Manufacturer: Electric powered superyachts drawing significant interest across US

AI-assisted summary
• Alex Reisch, a retired Philip Morris International executive, is displaying his 60-foot solar-powered superyacht at the 2025 Palm Beach International Boat Show.
• Sunreef Yachts, the manufacturer of the catamaran, has observed a significant increase in demand for electric or hybrid boats, particularly in the United States.
• The rising popularity of electric yachts is attributed to environmental concerns, family-friendly features, and a quieter, more relaxing sailing experience.

WEST PALM BEACH — The irony was impossible to overlook as Alex Reisch gleefully showed off his solar-powered superyacht moored just a few nautical miles from the home of the U.S. president who just a year ago ridiculed electric boats in one campaign rally after another.

Reisch, a retired Philip Morris International executive, this week is displaying his 60-foot Sunreef Power Eco ultra-luxe catamaran at the 2025 Palm Beach International Boat Show. It's a promotional appearance hosted by Sunreef Yachts, a company with shipyards in Poland and the Arab Emirates.

Because Sunreef's yachts are custom-made, the company showboats the vessels it has built for owners at events from Cannes to Monaco to South Florida. The manufacturer has moved into the superyacht class in recent years, and marketing spokesman Artur Połoczański said the migration to Palm Beach County of one-percenters was exposure too good to pass up.

"That's why Palm Beach is important to us as we're slowly shifting toward the super yacht end of the industry," he said.

A catamaran with the coziness of a luxury chalet in the Alps

Reisch was only too happy to guide visitors, prospective buyers and the just curious through the various decks of the tailored catamaran, called "Double Happiness," on a sun-splashed morning just after the boat show's gates opened to patrons on Thursday, March 20. The boat show opened Wednesday and continues through Sunday.

Reisch beamed at the two, 120-kilowatt electric engines and the 330-kilowatt main battery pack he said is equal to those of six Teslas. He singled out the array of solar panels that are built into the yacht's sides so they are indistinguishable unless pointed out.

Reisch, an Austrian, and his wife, who is from Switzerland, spent three days with a team from Sunreef explaining they wanted a sleek, alpine chalet-type look to the interior design.

"Everything was chosen," he said.

The couple selected two different types of teak wood flooring and ordered different AC units in the vessel. They also got all the comforts of a luxury getaway in the Alps — a washer and dryer, a kitchen with a range plus a freezer and refrigerator, dishwasher, a grill on the top deck, a 45-bottle wine cellar and a cocktail bar. The sound system is segmented, too, allowing for TV watching in the living room, playing rap on the lounge deck and classical music in the staterooms, Reisch said.

The yacht was built in Gdansk, Poland, in shipyards made famous by the 1980s anti-communist Solidarity labor movement led by Lech Walesa. Walesa has done promotional appearances for Sunreef, saying in a 2020 interview with The Palm Beach Post that in a post-Cold War world, he learned the value of helping private enterprises succeed.

“We had to start from scratch. We had to look for job opportunities and look for markets,” Walesa said recalling the scramble for markets and sales to sustain employment after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union imploded. And he added this prescient observation.

"I’ve said this a million times," Walesa offered. "Either the U.S. wants to lead, or they don’t.”

Remember when Trump talked about choosing between electrocution or facing a shark on a sinking electric boat?

Not-so-subtle reminders of Palm Beach County's changing political hue were spotted here and there at the show along Flagler Street and the waterfront marinas in the West Palm Beach downtown.

One yacht moored not far from Reisch's was named "Second Amendment" with two machine guns crossed. A merch stand in a market area stocked "Gulf of America: No Woke Zone" caps.

Reisch recalled cruising by President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and residence and said it looked grand.

Trump, however, made clear on the campaign trail that he was no fan of the kind of transportation Reisch has invested seven figures in.

Trump mocked people who bought electric cars saying they would have to recharge every few miles. He heaped scorn on what he said were plans to use electric engines in everything from long-haul trucks to military tanks on the battlefield.

In one particular stump soliloquy, he mused about having to choose between being electrocuted or eaten by a shark if he were on a sinking electric boat.

Electric superyacht a money saver, owner says, and quiet relaxation

Reisch suggested skeptics just go for a ride.

"Once you charter an electric, you will never go back," he said.

In addition to saving thousands of dollars on fuel per trip, the big-ticket maintenance costs, so often rued by boat owners, are practically nil. The only major mechanical overhaul — at 50,000 hours — involves changing out the engines' eight bearings. The components, which are critical to power transmission and shaft alignment, run $100 apiece.

"I said to myself, 'That sounds really reasonable,'" Reisch said. "It's not just good for the environment. It's good for your wallet."

As for distance, Reisch's captain, Josh Hillary, said since the family took possession of the catamaran last June, they have sailed across the western Mediterranean with stops in Sardinia, Spain, France and Portugal. They also toured the Caribbean.

"We've gone pretty far," he said. "And with a lot of ease."

Połoczański shrugged off the president's critique, noting that 50% of the demand for Sunreef boats is now for either pure electric or some form of hybrid.

"Yeah, well, OK, but he is teaming up with a producer of electric cars, so ...," he said of Trump, who has assigned Tesla chief Elon Musk to slash the federal budget.

Trump and his administration seem to have had a change of heart, for that matter.

On March 11, Trump held a photo-op with Musk and several Tesla electric vehicles outside the White House to bolster the automaker amid a stock collapse and reports of plummeting sales. On Wednesday, March 19 Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, encouraged Americas to buy Tesla shares.

Green, quiet — and appealing to people in the United States?

Połoczański pointed out another favorable feature, the silence on the high seas from quiet engines. He related how one Sunreef customer, Formula I race car driver, Fernando Alonso, said he enjoyed the sound and smells of a gas-powered, high-performance motor while on the track when racing, but not while vacationing.

"This is something that completely changes your point of view," Połoczański said. "Because when you want to relax the last thing you want to hear is the noise of the engine, the generators, the fumes, the vibrations that come from the engine. You don't want all that."

More telling, Połoczański said, is the burgeoning market for Sunreef's electric catamarans, especially in the United States.

The manufacturer's director of U.S. sales, Liza Kharoubi-Echenique, said she is seeing a surge in buyers from the 35-to-50 age group. She said the growing attention is not just owing to concern about the environment but also the family-friendly roominess of the catamaran, which is steadier on the high seas.

And that interest includes people in locales in red Florida.

"I am seeing more and more demand across the United States," she said. "And in Miami."

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.