Solar-Power Catamaran Takes Shape at Front Street Shipyard

Photos courtesy Worden Marine

The Worden Cat 20 is propelled by a pair of electric outboards.

As a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late 1980s, James Worden earned his chops as a founder of the school’s Solar Electric Vehicle Team, which built and raced sun-powered cars here in the States, and in Canada, Europe, and Australia. 

Now, after founding and selling two successful solar-focused companies—Solectria Corp., which built electric cars, commercial trucks, and components, and Solectria Renewables, a manufacturer of photovoltaic inverters—he’s ready to make a splash with a 30-foot solar-powered ferry. 

This past summer, his latest company, Worden Marine, of North Andover, Massachusetts, launched a 20-foot prototype, whose composite hull and deck were built by Front Street Shipyard in Belfast, Maine. 

Once layup was completed by Front Street, the vessel was loaded on a trailer in Belfast and trucked south to the Merrimac River, where Worden’s team, consisting of a handful of engineers and a former U.S. Coast Guard captain, installed solar panels, batteries, wiring, and other gear. Then they went for a ride.

The underside of the solar array captures energy from light reflected up off the water.

The boat’s test run—a smooth and successful voyage, said Worden—took place along a navigable stretch of the Merrimac south of Haverhill. They started out going down stream, tied up to a dock at the mouth of the river in Newburyport to get bagels, and then bucked the current going back north. The spartan-looking catamaran, named Anita, cruised along at about 12 knots and made the round trip using only about half the power stored in the vessel’s lithium battery bank. 

Worden said after selling his second company, his attention turned to boats, in part after learning about a ferry in India, the Aditya, that runs on solar power. He described it as a boxy, heavy vessel, but it got him thinking about what might be possible using the sorts of advanced composite materials and systems he used to build land vehicles.

Through MIT connections, he took a sort of crash course in boat design, hull shapes, and fluid dynamics. Then he and his associates went to work designing the first of what he hopes will be a line of “TruSolar Marine Vessels,” a brand cited on the company’s website. Worden said he talked to a number of builders about the project, but settled on Front Street Shipyard after meeting president and general manager JB Turner and the crew. 

Front Street is a full-service yard that builds and repairs a wide array of watercraft, ranging from ferries, fishing boats and commercial vessels to sail and power recreational yachts.

“JB’s been a good cheerleader for getting us out there,” Worden said, adding that over the course of the project, Front Street was able—and willing—to accommodate a number of changes, some of which were introduced by Worden and some by the craftsmen doing the work.

“We make recommendations along the way for perhaps a more efficient way to do something,” Turner noted.

Molds and layup for the experimental craft’s hull, deck, and parts commenced in 2023. Turner said the yard became quite involved with developing the laminate structure. “We do not do laminate engineering but we know people and companies that do. More often on a custom boat, there is a naval architect involved, so we get the laminates along with the rest of the package. James had the design side covered but not the composite side.”

The hull was built using vinylester-infused carbon fiber, as were furniture components. The deck was laid up with fiberglass. Aluminum poles support a roof made from bifacial solar panels, the undersides of which can capture solar energy that is reflected upward off the water.

Turner said the project took just over 3,000 hours to complete.

Electrical system data is displayed on a Garmin display at the helm.

Each hull of the catamaran has its own battery bank, protected by battery monitoring systems developed in house. Data is displayed on a Garmin multifunction display. Most of the testing so far has been done using a pair of 10-hp Torqeedo outboard motors, though Worden said they’ve tried others and aren’t yet sold on one particular brand.

Meanwhile the company is working on plans for a 30-foot, 18-passenger ferry. Worden said they have engaged with the Coast Guard from the start to ensure what they build will pass muster for commercial service. He said the company and Front Street are in talks and work could begin there sometime this winter, if all goes as planned. One reason he chose to work with Front Street is the yard’s ability to do production work at a facility in Bucksport, should Worden Marine’s developments ever get that far.

Turner said the Belfast yard is more suited to custom and repair work, such as the Worden 20 prototype. In Bucksport, “We were building Calvin Beal hulls and decks for Stuart Workman, and are now building 11M RIBs for Ribcraft up there. Fiberglass parts only.”

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Worden Cat 20 Specifications

Prototype Vessel
Top Speed: 12 knots

Worden Marine
North Andover, MA
wordenmarine.com

Front Street Shipyard
Belfast, ME
frontstreetshipyard.com

Mark Pillsbury is MBH&H’s editor.