MS Staffelseerin – 137 km on One Battery Charge

Lake Staffelsee near Murnau in Upper Bavaria, with its islands and its view of the Alps, is a favourite spot for cyclists. Since 2024 it has also been the home of a world record. On 26 April 2024, Gerry Meyer of Staffelsee Motorschifffahrt drove his electric passenger ship Staffelseerin a record 137 km on a single battery charge, the furthest distance for an electric passenger ship.

The Staffelseerin is a solar-electric ship: its solar roof recharges the batteries during normal service. For the record attempt, Meyer worked out the numbers from the 96 kWh battery. At about 7 km/h the ship uses roughly 5 kW, which gives about 20 hours of continuous operation. The record run proved the calculation.

The ship is propelled by a Schottel drive that can turn through 360 degrees, making it very manoeuvrable around the small islands and landing stages of the lake. In normal service it stops at the lakeside villages, like here at the landing stage in Murnau.

The physics behind the record is the same for every solar vehicle: go slower and you go much further. At 7 km/h a boat needs only a fraction of the power it needs at 15 km/h, just as a solar e-bike at 20 km/h uses far less than at 30 km/h. For more on batteries read LiFePO4 Explained, and for more solar boats see the Altaussee and MobiCat.

Technical data

Photos

• Top photo: SchmiAlf / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Sources

• Presseportal: Rekord-Institut für Deutschland, Schiffsdistanz-Weltrekord (PDF)