia, the Iliad 53F powercat
A couple of powercats we visited at Ft. Lauderdale illustrate the continued development of this new category in what we’ll call the “luxury cat” category. Iliad Catamarans are an Australian company that's been building powercats in China since 2019. They’re new to the U.S. in 2024 with a lovely model that moves beyond the “converted sailing catamaran” thinking we were seeing a few years back. The 53F model (“F” stands for flybridge) is designed for long-range cruising with customizable features and plenty of onboard storage space. It has a range at seven knots that depending on configuration may take you up to 4000 nautical miles. That’s starting to get to an ocean-crossing capability for the vessels.
Another boat we saw at the show was the Aquila 50Y (“Y” stands for Yacht, of course). Aquila is a powercat-only brand based in China and launched in the U.S. several years ago by MarineMax. The company has grown and developed several different lines of powercats (read “Rightboat Interview: Exploring Aquila Power Catamarans with Jean Raas”).
The New Aquila 50Y power catamaran has an expensive main saloon as you’d expect, but what’s that through the forward cabin door? (See below.)
We met Jernej Jakopin of the prolific Slovenian design firm, J & J Design, which played a big role in the category-breakthrough design of the 50Y. By raising the freeboard in the forward part of the hulls, you can walk forward from the main saloon, take one step down and enter a master stateroom that stretches from one hull across to the other.
One step down from the main saloon and you’re in a full-beam master stateroom on the Aquila 50Y.
The end product is a powercat with an explorer look in profile, three cabins and three heads, plus ample bridgedeck clearance above the water, that according to Jakopin is higher than on competitor’s boats.
Overall, the show in Ft. Lauderdale left us with a sense of continuing boating trends that reflect an industry that’s continuing to push the envelope in terms of comfort, performance, and electric power. Categories including outboard-equipped adventure boats and powercats will evolve quickly and electric power will see rapid development, even though it may take several years more to reach any kind of tipping point that replaces the current internal combustion powerplants.
