I didn’t go to CES 2025 with the aim of getting drenched by Lake Mead’s chilly January waters. However once I found Los Angeles-based boat startup Arc had introduced its new sport boat to Las Vegas, I figured it was well worth the threat. It was.
The Arc Sport was a pleasure to drive, even for a 30-minute outing on a uneven lake. It maneuvered like a heavy jet ski — weight that helped it really feel steady. I’ve pushed loads of heavy electrical automobiles, vehicles, and SUVs the place the burden felt like a drag. On this case, I used to be glad to have a bit heft beneath us.
Like its boats, Arc has moved quick as a startup. Arc, which was based by former SpaceX engineers, got here out of stealth in 2021 with backing from Andreessen Horowitz and Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital. It raised a $30 million Collection A a number of months later, led by Eclipse Ventures associate and former Tesla govt Greg Reichow. The startup shipped its first $300,000 Arc One boats in early 2023, raised one other $70 million that very same yr, and set to work on the $258,000 Arc Sport.
In line with that tempo, Arc delivered its first Sport boat to a buyer late final yr. That’s a “actually quick improvement time,” founder and CEO Mitch Lee advised TechCrunch as we zipped round Lake Mead. And it was solely potential as a result of Arc took the time to learn to make the limited-run One boat earlier than transferring on to one thing with a bit extra mass enchantment, in line with Lee.
“The Arc One for us was that [Tesla] Roadster. First step was, let’s go manufacture this boat. Let’s do it at a small scale, and let’s study from what it’s prefer to have these boats within the discipline with prospects,” he advised TechCrunch in an interview in November. “We’ve had boats undergo hurricanes now. We’ve had boats get launched on 95 diploma water. These learnings are extremely invaluable.”
After I arrived, Lee was shivering within the winter breeze subsequent to Lake Mead, however clearly nonetheless glad to point out off the Arc Sport and what it may do. We climbed aboard and hit the water.
It’s a powerful boat earlier than you even hit the throttle. The match and end on the boat I piloted, which was nonetheless technically a production-intent automobile, was hanging, particularly since CES will not be often known as a venue for polished prototypes.
There are parts that may make folks marvel, although. There was a Tesla-style horizontal touchscreen with sensible, fluid software program that didn’t scream “legacy producer.” A second display sat behind the wheel on the helm, displaying velocity, battery degree, and a view from the forward-facing digicam.
The Sport is far quieter than a typical gasoline boat. It’s not silent. I might nonetheless hear the motor working beneath our ft; but it surely was simple to listen to Lee, his two co-workers, and one other journalist on board. It was no louder than the wind and the sound of the wake being thrown off behind us — a distinguishing function of Arc’s boats in comparison with the numerous different hydrofoil-based electrical boat startups.
If you mix that with the opposite quality-of-life enhancements the Sport gives over another gasoline rivals – like no fumes, strong software program that updates over-the-air, twin thrusters that make it simple to rotate and park the boat, a stable cover that lowers to protect from the weather, and the shortage of winterization required – it is smart why watersports lovers would possibly pay a premium for this boat.
Boats aren’t essentially onerous to drive. The actual studying curve comes from realizing the way to navigate and behave on the water. Driving the Sport on an empty Lake Mead, even in uneven waters, was no problem. Put a hand on the wheel, raise the lock on the throttle knob, and push it ahead to have 500 horsepower of enjoyable.
The 226 kWh battery pack stored the boat planted, and likewise helped the comparatively quick 23-foot body make fast pivots as I turned the wheel. These turns had been probably the most fraught a part of the expertise with the wind and the chop. Positive sufficient, we acquired slapped with a wave, spraying us with the icy blue water the Colorado River provides to Lake Mead.
It was price it, although. Everybody ought to be capable of have that a lot enjoyable.
On the way in which again to the dock, whereas toweling off, it was onerous to not discover Lake Mead’s depletion. A potent mixture of seemingly countless drought and human exercise has lowered the reservoir to only 27% of its whole capability, in line with NASA. In each route I might see the place the water line was once, a phenomenon colloquially recognized referred to because the “bathtub ring.”
This has had a direct impression on boaters who use the lake for recreation – precisely the form of folks Lee hopes to promote to. Lake Mead has needed to shut a number of boat launches and ramps over the previous few years, in line with the Nationwide Park Service, and prolong those that stay with a purpose to attain the lake’s newer, decrease degree.
I didn’t ask him if the evaporation of freshwater lakes is a threat for Arc’s addressable market – that’s a grim concept I’ll make sure to elevate subsequent time. What I do know is Lee has stated his aim is that each watercraft switches to electrical. That features wanting past powersports, even perhaps to authorities and protection – an concept that seed investor Andreessen Horowitz is sort of keen on as of late.
After I requested Lee about this in November, he demurred, however left the door open.
“We will’t afford to get distracted too early, as a result of if we do, we are going to fail as an organization,” he stated. “The rationale we had been capable of develop the Arc Sport so shortly is due to the work that we did on the Arc One. I might go down this lengthy record of all of the carryover and IP, however the identical factor applies to going to industrial, going into authorities sectors, and our aspirations as a enterprise undoubtedly carry over to that. We’re simply not fairly prepared to debate something there but.”