I know that I'll be accused of 'cherry-picking' but the highlighted bit was kind of along the lines I was thinking. Going back to my schooldays and the losses incurred by transforming one form of energy into another. I can however see the big plus of electric boats, a bit like electric vehicles, you are only using energy when you are driving them. When working a lock for instance do I switch off my diesel engine whilst filling the lock? Except on the Thames, almost never, whereas an electric boat will just be sitting there using pretty much no energy. I'm less keen however on the notion of travelling at 1mph, not because I'm in a rush to get anywhere, it is just that at that speed, especially if the wind picks up, you've barely got any steerage. Even though it wasn't particularly windy when I was following the electric boat up the Worcester and Birmingham to the Mailbox, he was zig-zagging his way up the canal. My original thought was that he was having some problem with his engine so was going to offer some help. Not much I can do to 'help' an electric boat though
