PY60

Who it suits

The Pioneer Yachts PY60 is for an owner who wants to live aboard quietly and is willing to plan around the sun. At 18.30 m on a 8.98 m beam, with 16.7 kWp of solar feeding a 48 V bank of 187 to 246 kWh, it was drawn around solar-electric propulsion rather than adapted from an existing powerboat, and that shows in the roof area and in the 48-volt architecture running the whole boat. The yard intends it to be handled by its owner rather than a professional crew, which is what the joystick docking tying the two 50 kW motors to the two 7.3 kW bow thrusters is for. Anyone who needs to cross distance on a schedule is not the customer here.

What the numbers mean

100 kW moving roughly 30 tonnes gives 7.5 knots cruising and 11 knots maximum. That is displacement-speed cruising, and the specification is honest about it rather than quoting a planing figure nobody would reach. The solar array is the number worth dwelling on: 16.7 kWp against a pack of 187 to 246 kWh means a good day replaces a meaningful share of the bank rather than a token trickle. Establish which battery configuration a quoted price refers to — the gap between the two is close to a third of the capacity.

Caveats

Pioneer Yachts advertises "100% solar-electric propulsion", but its own specification lists an 11 to 22 kW range extender and two 736-litre fuel tanks. On those figures this is a hybrid, and the marketing should be read with that in mind. The yard publishes no range at all, saying real numbers follow sea trials — the right answer, but it leaves the central question about any electric boat unanswered for now. Price, cabin and berth counts are equally unpublished. And this is a first boat from a yard founded to build it: Pioneer One went in the water in July 2026, so there is no service record behind any of it yet.