Frauscher X Porsche sets +50 knot electric boat speed record in Monaco

The Monaco Energy Boat Challenge (MEBC) gathers the best and brightest of university students from around the world, bringing them together with some of the stars of the electric boat industry to advance the future of zero emission propulsion through races and competitions. This year’s event (the 13th annual) took place July 8 – 11 at the Yacht Club de Monaco (YCM). Listen to this article as a podcast There are four Classes of boats in the MEBC. Students compete in the Energy and AI Classes; the SeaLab Class is open to both student and commercial ventures; and production electric boats are in the Open Sea Class. Frauscher X Porsche also set electric boat speed record last year All of the Classes have internal competitions for things like manoeuvrability and endurance, and the SeaLab and Open Sea boats face off against each other in the YCM Speed Record. The boats take off from a starting line just outside the breakwaters of the Club and race along the Monaco shore to a marker 500 metres away. The course echoes that of the world’s first international powerboat race in 1904. There are two timed legs – one out to the marker and one back – with the fastest average time deciding the winner. The record was set last year by the Frauscher-Porsche 850 Fantom with a speed just shy of 50 knots at 49.84 kt (92.3 kph / 57.35 mph). This year Frauscher Porsche entered their new creation, the 797 Spectre. It  came to the starting line with the crowd buzzing with anticipation that this might be the year the 50 knot barrier was cracked. Indeed it was, with Frauscher pilot Bastien Bonnet coming in with a final average time of 38.2 seconds and speed of 51.05 knots: 94.54 kph / 58.75 mph. Pilot Bastien Bonnet and Frauscher Managing Director Stefan Frauscher. All Photos ©Monaco Energy Boat Challenge “Breaking the record we set only last year is an exceptional achievement by the entire team” said Frauscher. “The 797 Spectre impressively demonstrates the potential created by the consistent joint development of the boat, hull and electric powertrain.” The joint development he refers to is the partnership of Frauscher and Porsche, two historic names in their respective industries. Porsche was founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche and Frauscher Boats in 1927 by Engelbert Frauscher. Today, Porsche is one of the most successful luxury sports car manufacturers in the world and Frauscher is Europe’s largest electric boat builder. Both companies are family-driven, have very similar values, and focus on innovation, design and quality. Europe’s leading electric boat builder  Frauscher Bootswerft started out building sailboats, then gas/petrol powerboats and in 1955 introduced their first electric boats. Since that time they have worked with many marine propulsion companies, including Torqeedo, Molabo and Evoy. The Porsche electric partnership is the first with an automotive drive train. It came about in 2022 when Frauscher executives were meeting with Porsche (the companies had worked together on a fossil fuel boat, the Demon, in 2016) and the car company revealed their plans for a new all-electric SUV – the Macan – and wondered if there might be something in using its power train in a Frauscher hull. The boatyard leapt at the chance, developed a prototype, showed it to the board of Porsche, and the two companies unveiled the Frauscher X Porsche 850 Fantom Air in 2024. In 2025 they launched the boat in a closed fore deck model that won numerous awards, including the Gussies International Electric Boat Awards, and set the 2025 Monaco speed record. They unveiled the new record 797 Spectre in January 2026 at Boot Düsseldorf. Spectre 797 designed from clean sheet to be electric Other than the Spectre being shorter and lighter than the Fantom, the essential difference is that the Fantom was an existing hull that had the Porsche electric drivetrain installed while the Spectre was designed from the beginning around the electric motor and battery. Frauscher had the two ideal candidates for creating the boat – nautical engineer/yacht designer Harry Miesbauer and designer Stefan Iverwin. Miesbauer is renowned for his sailboat designs and has worked on many notable yachts, including the Amer Sport One of the Nautor Challenge and the Volvo Ocean Race. Harry’s father used to sail with Engelbert Frauscher and Harry likes to tell the story of getting a call in 2012 from Michael Frauscher, the company’s Head of Design asking if he would like to work on designing a new boat. “I said, ‘Ahhh, nice, you’re going to go back to sailing boats’. No, Michael said, I want you to design a motorboat’. Miesbauer asked him if he was crazy, saying ‘I haven’t done a motorboat since my time in university!” He took on the project, though, and that turned out to be the original 850 Fantom, a very successful multi award-winning combustion boat. The same boat that would have the Porsche Macan engine installed a decade later. Spectre Designer Stefan Iverwin found his life coming somewhat full circle when asked to work on the project. “I started my career at the Porsche Design Studio” he told me, “working for many years in vehicle design, product design, industrial design, and even architectural projects.” He has been with Frauscher for the past 10 years and was the obvious choice for the Spectre’s overall visual design and the styling of the boat’s exterior and interior elements that deliberately blend automotive and nautical influences. Miesbauer said that from a nautical engineering perspective, knowing from the beginning that the boat would be electrically powered made a huge difference. “The main thing with hull design is to know the weight of all of the parts, and then address the most important aspect – the centre of gravity. That is what makes the boat ride properly and with the optimum efficiency.” Design language of a Porsche with Frauscher DNA “With the Fantom electric we had to redo certain structural aspects and some stringers to distribute weight in the same way as with the combustion engine, but with the Spectre we had a blank sheet. We could address everything and have it as we wanted from the first sketches.” From Iverwin’s design point of view, the freedom to create the whole boat specifically for electric propulsion was an exciting opportunity. “We were able to tailor things to the battery, which has a very specific large format that effects so many things. So when you look at the design, you see that it has a slightly different feel from other Frauscher models. It has some design elements, some design features on the sides with the air intakes and outtakes, where we wanted to show off this new kind of boat, visually hint that it has a different power source.” The functionality of the air vents is to enable battery cooling, but this helped contribute to developing an overall design aesthetic. “We wanted to celebrate them as design features,” said Iverwin, “so if you look at the side intakes, they are the source for a straight line that goes all around the rear end and adds a lot of dynamism to the whole design theme.” “If you look at the surface treatment overall, it makes the boat look bolder and stronger and from the rear end, you can see that it looks quite wide, a very fast, sportive boat. It resembles the design language that you find on a sports car like the Porsche. So it echoes that, but is also part of the Frauscher DNA, this sportive approach and kind of automotive feel that you find in many of their models.” Power and performance In speaking with Miesbauer and Iverwin, I asked them what reaction they hoped people would have when they experienced the Spectre 797 for the first time. “That it is surprisingly powerful” was the naval architect’s first thought. “They would say ‘I didn’t know you could have the same performance, maybe even better, with an electric boat, that you have with a combustion boat.'” “For me,” said Stefan, “the best thing that can happen is if someone sees the boat and just has a gut reaction of ‘I love this boat, I want this boat’ They also find reasons why it makes sense to decide for the boat, but I want that emotion, that feeling, saying ‘I love how it looks, I love how it feels when I drive it, I love how it performs.” Power. Performance. With a +50 knot result at the 2026 YCM Speed Record competition at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, it seems fair to say that those goals have been achieved. Frauscher Boats   Monaco Energy Boat Challenge See Fraucher Boats for Sale in the Plugboats Marketplace The post Frauscher X Porsche sets +50 knot electric boat speed record in Monaco appeared first on Plugboats.