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06/19/2019 08:00 AMThanks to students at Tuttle Elementary School, the East Shore District Health Department (ESDHD)’s new solar pump-out boat has a suitable name. Following the addition of the new craft, Tuttle students’ recommendation, Solar Shark, won the naming contest.
For their creativity, the students were invited to visit the new, solar-powered boat at Bruce & Johnson’s Marina in Branford on June 11. They were also treated to a pizza party directly afterward, sponsored by the ESDHD.
“This boat is four years in the making getting to this point,” said ESDHD Director Mike Pascucilla.
The $200,000 boat was paid for with grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) in addition to ESDHD’s fundraising and its own cash.
“What FWS wanted to see, along with the DEEP, was to have this model be implemented throughout the United States…because it saves energy and it’s green,” he said.
The pump-out boat’s function is to pump out the sewage of other boats. It will serve West Haven, New Haven, East Haven, Branford, and Guilford. Schools in those towns were offered a chance to name the boat, though only Branford and East Haven responded.
The ESDHD said its new solar electric pump-out boat will be the first such craft in the country. According to a Yale study that helped to set the project in motion, one barrier to the implementation of solar powered boats is a lack of speed output.
According to operator Joe Suppa, the boat’s top speed it 6.8 knots if it’s traveling with the tide and the current. It can carry up to 400 gallons of fluid.
“Most boats like this, you operate in no-wake zones so you can’t go faster than that anyways,” said Pascucilla.
“It’s powered by the sun and it’s a great boat,” said Suppa.
Though the boat has been put in the water, there’s still some work to be done. The ESDHD said they are planning to have the boat painted and officially given its new name.