Company announces hydrogen powered yacht

MONTGOMERY, IND. - A southern Indiana company turns to clean technology to fuel a new houseboat.

Destination Yachts in Montgomery, Indiana is the first in the country to put a hydrogen fuel system into a marine engine.

The company hopes to turn its green efforts into an innovative leader in the nation's houseboat business.

A houseboat under construction at Destination Yachts will run on water in more ways than one.

The engine will be powered by water through a new hydrogen system that will produce 40 percent of the energy to run the boat.

"You're using water from the lake the boat is in," said Sheldon Graber with Destination Yachts. "Taking the hydrogen out of that water and putting the water that is left over back into the lake."

You wouldn't normally expect a high tech propulsion system like this to be coming out of a boat from Montgomery Indiana but there's a good reason this company is going in this direction.

"We hope to be leading the industry with a lot of things like this over the next few years and in today's economy if you aren't leading and setting the standard someone else is there knocking at you door and we're trying to sure we stay ahead of them," said Graber.

Hydro-Phi Solutions developed the engine which adds $27,000 to cost.

The total price of the houseboat with its three staterooms and custom galley with stainless steel appliances is $400,000, and the company isn't finished with trying new and better ways to hit the water.

"Just because we're in Montgomery doesn't mean we don't have the technology available to us just like everyone else," said Graber. "It's about paying attention to what's in the market, finding those systems and putting them into your boats."

In this case it's an innovative engine the company hopes can propel it into the future.

The Destination Yachts boat will be shipped to Lake Powell, Utah where an upper deck will be added before it is completely finished.

Source: Mike Grant, WTHITV.com