Vita Power has expanded into Michigan with the delivery of an all-electric Vita Seal RIB procured by the Freshwater Research & Innovation Center in Traverse City. The RIB will be the center’s research and training vessel, operating from Discovery Pier on West Grand Traverse Bay, where the center is under construction. The 24-footer is the electric research vessel named in the state-supported BlueTech Startup Studio and Electric Research Vessel project announced in July.
“The addition of the Vita Power Seal is an important step in bringing the vision for the Freshwater Research & Innovation Center to life,” Matt McDonough, CEO of Discovery Pier, said in a press release. “This vessel will be much more than a way to get out on the water — it will be a shared platform for hands-on workforce training, research, and the testing and demonstration of new BlueTech technologies in real-world, Great Lakes conditions. Combined with the other capabilities we are building at the center, it will help connect students, researchers, entrepreneurs and companies, and accelerate the development and deployment of technologies that benefit our Great Lakes and Michigan’s growing blue economy.”
The RIB, which charges on an Aqua superPower DC fast charger, is Vita’s first delivery in Michigan, adding to the electric workboats the company has in service with ports, municipal harbor authorities, research organizations and sailing clubs elsewhere in the United States and globally.
The center procured the RIB under the BlueTech Startup Studio and Electric Research Vessel project, one of five projects selected this summer by the Michigan Office of Future Mobility and Electrification through the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform’s Michigan Maritime Innovation Grant Program. The program committed $1.5 million in state funding, leveraging a further $2 million in private investment, to projects that strengthen the state’s maritime economy.
