Companies collaborate to bring greener holidays
ORTOMARINE and Cafwin Cruises have announced that from April 2022, people will be able to experience cruising the inland waterways in a serial electric hybrid narrowboat thanks to a collaboration between the two companies.
Ollie Owl will be the second boat to be operated by luxury hire boat operator Cafwin Cruises, and is a 58ft 6in, five-berth, serial electric hybrid narrowboat, built and owned by Ortomarine, who specialise in electric propulsion.
Each company is committed to reducing both their own environmental impact and enabling others to do so. The collaboration is a result of these shared goals and hopes to encourage more people that electric propulsion is a viable option for a narrowboat.
Ollie Owl features all-electric propulsion for near-silent cruising, combined with an efficient onboard generator, plus 1.6kW of solar power to enable recharging of the high capacity battery bank, without the need to connect to shore power. It is believed this will be the first serial electric hybrid narrowboat available for hire on the English canal network.
All products provided for customers’ use will be eco-friendly so as to minimise the impact on the environment, plus it is hoped to run the diesel generator exclusively on HVO fuel, which eliminates up to 90% of net CO2 emissions and significantly reduces nitrogen oxide (NOx), particulate matter (PM) and carbon monoxide (CO).
Customers choosing a holiday on Ollie Owl will be taking a large step towards reducing their own carbon footprint, particularly if it is instead of flying abroad on holiday!