They carry the names of famous ships sailed by world famous explorers (James Cook’s Endeavour,  Cousteau’s Calypso or Captain Robert Scott’s Terranova), only they are much smaller – and they sail the waters Amsterdam's city centre. It's a tiny fleet of electric boats that enables you to enjoy the silence on the Amsterdam canals.

The famous Amsterdam waterways are not only occupied by the typical tourist canal boats, but also by small motorboats owned by Amsterdammers. But there are too many of them, says the Amsterdam city council, and their diesel engines are too smelly, too noisy and too polluting. Boat rental company Boaty.nl is one of a handful that is now renting out electric boats, or 'whispering boats' as they are known.
 

Quiet
Maybe that’s not the right description, as whispering normally makes even more noise than the electric boats that are silently taking over the Amsterdam canals. Boaty.nl's owner Jan Pieter Groeneveld sums up their advantages: “They're very quiet, they have no exhaust fumes, they're stable, they're comfortable, they're safe and they're easy to navigate".

"On busy days it can be very crowded in the Amsterdam canals and those old diesel boats are quite noisy and smelly. Not very pleasant for the people that live near the canals and not very good for the environment, of course”.

Mr Groeneveld got the idea several years ago, when he was on an electric boat himself. An eye-opener that led to him forming his own company and after two years (“Getting the right permits takes some time here in Amsterdam”), he finally got a berth space for ten small steel boats in front of the famous Okura Hotel in Amsterdam.

Electromotor
The difference between Mr Groeneveld's boats and other boats moored nearby is clearly visible: the 'old fashioned' boats have outboard motors, while the electric boats don't. Their electromotors are hidden away under the seats. The batteries are charged with renewable or 'green' electricity, which takes approximately eight hours. This enables you to quietly sail through the canals for another eight hours.

“The boats may not go too fast, but why would you need a fast boat? The aim is to enjoy Amsterdam and to do a little sightseeing, so you don't need a lot of speed”, Mr Groeneveld says.
 

Permits
The Amsterdam city council actively encourages the use of boats that are powered by other fuels than diesel or gas. In fact, new permits for mooring spaces are only given to boats that either run on electricity, hydrogen or other forms of clean energy. People who trade their old, dirty boat for a cleaner one, get a 50-percent reduction on the price of a mooring permit.

“Amsterdam wants to market itself as a clean city”, Mr Groeneveld says. “So it would be good to have more charging points for electric boats in the city. Now there's only one, which is obviously not enough”.
 

Bonus
“It's the environment that gains the most out of this”, he adds. “But to be honest, most people prefer these boats simply because they're so quiet. They can actually listen to what they're saying when they're in a boat. In the diesel powered boats, you would have to use ear plugs against the noise! That these boats are also good for the environment is a nice added bonus, but not the main reason why people are renting them”.

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