E-Force 30 foot electric boat perfect fit for Miami family

Al Haghayegh retrofitted his family’s ICE powered dayboat and realized it could do 90% of what the old fossil fuel version did, but without the noise, smell and fuelling costs. He quickly saw the potential of electric propulsion and founded E-Force Marine to build electric boats for others.

The Aurora started out as a Tiara 3200 with twin 350 hp gas inboards. Al is a lifelong boater who traded in the family sailboat for a powered model so he and his then young family could better enjoy the waters in and around their Miami home. “A sailboat with two small kids is no fun” Al chuckled as we were getting ready to go out on the electric Aurora during the 2025 Miami International Boat Show.

Frequent trips to sandbars

As the family grew up the boat was in constant use, with weekends spent going out to the sandbars for some swimming, tubing, waterskiing, maybe some fishing and general fun in the sun.

One of Miami’s most popular spots, the Haulover Sandbar, was just a few miles from the Haghayegh home and they would also go to Nixon Beach or one of the other bars near Key Biscayne, about 10 miles south. Al said they would probably have five or six weekends on the boat before refuelling. At cruising speed Al figures it cost him about $20 an hour in gas alone.

It was during the pandemic, the kids all grown up, that Al decided he had had enough of buying gas and decided to convert the Tiara to electric. “The thing I missed about the sailboat was the quiet” he says. “I never liked the noise of the gas engines, all the maintenance, I had to change the motors because they had too many hours on them, and I had just bought an electric car and I thought it was great, so I decided that would be great for the boat.”

Read: Electric pilot boat for record charity swim in Miami’s Biscayne Bay

Al has the background for the task. He is an Electric and Electrical Engineer and founded GlowbackLED in 2010, a very successful leader in designing and building custom LED lighting installations for both commercial and residential clients.

Same weight and balance as ICE set up

He spent months doing research on motors, batteries and control systems and decided the best way to approach the refitting of the Aurora was to maintain the same weight and balance as the fossil fuel version, which handles water and waves very nicely.

The two gas inboards and fuel tanks were taken out and replaced with twin 120 kiloWatt motors and accompanying battery packs, custom made to specification. The batteries weigh just over a ton (≈900 kg) and with a bit of shifting things around the Aurora sits in the water the same as she did with a full tank of gas.

In fact, the overall weight is almost identical. A typical 350hp V8 inboard engine weighs around 875 lbs (390 kg) and 180 gallons of gas weigh about 1100 pounds (≈500 kg). A stainless steel tank adds another 350 pounds (≈160 kg). On the electric side, the  motors come in at 800 pounds total (≈360 kg), plus controllers, BMS etc.

By the time you add it all up the ICE version comes in at somewhere around 3,500 pounds (≈1,600 kg) and the electric version at about 3,800 (1,725 kg) – not a big difference for a 30 foot boat.

Miami sunset cruise

A bit more about the specs. The electric motors are rated at 120 kW continuous power (165 hp) with peak power of 194 kW (265). The total energy storage of the batteries is 196 kiloWatthours. That means that the overall power is about 30% less than the original FF package, and the range of the battery is obviously a lot smaller than with 180 gallons of gas. The simplest calculation is that the if you had both motors operating at peak power for half an hour (which would never happen in real life), the 195 kilowatts would discharge the 196 kWh battery in half an hour.

In real life, we went out on the Aurora just before a beautiful Miami sunset, and while it wasn’t the time of day (or our inclination) to go out to the sandbar for a session of tubing and swimming, we did have a cruise that was pretty close to simulating that usage.

We were out for about forty minutes, most of the time spent in a controlled speed zone channel with a good ten minute ride at cruising speed of about 20 mph (17 kt, 32 khm). That used about 25% of the available battery charge.

Below are a video and an audio clip of part of the trip. They show how quiet and pleasant a boat ride can be. Imagine how this would sound if it were two 250 hp internal combustion engines under the mid hull seats.

Above: Cruising at ≈ 20 mph /  32 kmh / 17 kt  •  Below: Pulling out of slip at low speed 

By now most people interested in electric boats are aware that riding in one is a much quieter experience, but have concerns about the range. What I find most compelling about the Aurora is that this electric version can do just about everything the Haghayegh family asked of the ICE-powered Aurora.

Going out to the Haulover Sandbar and back at cruising speed is not a problem. Hanging out out at the sandbar, of course, used almost zero charge. Heading down to Key Biscayne is not a problem either, because lengthy parts of that journey are in controlled speed zones to protect manatees in the waters.

For ‘filling up’, there is no need to go to a gas pump. After our trip Al plugged the boat into a standard shore outlet so it would be ready to go the next morning. As for the cost, a full charge requires about $22 worth of electricity – about the amount the fossil fuel boat burned per hour.

30 foot electric boat ‘fills up’ for $22

In addition to the Aurora, the E-Force Marine team also retrofitted a single engine boat and together the motors have logged 2,200 hours of usage. All that without any oil to change, no filters, no tune-ups. As a comparison, the Discover Boating website says “The typical gasoline marine engine will run fine for the first 1,000 hours. It is at this juncture that the engine starts to exhibit small problems. The average marine gasoline engine runs for 1,500 hours before needing a major overhaul.”

At the beginning of this article I said the electric Aurora could do 90% of what the fossil fuel version could do. Here’s the other ‘10%’. Once a year the family would go from Miami to the Bahamas – Bimini – for a special outing day. That is a 120 mile round trip and can’t be done at cruising speed with the electric set up.

However, a few weeks after our Miami outing the Aurora did make the journey. It was done at low speed on a beautiful day. Not the same experience as before, but thoroughly enjoyable in a different kind of way.

While the Aurora was an electric retrofit, what it has proven to E-Force Marine is that a boat of similar size and set up can serve a big market of boaters who enjoy getting out on the water the same way the young Haghayegh family did.

Aurora e30 cat available Spring 2026

Al’s grown up children are now part of the E-Force team and they have designed a new boat from the water up – the Aurora e30 – as the next evolution in their electric boating journey.

The new e30 design is a catamaran with foiling assist, a strut with an airplane wing-like profile that connects the two pontoons underwater. As the boat speeds up it slightly lifts the pontoons out of the water, reducing energy consumption and extending the range.  The Aurora e30 will also be available with a hybrid option for even more range. Bimini, here we come!

You can find out more about reserving an Aurora e30 (available spring 2020) on the E-Force Marine website, where you can also book a demo on the monohull Aurora.

E-Force Marine