Let’s face it: A lot of the early electric-powered boats were, well, to put it charitably, aesthetically challenged. Not so the new Persico Zagato 100.2, unveiled last week at Zagato’s headquarters in Milan.
Zagato’s announcement called it “an innovative hyperboat featuring aesthetic purity of design,” combining Persico’s technology, electric jet propulsion, and Zagato’s supercar-like looks.
A little history: The boat’s100.2 nomenclature celebrates Zagato’s second century in business. It was founded “to dress cars and planes with customized bodywork,” and its most famous designs include work for Aston Martin, Lamborghini, and Alfa Romeo, among many others.
The new 26-foot Persico Zagato 100.2 has a classic reverse bow, wraparound windshield, two seats forward, an aft bench seat, a large aft sun pad and a cuddy cabin under the foredeck. It’s built around a revolutionary steerable electric waterjet pod drive from Seelence, an Italian startup.
The electric drive train starts with 205 kW electric engine and Seelence’s DeepSpeed 420 steerable pod that’s shaped like the jet engine on an airplane, designed to suck water in at the front and blast it out in the back. The waterjet’s blades are mounted on a rotating rim, and the entire pod tilts up and down and swivels from side to side to steer, just like a conventional sterndrive. It spins around to reverse.
The hull is made of lightweight composite material; it weighs just 5,478 pounds, and has an 8-foot beam. Top speed is about 43 knots, and the boat has a range of about 46 nm at 24 knots.
The first boat is being built now at Persico’s yard near Bergamo, and will be launched later this year. If you want one, order it soon. Persico will build only nine of them, and each one will be customized in terms of colors and finishes so that each owner’s boat looks unique. Read more at http://persicomarine.com and http://zagato.it and see the video below:
