Why We're Here
OSĒA started with a simple realization:
The technology that has quietly transformed commercialshipping over the last 15 years was finally ready for the recreational world.
Some Context
Before OSĒA, there were hybrid and fully electric tugs,ferries, offshore supply vessels, research ships, and submarines.
There were engine rooms redesigned from the ground up. Battery systems built to survive fire, failure, and salt water. Electric propulsion systems expected to work every day, in all conditions, with no tolerance for experimentation.
Between us — Brent Perry, Silvie Votrubova, Paul Hughes, Tommy Dale, Eirikur Gunnarsson, and Cam Rickett— we’ve spent the last decade and a half designing, building, installing, commissioning, operating, and maintaining and spreading the word on electric ships at anindustrial scale.
Through companies like Corvus Energy, Plan B Energy Storage, and SHIFT Clean Energy, we helped bring electrification into some of the most demanding marine environments on theplanet.
Not as concepts.
As working systems.
We’ve electrified:
- Tugs and ferries
- Offshore vessels
- Research ships
- Submarines and everything in between even a Walmart truck!
The Decisions
While continuing our work on commercial ships – Brent’s journey of getting back on the water with his own sailboat, Karma, cemented the decision to bring focus to recreational boats, with a focus on refits andnew builds.
As a boatbuilder and electrification pioneer, Brentdidn’t want an experiment.
The platform had to be reliable 100% of the time and offer a better use experiencethan conventional systems — day after day, offshore, at anchor, whether he wasoperating it or his family was.
Living aboard Karma made the gaps obvious:
- Diesel noise and vibration where there should be quietsystems built for peak power instead of average use
- complexity where simplicity mattered most
Karma became a proving ground — not for new technology,but for a better way of thinking.
The OSĒA POV
We believe people go to sea for freedom and theopportunity to experience life one moment at a time.
Freedom from noise and vibration.
Freedom from diesel fumes at anchor.
Freedom to move quietly through the places that matter most.
Electric propulsion, done right, gives that freedomback.
But only if it’s:
- Designed around how boats are actually used
- Built with redundancy and serviceability in mind
- Informed by real-world experience, not assumptions
That’s why OSĒA exists.
To apply hard-earned lessons from commercial marineelectrification to the recreational world, thoughtfully and responsibly. whilereducing the impact they leave behind.
What We’re Doing Now
OSĒA is focused on one thing:
Making electric propulsion practical, trustworthy, and genuinely better forpeople who love being on the water.
Through public projects like Karma, Tangaroa,and the conversions that follow, we’re documenting what works, what doesn’t,and what actually matters — openly, and without shortcuts.
What’s Next
This Log Book series exists to share that journey. Real boats, real systems, and real lessons learned. Because the future of recreational boating isn’t louderor faster.
It’s quieter.
Cleaner.
And built on experience.
