Power Play in the Ocean State
Zipping across Newport Harbor at 25 knots in almost absolute silence this past September, I got the feeling that the Highfield 660 rigid inflatable that I was helming was under miraculous sail power. Looking over my shoulder to continue a surprisingly low-decibel conversation with my colleague, Soundings Editor-in-Chief Jeanne Craig, I was swiftly reminded that we were not being propelled by canvas, but the tidily encased electric outboard engine affixed to the transom directly behind her, and the very reason I was aboard this 22-foot center console in the first place.
Flux Marine’s FM115 is an electric engine shaped every bit like a gasoline-guzzling outboard, but with neither the noise nor the fumes. The FM115 is rated at 115 horsepower (86kW), but hits roughly 175 peak horsepower (130kW) for bursts of acceleration. Relying on a relatively modest (but modular) system of three 400-volt, 28-kWh batteries and a closed cooling system, this setup is easily becoming one of the more widely appealing electric propulsion packages on the market.
That a new outboard engine manufacturer would spring up in the United States in 2025 might stretch the imagination. And it might require another leap to consider that the new manufacturer’s facilities have found a home in sleepy if hallowed Bristol, Rhode Island, the former haunt of Nathaniel Herreshoff, who designed one America’s Cup-winning sailing vessel after another a century earlier. And should any wind-driven boaters find themselves aghast at a motorboat company setting up shop in these hallowed sailing grounds, consider that Herreshoff himself was an early innovator and proponent of electric motorboats. Indeed, he’d probably be cheering on Daylin Frantlin, Jon Lord, and Ben Sorkin, the founders of Flux Marine.
Flux Marine has been 10 years in the making. It was dreamt up by Sorkin during college and carefully brought to fruition over the course of several years of research, development, design, and testing: After almost two years of field testing and a fairly astonishing 1,300 hours at wide-open throttle in a test tank at the company’s 40,000-square-foot Bristol digs, no maintenance issues were (purportedly) reported in their new FM115. Of course, those 1,300 hours go far beyond the roughly 30-mile range offered by the three-battery setup on the Highfield, but it shows the result of careful development and design while lending serious confidence. Try putting that kind of faith in any old battery and motor shipped from Alibaba.
Construction-wise, “Parts such as the cowling, belt housing, and powerhead are produced through U.S.-based casting suppliers,” Zach Heath, a Flux communications representative told me, adding that “final finishings and assembly of these components take place at Flux Marine’s headquarters in Bristol.”
Flux Marine is wisely and cautiously treading forward slowly, but they also have an interesting partnership with Scout—with the FM115-powered Scout 215 XSF 21-foot center console. Other partnerships with small-boat and tender builders are forthcoming, and should you wish to have a standalone Flux motor installed in your boat, that can be done too—though it will likely need to take place either at Flux’s Bristol facilities or Highfield’s facility in Cadillac, Michigan. These “Fluxifications” require about 4 to 6 weeks to complete, at least for now, Heath told me.
During my time at the helm of the Highfield 660 I spotted what looked to be a school of bonito or false albacore, which Jeanne and I sidled up to. Watching these fish feast on bay anchovies, I lamented not having a fishing rod—which left me thinking that while the FM115 is probably designed more for tenders, and a 30-mile range is far too limiting for an offshore fishing excursion, I might appreciate such a setup for shorter, inshore trips. A tradeoff? Sure. But isn’t everything? To me, the novelty of the silence alone spoke volumes.
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This article originally appeared in the December 2025 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
