About Us
Kerrier Marine is a Cornish marine design business specialising in small leisure craft, sustainable boating innovation and low-carbon marine technology.
Its vision is to redefine coastal boating by combining high-quality craftsmanship with clean propulsion systems and environmentally considerate design.
Kerrier Marine is exploring how sustainably sourced materials and electric propulsion can support greener marine tourism, resulting in low-impact hire fleets and future Net Zero marine infrastructure.
In March 2025, the company was awarded a grant from Innovate UK for a project focusing on the design and development of electric hire boats.
Tidal estuaries with a long history of public boat hire
The West Country has many tidal estuaries with a long history of public boat hire, often using vessels designed and made locally
Modern Regulations
The UK Government aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the domestic maritime sector to zero by 2050.
The modern regulations for small public hire boats, less than 6m in length, recognise CE-marked vessels as being safe for public use.
Using boats manufactured before the introduction of CE marking (around 2000) requires them to be approved and stability tested by a surveyor.
Converting older boats to electric propulsion requires significant alteration to the hull structure to meet current design standards, including a stability assessment, which may reduce the passenger capacity.
This, together with the higher maintenance costs associated with older boats, makes many of them increasingly uneconomic to use.
Electric Hire Boat
Kerrier Marine has designed a hire boat optimised for the hire industry in tidal estuaries, based on 5 years of experience with a prototype operating in Falmouth Harbour.
Complete with traditional West Country design features, customer weather protection, low maintenance, and zero-emission electric propulsion suitable for RCD Cat. C waters.
Electric propulsion can reduce CO2 emissions by 83% compared to petrol, and the use of low-carbon manufacturing techniques can further reduce the environmental impact compared to traditional GRP boats.
From our hire boat operator survey, we believe this boat would be ideal for hire companies operating both in tidal estuaries and those operating on inland waters.
Design Expertise
Kerrier Marine has used its expertise in hire boat operation, regulatory compliance and boat building to work with Naval Architects, Peckham Marine. Using their experience in low-carbon structures and electric propulsion to design the new hire boat, which will be certified to RCD Cat C.
Kerrier Marine is also converting existing Plymouth Pilot 18’s to electric propulsion, recycling old hulls to deliver a zero-emission boat, and the conversions will be certified to RCD Cat C.
The West Country has an abundance of boatbuilding skills to produce these boats locally. Kerrier Marine has extensive project management skills, in new build and refit, delivering vessels from 5-30m.
Supporting Hire Boat Operators
Converting Hire Fleets to electric propulsion brings significant benefits for customers and hire operators. The boats are silent, zero-emission, low-maintenance, and recharge overnight.
Zero-emission investments can attract local grants to support conversion to electric propulsion boats or the installation of charging infrastructure.
Kerrier Marine can support operators with planning for the transition to zero-emissions, including: conversion surveys, emission savings calculations, electric demo boat hire,
naval architecture services and project management.