A few years ago Mark Fry and his wife wanted an electric boat that met all of their specifications, so they asked a company if it would build them one.

The company said no, so Fry and his better half decided to make their own.

Naturally, Fry now has his own Kelowna-based electric boat company called Templar Marine, which earlier this week revealed its first creation: a 26-footer called Cruiser C26 that is similar to the one he and his wife tried to have built a few years ago.

“We wanted a boat where we could go out and entertain friends in and have champagne and cocktails and caviar and be fully enclosed during the winter with a central heating unit,” he said. “During the summer all the windows will roll up and fold up, and you’ve got a swimming platform off the back for kids and grandkids. It has a full-size bathroom up front with six-foot headroom.

“We wanted something that Baby Boomers would be very comfortable on. We wanted a year-round boat. We wanted no costs in terms of running or maintenance. The only winterizing, actually, to be done is to put a bit of antifreeze into the fresh water tank for the toilet and the sink, and that’s it. We’re the only boat out on Okanagan Lake on December 25th with an electric motor, fully enclosed and fully centrally heated.”

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