“This thing rips when you let her take off, so hold on to your hat!”

So warns Miriam Morris before punching the throttle on the Arc One, a state-of-the-art electric boat that is making its northern Michigan debut this weekend with a series of public demonstration events. As Arc’s company experience specialist and “captain of culture,” Morris is typically the one who oversees the company’s demo days, and she tells The Ticker she never gets tired of seeing the looks on people’s faces the first time they experience the Arc One’s lightning-fast acceleration. Powered by a pair of 1,500-pound batteries and a 500-horsepower inboard motor, the boat can zoom from a gentle cruise to a top speed of 40 miles per hour in the blink of an eye.

Morris and the Arc team spent the past few days showing off the Arc One at the Northport Marina. Now, they’ve moved on to the Elk Rapids Marina on Elk Lake, where they’ll participate in a free, open-to-the-public demo scheduled for 9:30-11:30am tomorrow (Monday) and hosted by Traverse Connect. That event will give attendees the chance to ride on the Arc One, as well as boats from other leading e-boat innovators like X-Shore, Hercules, and Lilypad.

This isn’t the first time northern Michigan has been the setting for an e-boat summit. Last summer, a similar event at the Elk Rapids Marina represented an American record: “the biggest-ever gathering of electric boats in the water at any one time,” according to Traverse Connect Director of Ecosystem Development Camille Hoisington. The gathering was made possible by the Fresh Coast Maritime Challenge, a state-backed grant program launched last year that paid out more than half a million dollars to six companies with the goal of establishing “an evolving network of shore-side charging facilities for clean-fueled marine vessels and electric passenger vehicles operating on the Great Lakes.” The program was focused specifically on the 10-county northwest Michigan region, which Traverse Connect has been working to establish as a world leader in electric boating technology.

Based in Los Angeles and boasting a team that Morris says is “literally is full of rocket engineers,” Arc was one of the Fresh Coast Maritime Challenge beneficiaries, receiving $20,000 “to conduct technology demos and demonstrate the disruptive potential of high-performance EV boats.” But Arc wasn’t part of last summer’s event at the Elk Rapids Marina, which makes this week the company’s maiden voyage on local waters.

“The Arc One was our prototype come-to-market boat, so we only made a select number of these,” Morris tells The Ticker. “So, it’s pretty special to bring it to Michigan and have folks go out on it, because it is such a unique opportunity to experience this boat. But the Arc One is also being followed by our commercialized line, which is the Arc Sport. That boat is a traditional wake sport boat, and will be coming to Michigan in a couple of weeks for more demonstrations.”

Though Arc hasn’t spent much time in the Great Lakes region, Morris says the company has been feeling the pull of Michigan for a long time. For one thing, many of Arc’s interns and employees are University of Michigan graduates. “There’s even a U of M flag in our office,” Morris laughs. More obviously, Michigan happens to be home to “a huge percentage of the world’s fresh water.”

“For those reasons, Michigan is definitely a really important place for us to be, and we know how well-trafficked the boating corridor is here in Traverse City, so it made complete sense for us to make our way here,” Morris says.

While Arc is starting out by focusing on the wake sports market, Morris says the company’s long-term vision is much grander: “Our mission is to electrify everything that floats,” she proclaims. Touring the nation and showing off what Arc boats can do is part of that mission – especially given that, as Morris acknowledges, there is a sizable subset of the boating enthusiast population that is skeptical or downright dismissive of electric boats. Some common concerns about the technology include range anxiety, lack of charging facilities, and slow speeds.

Morris is confident she could change the minds of most skeptics if she could just get them out on the water on the Arc One or the Arc Sport. She says Arc’s team – which includes ex-Tesla, SpaceX, and Rivian employees – has specifically strived to make a boat that anyone could appreciate. The boat’s speed, power, sleek design, and intuitive software are all a part of that equation.

“The recreational boat industry is worth $40 billion, but it’s an industry that's been stagnant for a really long time,” Morris says. “There hasn't been much in the way of innovation, and the pain points are all still there: the noise, the fumes, the pollution to the waterways, the maintenance and winterization. We eliminate all of those things. So, it really just makes sense to electrify boats. Like anything, there are going to be people who are faster and slower to adopt. But when you get out here and you put someone in this seat, and they get to punch the throttle down and feel that instant torque – and then be able to hear who they're hanging out with while traveling at top speeds, or to not smell any fumes coming out the back – I think the boat pretty much sells itself.”

As for range anxiety, Hoisington says Traverse Connect is still committed to solving that problem – at least in the Grand Traverse boating corridor. Right now, there are Aqua superPower fast chargers installed at both the Northport and Elk Rapids marinas – advanced charging hubs that can top off the Arc One’s massive batteries in a matter of minutes.

“Even having two Aqua superPower chargers along our coastline puts us ahead of Lake Tahoe, another freshwater boating capital; they only have one rapid marine charger,” Hoisington notes. “So, we’re actually ahead of the curve, and we’re hoping to get more of these chargers coming online this summer. But being ahead of the curve means that we can show off these emerging technologies and say, ‘Hey, this is already a realistic industry. It’s realistic for people to be able to start enjoying the water in a more thoughtful way.’”

Those interested in checking out the Arc One and other electric boats can register for tomorrow’s free demo event on the Traverse Connect website.