I got soaked driving the Arc Sport electric boat

I didn’t go CES 2025 with the goal of getting drenched by the cool January waters of Lake Mead. But when I found out Los Angeles-based boat startup Arc had brought their new sports boat to Las Vegas, I thought it was worth the risk. Has been.

The Arc Sport was a joy to drive, even for a 30-minute outing on a choppy lake. It handled like a heavy jet ski – weight that helped it feel stable. I’ve driven a lot of heavy electric cars, trucks and SUVs where the weight felt like a drag. In this case, I was glad to have some weight under us.

Like its boats, Arc was quick as a startup. Arcwhich was founded by former SpaceX engineers, coming out of stealth in 2021 with support from Andreessen Horowitz and Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital. It raised a $30 million Series A a few months later, led by Eclipse Ventures partner and former Tesla executive Greg Reichow. The startup shipped its first $300,000 Arc One boats in early 2023, raised another. $70 million that same yearand set to work on the $258,000 Arc Sport.

In keeping with that pace, Arc delivered its first Sport boat to a customer late last year. It’s a “really fast development time,” founder and CEO Mitch Lee told TechCrunch as we wandered around Lake Mead. And that was only possible because Arc took the time to learn how to make the boat a limited run before moving on to something with a little more mass attached, according to Lee.

“The Arc One for us was that (Tesla) Roadster. The first step was, we’re going to manufacture this boat. We’re doing it on a small scale, and we’re learning from what it’s like to have these boats in the field with customers,” he said to TechCrunch in an interview in November. “We’ve had boats go through hurricanes now. We’ve had boats launched on 95-degree water. Those learnings are incredibly valuable.”

When I arrived, Lee was shivering in the winter breeze near Lake Mead, but clearly still happy to show off the Arc Sport and what it can do. We climbed aboard and hit the water.

It’s an impressive boat before you even hit the throttle. The fit and finish on the boat I piloted, which was still technically a production vehicle, was impressive, especially since CES isn’t known as a place for polished prototypes.

However, there are elements that can make people wonder. There was a Tesla-style horizontal touchscreen with smart, fluid software that didn’t scream “legacy manufacturer.” A second screen placed behind the wheel on the steering wheel, which shows the speed, the battery level, and a view from the front camera.

The Sport is much quieter than a typical gas boat. It is not silent. I can still hear the engine working under our feet; but it was easy to hear Lee, his two companions, and another journalist on board. It wasn’t louder than the wind and the sound of the wake being thrown behind us – a distinctive feature of Arc boats compared to the many other hydrofoil-based electric boat startups.

When combined with the other quality-of-life improvements the Sport offers over some other gas competitors – like no fumes, robust software that updates over the air, twin engines that make it easy to roll and park the boat, a solid canopy that lowers to protect from the elements, and the lack of winterization required – it makes sense why water sports enthusiasts could pay a premium for this boat.

Boats are not necessarily difficult to drive. The real learning curve comes from knowing how to navigate and behave on the water. Driving the Sport on an empty Lake Mead, even in rough water, was no challenge. Put one hand on the wheel, lift the lock on the accelerator knob, and push it forward to have 500 horses of fun.

The 226 kWh battery pack kept the boat planted, and also helped the relatively short 23-foot frame make quick pivots while turning the wheel. These turns were the most fraught part of the experience with the wind and the chop. Sure enough, we hit a wave, splashing ourselves with the icy blue water that the Colorado River supplies to Lake Mead.

It was worth it, though. Everyone should be able to have fun like this.

On the way back to the dock, while toweling off, it was hard not to notice the depletion of Lake Mead. A potent combination of seemingly endless drought and human activity has lowered the reservoir to just 27% of its full capacity, according to NASA. In every direction I could see where the water line was, a colloquially known phenomenon referred to like “bathtub ring”.

This has had a direct impact on boaters who use the lake for recreation — exactly the kind of people Lee hopes to sell to. Lake Mead has had to close several boat launches and ramps in recent years, according to the National Park Serviceand extend those that remain to reach the newer and lower level of the lake.

I did not ask if the evaporation of fresh water lakes is a risk for the market of the address of Arc – it is an unfortunate idea that I will be sure to raise next time. What I do know is that Lee said his goal is for every jet ski to go electric. That includes looking beyond powersports, perhaps even to government and defense — an idea that seed investor Andreessen Horowitz is very fond of these days.

When I asked Lee about this in November, he demurred, but left the door open.

“We can’t afford to get distracted too soon, because if we do, we will fail as a company,” he said. “The reason we were able to develop the Arc Sport so quickly is because of the work we did on the Arc One. I could go down this long list of all the transports and IPs, but the same thing applies to going commercial, going into the government sectors, and our aspirations as a business definitely carried over to it. We are not quite ready to discuss anything here.”