Electric Boat Racing Series Kicks Off

MONACO—A new electric speedboat racing competition that has attracted interest from Tom Brady and other celebrities will begin this weekend in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The E1 world championship will also include stops later in the year in Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, Monaco, Spain and Switzerland.

Similar to Formula E car racing, the events will take place in urban settings to promote sustainable mobility. Mixed-gender teams of pilots will compete in identical 24-foot-long boats dubbed RaceBirds.

The sleek design features an enclosed cockpit and hydrofoils that lift the carbon-fiber composite hull 3-feet above the water to allow for minimum drag and maximum battery efficiency. The boats, built in Europe by Victory Marine, are powered by batteries made by Kreisel Electric (a division of Deere & Co.) and outboard engines made by Mercury Marine (a division of Brunswick Corp.).

Celebrity team owners include ex-NFL superstar Brady, tennis legend Rafael Nadal and Formula 1 race car driver Sergio Perez. The boats will tackle tight, technical circuits, reaching speeds close to 58 mph. Peak power output will be 150 kilowatts, with a battery capacity of 35 kilowatt hours.

Austin has been senior editor for ASSEMBLY Magazine since September 1999. He has more than 21 years of b-to-b publishing experience and has written about a wide variety of manufacturing and engineering topics. Austin is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

The ASSEMBLY Show South

ASSEMBLY is thrilled to return to the Music City Center in Nashville, TN for The ASSEMBLY Show SOUTH on May 1-2, 2024. This is a booming time for manufacturing and the U.S. South is right in the heart of the action. According to ASSEMBLY’s most recent annual capital spending survey, the South is projected to account for 31 percent of total spending this year, marking the fifth straight year this region has accounted for at least 30 percent of capital spending in the U.S.

In this session, manufacturers will learn how Quality function deployment (QFD) can transform consumers’ qualitative demands into quantitative parameters that will shape the design of their product and, ultimately, their manufacturing process.

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