In the back of my mind was the consideration of using the Atkin's River Belle design and using an electric drive for propulsion. Its supposed to be an efficient hull form and with the low section of the hull to put battery weight down low should be good for stability.

As it happens, right after posting the previous entry, a thread on the Atkin Boats mailing list covered this very topic.

Seems there is some real concern about the power requirements... as Klaus points out in his comments, the propeller is really a surface piercing prop. The design relies on the power of the engine pulling water into the tunnel to fill it... the posters are holding that this is going to require more power (in essence its a planing boat) than you want to feed with an electric.

Atkin calls for an 80hp motor to make 15 mph.

Don't know... have to think on this some more.