Amazingly, the world's first outboard was electric. In May 1880, a Parisian electrical precision instrument maker, Monsieur Gustave Trouvé, patented a small 5 kg. electric motor and described its possible applications (Patent N° 136,560). At first this concerned the propulsion of boats, where Trouvé envisaged two such motors each directly driving a paddle wheel on either side of the hull. After this he progressed to a multi-bladed propeller. Modifications to this master patent date from August 1880, then March, July, November and December 1881.
      To quote: "It is the rudder containing the propeller and its motor, the whole of which is removable and easily lifted off the boat...."
      With this invention, not only can Trouvé lay claim to the world's first marine outboard engine, but in taking the same motor and adapting it as the drive mechanism of a Coventry-Rotary pedal tricycle or velocipede, Trouvé also pioneered the world's first electric vehicle.
      On 1st August 1881, Trouvé made his benchmark report to the French Academy of Sciences that "I had the honour to submit to this Academy, in the session of 7th July 1880, a new electric motor based on the eccentricity of the Siemens coil flange. By successive studies, which have allowed me to reduce the weight of all the components of the motor, I have succeeded in obtaining an output which to me appears quite remarkable.
      "A motor weighing 5 Kg, powered by 6él of Planté producing an effective work of 7kgm per second, was placed, on the 8th April, on a tricycle whose weight, including the rider and the batteries rose to 160 Kg and recorded a speed of 12 km/h.
      "The same motor, placed on the 26 May in a boat of 5m50 (18ft) long by 1m20 (4ft) beam, carrying three people, gave it a speed of 2m50 (2.7 yards) in going down the Seine at Pont-Royal and 1m50 (1.6 yards) in going back up the river. The motor was driven by two bichromate of potassium batteries each producing 6él and with a three-bladed propeller.
      "On the 26th June 1881, I repeated this experiment on the calm waters of the upper lake of the Bois de Boulogne, with a four-bladed propeller 28 cm (11 in.) in diameter and 12 él of Ruhmkorff-type Bunsen plates, charged with one part hydrochloric acid, one part nitric acid and two parts water in the porous vase so as to lessen the emission of nitrous fumes.
      "The speed at the start, measured by an ordinary log, reached 150 metres in 48 seconds - or little more than 3 metres (3.2 yards) per second; but after three hours of functioning, this had fallen to 150 metres (164 yards) in 55 seconds and after five hours, this had further fallen to 150 metres (164 yards) in 65 seconds.
      Thus Gustave Trouvé made the first unofficial outboard speed record of 10.8 km/h (6.7 mph). He called his boat Le Téléphone, after an invention patented only five years before by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell.
Almost one century later...
      In December 1988, almost one century later, Fiona, the 70-year-old Countess of Arran, was persuaded by Kevin Desmond, then Chairman of the Electric Boat Association, to make an attempt on the World Electric Water Speed Record. A record of 45.76 mph (73.63 km/h) for the Measured Kilometre had been set back in 1978 by the 14ft (4m27) Miss Nickel Eagle, powered by Eagle-Picher nickel-zinc batteries driving a 94hp General electric motor. Since this record had only been homologated by the APBA and not by the UIM, for the Arran attempt, a new records category was created and voted in down at Monaco, but still retaining the requirement that the time elapsing between the two runs (including battery recharging) must not exceed 30 minutes. Her Ladyship's friend, designer Lorne Campbell, came up with a profile for a 15ft (4m60) three-point hydroplane, built in Kevlar and ply composite by Nick Barlow and weighing only 210 lbs (95kg). The four, radial armature permanent neodymium magnet motors, designed built and tested by Cedric Lynch, self-taught 33-year-old engineer from Potters Bar, would give a total 60hp, whilst 12 swift-yield energy lead-acid jet aircraft starter batteries were provided by Hawker Energy Products. A Cableform controller and special Morganite graphite-silver brushes added to the innovation.
      Following 47mph (75 km/h) trials on the Welsh Harp lake, North London, Lady Arran towed An Stradag (Gaelic for "the spark") up to the Holme Pierrpont Watersports Centre, near Nottingham and on 22nd November 1989, with a 30-knot wind gusting down the rowing course, Her Ladyship set up a two-way average of 50.825 mph (81.777 km/h). Between the two runs, a Benning Belatron traction charger replenished 80% battery energy in just 12 minutes.
      Altough An Stradag could well have increased its own record to between 60-70 mph (90-110 km/h), lack of sponsorship for this pioneer powerboat relegated it - for the time being - first to the National Motorboat Museum in Essex and then to the Lakeland Motor Museum in Cumbria.
      There were however many spin-offs, in particular UIM Article 592 where the Sporting Commission proposed that electrically propelled boats were accepted as an International Series divided into two classes - battery-powered and solar-powered. This proposal was voted in at the UIM General Assembly on 17th March 1991 (22 votes for, 5 abstentions). In July a contest was held on the River Po, Italy, to further establish rules for racing. In October 1991, Lady Arran challenged both Fabio Buzzi of Italy and Bob Nordskog of America to build powerboats that would break her two-year-old Record. To-date these gentlemen appear to have been too busy to respond.
      The electric power boat challenge was however taken up in Washington State, USA. The original idea was to get the Electric Speed Record back for the US. Led by
veteran powerboat driver John Paramore - a small group of home-built electric car enthusiasts - Burton Gabriel, Fred Saxby, Don Crabtree and Dave Cloud, joined forces with another longtime powerboat speedster Norm Boddy.
      To get things going, Paramore obtained ABPA permission to race electric boats head-to-head as an exhibition event at scheduled outboard races around their home state of Washington. For 1994, they chose five races sites and ran 8 two-mile (three-kilometre) sprint races from June to September. Even after running at speeds between 30-40 mph (50-60 km/h), the electric raceboats had power surplus at the end of each race. By the end of the series, they had publicly proved that electric powerboats could plane, corner buoys and tramp up to speeds of 50mph (80 km/h).
      Finally, in the Kilometre Trials held on 8th October 1994 at Lincoln City, Oregon, Norm Boddy of Edmonds Washington capped the season by setting a new World Electric Boat Record, driving his runabout Hardly Normal to a speed of 55.913 mph (89.964 km/h). His motor was a 48-volt Prestolite forklift unit mounted on a Mercury Speedmaster outboard racing lower unit.

The spark is re-kindled...
      In 2004, Don Sidebottom of the Lakeland Motor Museum decided to put several of his exhibits up for sale. Among them was An Stradag.
      During the Spring and early Summer of 2005, several of An Stradag’s original team began to consider how they might take up the challenge where it had been left off some sixteen years before...and achieve the original target speed of 75-80 mph, so bringing the Record back to GB. And this meant doing what they had original planned: increasing the engine power, new batteries, finer-tuned propellers and streamlined cowling.