Bermuda’s e-Link Commuting Co Ltd has entered into a new agreement with a perennial America’s Cup campaigner and his company, Bieker Boats, in the development of a new class of waterway vessels powered entirely by sustainable energy.

Previously announced e-Link Commuting is described as a company transforming human and package mobility on the water.

Bieker Boats is a naval architecture and engineering company dedicated to developing performance marine craft.

e-Link and Bieker Boats have teamed up to design and build a shuttle platform to exclusively leverage an electric propulsion system, which delivers both greater user safety and service longevity, while providing an innovative and enhanced customer experience.

“Designing for performance is our core specialty and to apply this knowledge to tackle the net-zero challenge we face on today’s waterways is truly exciting,” noted Paul Bieker, founder of Bieker Boats and former lead design engineer at Oracle Team USA.

“With field research conducted by e-Link, our design takes into consideration and overcomes many of the challenges operators might face when trying to retrofit existing vessels or using boat designs typically used for fossil-fuel propulsion.”

Bermuda Olympic sailor Alan Burland, eLC co-founder said: “Paul Bieker has been a pioneering designer for several successful builds based on his extensive knowledge around performance.

“With this experience, our eLC Shuttle has been created so that it can easily be modified to carry passengers or lite-cargo (for last-mile delivery) while meeting projected performance requirements.”

A press statement said: “Many cities and governments continue to operate ageing fossil fuel waterborne vessels on primary marine commuting routes.

“Studies have shown that passengers prefer to travel more on the water when compared to equivalent bus journeys.

“Many inland waterways are currently underutilised, and by shifting transport to these waterways, benefits can be achieved in reducing not only vehicle pollution and congestion, but travel times.”

To design and build this new class of vessels, the two companies have identified shipbuilders and suppliers who will be able to meet the design requirements.

The e-Link team will focus on all of the business model and technical aspects of the propulsion system, while Bieker Boats will help to design the vessel in a modular format along with input from various shipbuilders so that it can be easily transported and assembled when delivered to its final location.

Bieker is a Seattle-based naval architecture company with an extensive background in structural analysis, carbon fibre structures and foiling technology.

With more than three decades of experience, Paul Bieker is a pioneer in the use of computer-lofted composite flat stock panels in the construction of economical and lightweight custom boats.

He was an engineer for Oracle Team USA during the past five America's Cup campaigns.

e-Link Commuting Co Ltd said it has designed shuttle boats to meet future scale of production demands and to encompass sustainability principles aligned with a circular economy.

The founders are said to be united by one goal: to build and advance eco-friendly small-scale, fully electric, cost-efficient shuttle boats that meet net-zero climate change goals and withstand marine and weather conditions around the world.