Rolec one of the world’s leading manufacturers of electric charging for marinas, used Electrika 2024 as the ideal venue to unveil their new Electric Boat Fast Charging Point.

This is the first stage of a new initiative with Aquavista Waterside and Marinas, to install fast charging points in their marinas. A second unit will soon be installed at Aquavista’s head office at Sawley Waterside and Marina and once testing is complete, it is hoped that a roll-out will commence.

These new Fast Charging points are ideal for electric boats, that want to charge their batteries as quickly as possible. On one side of the bollard is an EV smart charger (for electric cars) and on the other is a 32A outlet that will half the charging time.  A typical electric narrowboat will be able to get a full charge in 3-4 hours.

Changing from the standard 16A socket to the larger 32A socket is a relatively easy modification on most boats and it is hoped that more electric narrowboat builders will now fit 32A sockets and cabling. 

At the show, Narrowboat “Old Nick” an Electric Serial Hybrid, which already had a 32A socket, plugged in to show the fast charge point working and Ortomarine added a “Fast Charge” button to their Ortomate system to make it easy for owners to tell their Victron system that it was connected to a fast charger.