Boat Evolution Boat Evolution co-founder Matt Foley illustrates the stability of the 3D-printed tender.
Additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing, first appeared in the boatbuilding industry more than 15 years ago, primarily as a tool for prototyping. Especially when building components or hardware remotely, it was expedient to confirm the designed dimensions were compatible before producing the actual parts. We also saw a spate of fragile plastic model hulls and accommodations details used as sales and design refinement tools.
Next, the robotic printers were applied to printing small, specialized component parts that would be difficult for boat manufacturers to build with molded composites. Marine subcontractors Superfici (La Spezia, Italy) were early adopters who now deliver custom and production parts to many boatbuilders, having become part of their supply chains.
The technology’s next leap was into mold building for production builders, including full hull molds. When we reported on a 2018 project led by former tech executive Stephen Wu to build infusion-capable hull molds, the limiting factor was a maximum print envelope of 8′ wide, 20′ long, and 6′ tall (2.44m x 6.10m x 1.83m). Only a year later the University of Maine’s Advanced Structure & Composites Center printed a 25′ (7.6m), 5,000-lb patrol boat, not intended for on-water service, on their Ingersoll printer with a 70′ x 22′ x 10′ (21.3m x 6.7m x 3m) envelope and integrated 5-axis CNC router.
While a few companies have been printing actual ocean-worthy vessels and drone hulls in limited volume since then, now Maine-based startup Boat Evolution is aiming to build 3D printed tenders for volume production by the third quarter of 2026.
Co-founders Doug Donaldson and Matt Foley were fans of the New Zealand-built OC Tenders and Australian OneTenders and realized there would be a market for a boat with comparable performance that was 3D printed from recyclable materials and powered by an electric outboard. Donaldson said their early exploration of the possibility led them to collaborator James Anderson, an experienced composites engineer and boatbuilder with extensive expertise in 3D printing (he oversaw the printing of that boat at the University of Maine in 2019).
“We were the first ones to come to him with a small ocean-worthy tender,” Donaldson said.
With Anderson’s help, they have refined the structure of their original basic 9′ 6″ (2.9m) tender design and have printed multiple prototypes, starting with a 1/6 scale model, to test production timing and dynamics as well as on-water performance. When we spoke in March, the latest boat—a 30-hour print on a Dutch-built CEAD printer from the University of Maine’s Brunswick facility—had been a crowd pleaser at the February New Jersey boat show.
“That print is gorgeous,” Donaldson said. “We came away with three pages of names of people who want one.”
Video of the boat under way confirms that powered by a 10-kW Momentum electric outboard, it can get on plane quickly with two people onboard. (Conventional gasoline outboards can be used as well.) Donaldson said the ambition is to reduce weight to about 200 lbs for the finished tender as the final material selection and the printing protocols are refined.
Boat Evolution Boat Evolution’s 3D-printed tender is made from recyclable plastic feedstocks, so it’s fully recyclable at end of life. They plan to be in production this fall.
Anderson explained that while test panels confirm attainable structural properties from printed material, when printing a boat there can be a lot of variation based on changes in print process parameters.
“We need to ensure we understand how the 3D printing process impacts the final strength of the material in the part. You can’t just rely on the data sheet,” he said.
In the final phase of development before starting production at their facility in Downeast Maine this summer, the team plans to print multiple full-size hulls from a range of composite materials using plastic feedstocks. They’ll also be refining hull structure for durability, weight reduction and distribution, performance, and manufacturability. Printing the next prototypes will reveal how tolerant each material formulation is of changes to processing like print bead width and print speed. Those are important parameters in determining whether they can print the boats cost effectively. To go into production, they need to select the right material to optimize production efficiency as well as vessel structure.
Anderson explained that short print times become critical when demand requires high output. At that point you need to know “how wide a window you have to keep the strengths you expect.” In practical terms, can you effectively cut the print time from 30 hours to 12 and deliver the same quality boat?
They’re also looking to eliminate as much processing after printing as possible. “We’d love to be 90% ready to be sold post print,” Donaldson said. That means including as many details such a storage spaces and engine mounting pads as possible in the printed hull.
“Post processing is going to be as little as possible because that’s just cost,” Anderson said. Which points to the underlying calculation that makes 3D printed boats attractive to start with.
“It’s labor savings,” Anderson said. “Boat-builders are all screaming for labor, and the labor they do have they’d rather have them doing the fine woodwork and added value.”
The Boat Evolution shop will be very clean, and staffing will likely start with a single technician running the printer, its associated software, and feedstock of pelletized plastic. It sounds modest, but even at one boat per day, they would be able to print about 300 boats per year. To print more, they’d need to increase the print speed or add another expensive printer.
The other factor they’re counting on in marketing the boats is the environmental appeal of plastics that can be fully recycled at end of life, and for which there’s good-quality recycled material to be used in building the boats initially.
“We don’t want to paint them. We don’t want to add adhesives unnecessarily, or any-thing that could get in and hinder recycling,” Anderson said. “We’re trying to keep it as pure as we can so you could literally grind it up and print another boat.”
Because this is a mold-less process, changes can be made to the boats between prints, and new models can be prototyped and refined with minimal fuss and expense. Once the initial tender has been perfected, Donaldson said, they intend to develop a workboat model with lower freeboard for tending aquaculture operations like oyster and kelp farms.
“The public curiosity and excitement are there for sure,” Anderson said as we discussed the market for the printed ten-der. Ideally, it’s a boat owner who wants a durable, stable tender and is attracted to the recyclability of the material and the unique utilitarian aesthetic of the printed hull. But the initial interest from boaters seems broader than that.
Any concerns about competition from other builders? “Everybody’s standing back and watching at this point,” Anderson said. “As soon as they see two or three successes, everybody’s going to come piling in.” Boat Evolution is counting on being out in front as one of those early successes.
