Maryline Bossar: Hello and welcome to the current yachts podcast. My name is Maryline Bossar. I'm here to talk to you today about something very specific that is probably the bane of the existence of many boaters. What if I told you that one of the biggest ongoing expenses of yacht owners and trouble with boats could be virtually eliminated? Today we're diving into the technology that's being factory installed on boats like Viking and Princess, Azimut and many other premium brands and I would like to tell you more about what they're building to allow you to enjoy a headache free experience on the water. So let me introduce you to Brian and Cabe from ElectroSea Welcome to program guys.

Bryan Billic: Thank for having us today. We look forward to the discussion.

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah, thank you.

Maryline Bossar: So Brian, let's start with you then. What's your role with ElectroSea I understand you're VP of sales. What does that mean? And tell us too about your background as a boater and how you got into this industry in the first place.

Bryan Billic: Yeah, so I'll start with the background as a boater. I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay with my dad in early mornings and fishing in the evenings and really fell in love with the Chesapeake Bay, really fell in love with being on the boat. ⁓ And dad always into me that old saying is that do what you love and you never work a day in your life. ⁓ From there, after school, went, got in my little Ford Ranger, drove down to South Florida, and I jumped on a 123 foot private yacht. So I did that for three years, got to know the ins and the outs of it, the good and the bad, the not so pleasant side of it, but also the best side of it. And it really was able to teach me a lot about the boating industry. And from there, just, fell more in love with it. I fell more in love with it and was able to grow. I came back to Maryland, worked for two other companies to supply parts to the OEM side on the Pleasure Yachts and also dealer networking. In 2019, Dan Cosentino, the owner ElectroSea calls me up and says, hey, I got a great product for you. It's going to revolutionize the marine industry. It's going to be a game changer. It's the next best thing. When he told me about it, we had a clear line system, which was our first generation of ElectroSea at that time. I was like, wow, this is a hit. This is going to solve a lot of boaters' problems. It's going to be, it is going to be a game changer. So in 2019, we shipped our first product, which was the clear line system. And from now eight years later, we've grown the company. I've taken charge of the VP of sales for ElectroSea. work with OEMs, the dealer network, both in international and domestic. So running around like crazy now. We work with about 75 different boat manufacturers, 95 different dealers globally. that was big out out put too is that we realized that this little growth problem is actually a global And it's a little problem that we have now but it's a big problem for the customer it's just been a fun journey for us. And I also get to work with Cabe Regnerus a great guy and learned a lot about So it's been a privilege to work with him too.

Maryline Bossar: Welcome, Gabe. What about you? Are you a boater and where are you based?

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah, so I'm based in South Florida, grew up in South Florida on the water my life. My dad was a captain and always kind of took to the water, loved to fish and dive and surf, do all... all kinds of things. ⁓ into industry when I was really young, guess. Started fishing with my dad and working on boats rebuilding boats and doing a lot of different things. started went to school do some ⁓ repair work on boats, got lot of different technical certifications. Similar to Brian, I got an opportunity to work on a private motor yacht. kind of thing. Spent a couple of years summers at least in the Bahamas, did a big refit on a big Hatteras motor yacht and had a lot of fun doing it, learned a lot, learned that my calling is in the engine room and I like to build products and get my hands dirty and figure out how to make things better. got approached, kind of fell into this product honestly. So I've got my captains license and the boat that I was working on originally is a brand new 72 Vikings sport fishing boat. It was a 2017 boat and how we kind of came into this product is I was fishing with the owner of the boat. We were in the Bahamas and we were yellowfin tuna fishing and our refrigerated fish boxes that we had that had all the tunas in them. that we lost refrigeration. So the owner was really upset. ⁓ was a brand new boat at the time. We had taken delivery in November of 16. This would have been May of 17. And we already having, ⁓ this a big failure, right? We spent a lot of money to be in the Bahamas and catch these fish and chase them. And he said, don't let this happen again, obviously. He said that I don't care what it costs, figure this out. ⁓ And so we...

Maryline Bossar: you

Cabe Regnerus: got back to the dock and started doing some research and I told him my best of my knowledge there wasn't a product out there that solved this problem. You know, completely there's always ways to fix it after the fact, but there was nobody who had built something that could solve the problem from the beginning. So he said, let's get to work. So he, the owner of the boat actually his background is in ⁓ medical devices and all sorts of and domestic patents on all sorts of products. ⁓ has over 300 patents across the world. We started working together on it. It was mostly him, but he would build the it down to me. had built a ⁓ dock box set up of basically made my own boat up.

Maryline Bossar: Okay?

Cabe Regnerus: Kind of did a proof of concept that way. So that would have been 20 like the summer of 2017 is when that started. We started testing, started to get really close and saw that it was really working. I had got a lot of attention on the dock from some of the other boats around me asking what we were doing, of course. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: Yeah, that's usually how works,

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah, so were like, man, if you can figure this out, ⁓ buy one. So I them, I said, I think we're onto something here. that's how it started. So we started it right behind the boat in ⁓ a dock and put the product in the boat. ⁓ Just kind word of mouth traveled. Everybody was blown away that somebody had solved this problem. was a few skeptics in the beginning, for sure. It's a hard problem to solve. we've done it. so from there we that would have been testing 2017-2018 and Brian and I met 2019. Started working together and now 2026 here we are all over the world all over all over everyone knows us. ElectroSea has become an industry name. We've got some great products. We've got some great things coming. So it's exciting.

Maryline Bossar: Yeah, it's a fascinating story. love the let's fix this for the industry and let's fix this for needs, but then the need actually is widespread as you were hinting, So we're not going to get the different products that ElectroSea has developed and is continuing to create. So thanks for this really exciting opening. I realize now that is like employee zero potentially of ElectroSea, right? You're been there from the start.

Cabe Regnerus: Yep. Yep, from the start, exactly, and still here.

Bryan Billic: You

Maryline Bossar: And so the core problem that we're trying to address with different iterations on the solution is marine growth. And obviously the implication can be many. We heard about inconvenience, right? It could be refrigeration. It could be AC. Many systems are affected by marine growth in various forms. Can you explain to us what happens when seawater enters a yacht's system, a cooling system, and what can go wrong and what you're trying to alleviate here?

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah, yeah, so all of the components in the boat that require seawater for cooling. The water comes in the boat from the bottom of the boat and moves through a strainer, goes to a pump, and then goes to that system. So it could be an air conditioning chiller, could be refrigeration, hydraulics, anything. So what happens is the same growth that happens on the bottom of the boat will happen inside the cooling lines of the boat. before ElectroSea the only way to solve the problem was to descale, which means the growth has already started. Now you run this ⁓ corrosive, harmful acid through the boat that ⁓ eliminates existing growth, right? So when the starts to take place in cooling lines, it restricts water flow. ⁓ And when you restrict water, flow, all of the systems kind of suffer, right? They can't cool properly, they draw more power, they work harder exactly. So being able to keep the growth out of the seawater lines allows the equipment to function better, allows not to have to do maintenance, not to have to, well, do less let's say. And so yeah, the thing. You want to keep those lines clean so all of the components can run efficiently. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: harder.

Cabe Regnerus: you

Maryline Bossar: And does this affect all environments? We were talking about the Chesapeake Bay, so brackish water, obviously the southeast, water, ⁓ Where does this actually work and where is it perhaps just a luxury that you don't really need?

Bryan Billic: So the electro strainer system needs salt water. So how this system works is that we are taking the salt content as salt water passes through the electro strainer cell. We are applying DC current to the cell based on the flow rate and we generate chlorine from the salt water. So we are taking the salt water and making chlorine out of it. And as the chlorine will kill everything that's trying to live and then chlorine passes through the AC system. and when it exits the boat, actually dissipates and turns itself back into its natural state of saltwater.

Maryline Bossar: And I wanted to point out too, we talked about impact on the systems. You were saying that they're working harder. They may just not be as effective. The other problem too is downtime, right? You both have been on larger boats with owners that don't have really that, what's the I'm looking for? They don't have that tolerance for downtime. And frankly, boats that are running for charters or even for enjoyment of people whose time is limited, that can be a huge drag. ⁓ Preventing downtime also very important. So the cost saving and the sanity saving I think on the systems is definitely worth pointing out as well. So gonna now talk about how your system is allowing those boat owners and those captains to move from reactive to preventative maintenance. So we were talking Cabe about the typical setup, right? So you have your manual strainer, which you have to pull out. to remove obstructions or jellyfish or things that get in there that shouldn't get in there. We talked descaling earlier, which isn't ever a fun process, but it needs to get done. You're kind of like always thinking about the things you have to do and you must do them. Otherwise, to your point, your systems will fail. So your system have to prevent this ⁓ intrusion of all the right conditions to create the growth in first place? ⁓ Or can you retrofit the system? Can you tell us a about this adjustments and how this installation happens for an boat that is looking to add this equipment?

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah, it's a good question. So like Brian had mentioned as The seawater comes into our strainer. moves across ⁓ ⁓ plates that basically being charged with a ⁓ DC And we're able to break down the ⁓ and make it into a very low level of chlorinated water, basically, ⁓ which doesn't allow living to survive anymore. Right? So. the water that leaves the strainer is of living growth, right? So the insulation. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: So your system comes before the trainer.

Cabe Regnerus: So our system, it replaces your sea strainer. the way the sort of in a general like retrofitted installation, right, we'll go to the boat or a dealer, whoever will go to the boat will look at strainer size of what's existing in the boat. Basically match it over to one of the, you know, appropriate models that we have today, whether it's a one inch, inch and a quarter inch and a half or two inch model. We've removed that strainer. We put the electro strainer in its place. gets connected to power and you're done. That's the installation. So it's very, very straightforward. do want to, on retrofitted boats, we do want to make sure the boats are clean and de-scaled prior to installation, right? You want to start with a

Maryline Bossar: All right, make sense.

Cabe Regnerus: the circuit. That's why especially at the OEM level it's very convenient to put it in a new build because you haven't allowed the opportunity for growth and things to happen inside the Seed and Grow line so you can start fresh and know you have a good baseline.

Maryline Bossar: right. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. So Brian, can you speak to when the electro strainer system was put on boats at the plant so that they could be installed right away?

Bryan Billic: Yeah, so exactly. first, as we mentioning on the 72 Viking, the owner has a 72 Viking, they were early adopter for us with Viking yachts. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: I see.

Bryan Billic: In 19, we went to them, we showed them our system and they started putting it in and it started getting traction. During that time, we were doing a number of refits. We gained a lot of knowledge from our refit market and we have created a database on our website to tell the customer, hey, if you have a Gallium 500, you need an ElectroStrainer ES125 Pro. So we have really captured the knowledge

Maryline Bossar: Mm-hmm.

Bryan Billic: of refit side of things. the refit market has grown and grown and grown, the customers got traction of it and then they have gone to the OEMs and said, I want this on my new build. I want this on my new build and let's put it in. And then the OEMs, we started working directly with the OEMs.

Maryline Bossar: Alright.

Bryan Billic: never forget the day, I'll share the story. I'll never forget the day when it was the Palm Beach Boat Show of 2019. It was the last day the show and Cabe and I are standing there, brand new just trying to get what we can get at the show. And Tom Carroll, president of Princess America at that time, comes up to us and said, this is a problem for us, not just us, but all boaters. And we really want to down and talk to you. So two weeks later, we're sitting

Maryline Bossar: Mm-hmm.

Bryan Billic: with Princess Yachts America they're now installing them on all incoming boats into the US. That became a of traction there. So then they pushed us to the Princess Factory. So now we're at the Princess Factory. Azimut Yachts jumps on board. Marlow Yachts is now on board. Riviera, the list was just adding up faster and faster. Let's speak to it little bit more. Next month, I'm headed UK. to visit Princess and Sunseeker. Also over to Sunreef attending Galeon dealer meeting in June. So it's now picking up, as can see, traction on that. And it's great. was mentioning that an engineer. When at the factory, it's an engineer installation. Our engineers, our teams, Cabe's, we all sit down with their engineering team, the and we design how the electric strand is being put into the boat to be the most effective.

Maryline Bossar: The Electrostrainer is it made in the US and then shipped out to the different shipyards overseas wherever those boats are built.

Bryan Billic: It is. Our manufacturing facility is based out of Minnesota, so everything is coming out of our factory in Minnesota and we ship all around the world from there.

Maryline Bossar: Okay, very cool. Now I'm gonna put the link in the description to the refit and retrofit, I guess, installation database that can recommend the right product. Do you have pricing on the website as well? Or let's say for a Galleon 500, can you share a ballpark? I'm not gonna hold you to it, but for our listeners to understand the cost of electro strainer. They already understand the benefit, so go for it. Tell us the cost of the unit.

Bryan Billic: Please. We have essentially ⁓ four different models. can range anywhere from four different sizes, I should say. They can range anywhere from 4,000 up to 15,000. So it really depends on your application and installation that needs to take place. So that's the ballpark round that. It's a range. It's hard to tell. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: Okay? Okay, now I'm going to ask a very silly question probably, but if you have multiple cooling systems, how many units of electro strainer do you actually need on the boat?

Cabe Regnerus: ⁓ it's a good question. It comes up all the time. Depending on the layout, you may need more than one. But primary market is the conditioning and refrigeration cooling system, basically, because those are the... Sea water circuits that are pumping water all the time especially I mean even South obviously for sure and the warmer areas there the pumps never turn off but even You know further they ⁓ the pumps are They're running more than they're not right So in order for the strainer to work as designed you want Consistent seawater movement like it's okay if the pump ⁓ turns off But the is in order it to be working we need moving water so for get questions quite a bit about engine components. When motors not running, they're not pumping seawater, it's not really a there. Also, ⁓ we ⁓ have a for unit, so we have to make sure ⁓ the systems we're cooling within spec for our electric strainer product, whether it's the plumbing size or flow rates, et cetera. So if you have more than one ⁓ to answer your question short, If you have more than one system that you're trying to cool, they're connected, you may need more than one electric strainer product. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: Okay, so let me ask you a couple more questions on how the system then is powered. Your engine is running, no problem. You're generating plenty of power to actually power the electric strainer. Let's say the engine's not running and you're at anchor and you're running your generator and you have your AC running. The system is powered how?

Cabe Regnerus: Good question. The system is DC power, right? So we're connected to the boat's DC power supply. So we want the unit to be connected to like the ship service or the house supply. we don't want to be anywhere near critical engine components, electronics, supply, stuff like that. So we're connected to DC power. very simple, either 12 volts or 24 volts, depending on the product. Boats that are at anchor just running on generator. So when you're on generator or your motors are running or you're at dock, generally you have a battery charger the battery chargers maintaining the voltage on board and that's what we're connected to the draw is low ⁓ it's extremely ⁓

Maryline Bossar: Good, that was going to be my next question is how concerned do I need to be about how much this draws and I was wondering if the addition of solar panels that are more more common is helping solve that problem.

Cabe Regnerus: So the. The draw for our products is really low and it's to range depending on flow rates, right? So at lower volume, so lower gallons per minute or liters per minute, the amount of power needed to convert that salt is much lower, right? It may be 50 watts or less. It just depends if you're connected to 12 or 24 volts. It depends on flow rate. It depends on quite a few things, but the draw is incredibly low. of number of customers ⁓ power is a consideration on boats that are going remote or solar or, you know, the question up quite a bit. So we had to make sure in design that we were to do this without overdrawing, without pulling too much ⁓

Maryline Bossar: Very good.

Bryan Billic: think it's also important to note that it's not a constant draw. So We're applying power to the cell once we detect flow So when the AC systems are telling the pumps to turn on and we detect flow using our ClearViz flow sensor we detect flow there We then put power to the cell based on that flow when the ACs are not calling for the water and they're satisfied and their pump is turned off then we go into a standby mode and we're probably pulling about 100 milliamps in a standby mode. And we will only kick on when the pump is pumping water through our

Maryline Bossar: And you mentioned earlier, we have monitoring devices. You can the flow. You can see what's running. What other indication do you get on those devices? ⁓

Bryan Billic: So the ultrasonic flow sensors are ClearViz flow sensor. It's reading between points. It's ultrasonic flow rating. That's basically the Achilles heel of the electric strainer, right? So again, we're putting power to the cell based on that flow. When there's no flow, no power is gonna to the electric strainer. What we've also learned over years was that customers were monitoring their flow rate to determine if they they needed to clean their strainers from debris. Remember the electric strainer is chlorine, which is preventing growth, but debris is still going to be collected in the strainer basket, of course. So if flow rate, let's say, is at 25 gallons a minute and it drops to 15 gallons a minute, they know that there is debris inside of their strainer basket and they need to go down there and clean the strainer basket from debris. Now we have a remote four inch by four inch display now that can be mounted on the bulkhead or in the engine room somewhere the customer doesn't have to open up that strainer to look anymore. They can look directly at the monitor, see they're ⁓ 25 gallons per minute and go on about their day and enjoy their boating experience. Right now if the boat, if the flow rate does drop down to 15, hey, you know, it might be time to check the strainer for debris. So it's almost like know before you go, you're knowing that your flow rate is going to be dropped before ACs go off on high pressure systems.

Maryline Bossar: Makes sense. That answers all of my questions. Very good. ⁓ It's very clear why that product would be so desirable. So I'm going to just put a reminder for our boat buyers out there to actually check in the listing for ElectroSea being present, because on some of these brands we talked about, you will see that it's going to be a factory default. Actually, it's not an option, correct?

Bryan Billic: Some of them have moved to a factory standardization. Yes, yes. So we started with an option and now we're moving into the standardization process because more and more customers are checking that box.

Maryline Bossar: Yeah, it's a huge telltale of where the market is going. for that option listed in the listing the boat you're looking to buy. And if it's not there, consider that as a potential add-on to really make your life easier and simplify ownership down the Now, you've got other products that you were talking about earlier, or at least teasing. Brian, do you to share what is already on the market? And perhaps we can turn it Cabe to talk about what's coming.

Bryan Billic: Yeah, yeah. at we always listen to the customers. That's the thing. Dan Cosantino, the owner of ElectroSea, has instilled in us there always has to be a better way. Listen to the customer. And we really took that to heart. That's been the overall company motto here. And when we were doing electric strainer installations, we saw and heard from the customers that they were having pump problems, raw water seal pump problems. They were replacing seals.

Maryline Bossar: Yep.

Bryan Billic: They it was just constant. People were replacing pumps on a normal basis. They were maintaining them. So we looked at Mag Drive pumps. We came out with a Mag Drive ⁓ C-Strong Bullet and we saw a bit of ⁓ opportunity even approve that. We listened the customer again. We listened to our dealer base ⁓ that they having some issues with our own product and we said, we have to innovate. We have to redesign. And we came. out with Silver Bullet RDP, which is Run Dry Protected, which is now our third generation of pumps. So we're on generation three of pumps, raw AC pumps, which is Silver Bullet RDP. What RDP is, is it is a run dry protection pump. So mag dry pumps, typical mag dry pumps, if they are ⁓ air locked run dried for one, two minutes, they will burn themselves up. fast. What we are able to do is we dissipated the heat inside the shaft and lower the friction, allowing us to run our pump drive for up to 60 minutes for the 100 series down. 137, so no.

Maryline Bossar: Wow. I think that's what we saw. That's what we saw the boat show, right? You had that display.

Bryan Billic: Exactly. the 137s run and up do 15 minutes in a run dry scenario. So this is a huge thing. Think of it this way is that you're on a boat, boats getting ready get hauled out, but you forgot to turn off your AC pumps, pump boats going up on the lift. And now you ran your pump drive or the boats getting back in the water. You forgot to open up your Seacock. She turned on the AC systems and now the pump is starving for water. These are all scenarios that encountered with our own pumps. So that's what triggered us to make run dry protection RDP pumps. And it's been a huge hit for the market. The pump of the RDP is on all of Vikings now. Viking has basically made them standard across all lines. We are going into different manufacturers now. Princess is looking to adopt it as an option. The custom sport fish guys, Bayless, Spencer, the list goes on and on has now adopted Silverbolt RDP, they know these issues. They want to hear from their customer that they burnt up a pump because they forgot to open up the Seacock. These are just things that customers don't want to experience that they shouldn't have to. So ⁓ with RDP, a game changer for the industry too. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: I had a question then on these pumps. So can you explain what happens after the 60 minutes of dry running time? Does the pump then automatically shut off?

Cabe Regnerus: So it does not automatically turn itself off. the way we're able to just to kind of go a little bit into detail on how we're able to run dry. for a certain amount of time is we've changed the design inside of the pump head. inside a pump head you have an impeller, is what pulls the water in and forces the water out. When a non... C-Strong RDP pump a drive design runs without water. It gets hot so fast that the bushing the impeller spinning on will start get damaged really and allow it to spin unbalanced and when that happens it's like when your tires unbalanced on car right it just gets worse and worse and worse and worse and it ⁓ starts to damage the pump head so What we've done is we took, basically looked at every mag drive composite pump in the industry and we okay, how can we make these a little bit better? So we've changed the internal components a number of with materials, with some like a... pump head changes where we're able to be more efficient in the pump head where it runs without water we're able to ⁓ of dissipate the heat more efficiently so it's able it doesn't get for one it doesn't get as hot and for two is as it gets it takes a much longer time for it to get hot enough ⁓ to become damaging that if that kind of sense so after the 60 minutes you know the damage may already been done right but the what's important to know is any

Maryline Bossar: you

Cabe Regnerus: other pump is a mag drive design pump ⁓ that 60 minutes is to have much more damage like it happens in seconds we've seen some that literally in 20-30 the damage begins so we're able to just that window you know by a long sure

Maryline Bossar: Can I ask a very stupid question probably? How come we haven't figured out how to identify whether or not there's water flow to shut off the pump before it goes into damage mode?

Cabe Regnerus: So that's a stupid question at all. ⁓ That's something that it requires a few additional pieces of equipment, different ways you can do that. You can do it through electronics, you can do it through you can do it through a few different ways, right? ElectroSea ⁓ has...

Bryan Billic: Yeah.

Maryline Bossar: But it doesn't work.

Cabe Regnerus: working on a number of things ⁓ solve that problem. so since we're, our is right? So have a product that already, controls the water before it gets to the pump. It monitors how much water is getting to the pump. Now we have the pump, right? So all together and you should come with something is a very integrated solution, so that kind of brings us back into ElectroSea as a whole. We've tried to either develop new product or improve an existing product every year. So we started with the Clearline, was our first product where we went after Viking. Viking basically put us in the door, asked us to do a few things to integrate into their boat. We did those things. They said, OK, what's next, right? Build us some more products, right? So we then went into different models of Clearline from there. Listen to the customer like Brian had mentioned a bunch of times and they wanted to solve problem inside their strainer basket. So they had to do less maintenance in strainer basket and start the cleaning process closer to the through also then came electro strainer, right? After electric trainer in, ⁓ everybody loved it. OEMs wanted it a little bit easier. They wanted the installation to be easier. They wanted all of the electronics be more consolidated, not have to run power to an additional system. ⁓ I'm sorry, to an additional control. built Pro. Pro incorporates all of Clearline Electrostrainer and this new controller where an all-in-one solution. You run one cable to our product and you plummet in and it's complete, right? So ⁓ in between we had some challenges and we had a lot of learning with ⁓ flow sensors. example, Brian had mentioned the ClearViz Ultrasonic Flow Sensor. So... ElectroSea developed an ultrasonic sensor, which a lot reliable and it's more of a long-term solution versus a mechanical design where you have that's physically moving in the water, which will wear out like a pump, which will get blocked like a strainer, right? So we went to a, we developed our own sensor we've had a number of people ask if they could just buy sensors from us, right? So maybe. you know in the future that's something that they want because people really want people value knowing the flow they ElectroSea in they had no idea about their flow rates they didn't know if the was working fine you know they didn't know if their strainer you know you could physically look at your strainer but you didn't know if your through hull was clogged you didn't know if your lines were dirty you have no idea ⁓

Maryline Bossar: And I could see how people would want that. You know, they have like Victron for all their power management. Like they're going to want to see flow rate for the cooling systems. That's normal, right? To be expected.

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah, exactly. it's and that's become it's a tool, right? Just as much as it is a convenience, you know, so. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: Yeah, and I was going to add to, think it puts a little bit more fun into the maintenance part of your yacht. Like people love technology. It's embraced at different speeds, but it's generally to make your boating experience better. And what I love about the company, especially as you describe, you know, the intersection of innovation and get what the wants. Let's fix this problem. And so to that end, there's one thing that you actually, Cabe originated as part of the ElectroSea arsenal of solutions. And that's the dehumidifier, which, you know, it sounds really simple, but you found something that was worth solving and it's actually really, it's working. Can you talk to us about this? mean, Brian gave it away. You're a very humble guy. I can tell you wouldn't brag about it, but that was your idea, right?

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah, I mean as it was a company decision to move forward with the product, but we were looking for You know, we were looking for what do we what else do we want to offer to the customer and Big boats small boats. It doesn't really make a difference You know, you're on the water humidity is a problem, right and there's a number of there is a bunch of options for you know solving or at least trying to mitigate humidity Um, but nobody really, nobody really attacked it in the way where they developed like a specific product for boats, right? You could go to a Home Depot or your hardware store, go buy an off the shelf or Amazon, go buy an off the shelf, de-emit a fire, you know, put it on your boat and it's going to help. There's no, there is no question about that, but we wanted to, what we saw is everybody, especially on bigger boats was doing that on the bigger boats, right? They just had this. Yeah.

Maryline Bossar: And you're like, wait, I want to sell you that dehumidifier and I want to make it better, right? So smart.

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah, exactly. They had this big noisy, you know, you they can't use it. I'm loving it on the dock.

Maryline Bossar: And it's cumbersome. Most of these are enormous. And I mean, we have one we carry is probably from the 1990s and it's a pain in the butt.

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah, it's a pain in the butt. And if you go to a tournament, you'll see a fishing tournament, you'll see guys that literally unload them from the boat and leave them on the dock while they go fishing to get them out of their boat. So, so wanted to, I think there's also a really big market in the small boat space for small consoles, especially where every time go to pull your life jackets out or your dock lines or ⁓ your paper they're all moldy or they're damp or they smell or the, you know, Basically, wanted to go after that, right? So we just, ⁓ up with a very small footprint that is a, it's a desiccant dehumidifier. you don't replace anything. It's like a damp grid or like a product where you have to continually do, you know, you replace this, this element. It's it's ⁓ super compact, draws little power. We've done a number of things to it to kind of tailor it to the marine space. So we eliminated the collection tank. So it just gravity drains. you never, problem is you have a dehumidifier in your boat, but if the pan fills up and the switch trips, it's not dehumidifying anymore, right? So ours won't do that, right? So we have a.

Maryline Bossar: Does it go like in the bilge or just whatever, whatever drain it taps into?

Cabe Regnerus: Yes, we, we, we, want to put it overboard. you don't ⁓ in your bildge cause you don't want to your bildge up with water.

Maryline Bossar: Overboard, yeah. I'm only asking because I have a sailboat. like, I wonder if this might work. guess we could tap into an existing through hull ⁓

Cabe Regnerus: Well, your sink, you know, like a sink countertop would go overboard or may go into a sump box, right? So that may go into like showers or whatever. They all into a sump or you could drain into a sump is no problem. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: You're like, yeah, nobody wants to that into the build. I don't know. This is just like the standard for us. It's like, oh, it's rainwater. It comes down the mast goes into the bildge What can go wrong?

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah. Yeah, right. Hopefully the pumps are working. But so yeah, we made it really small, right? Space is always a problem. We made it really quiet. Noise is always a problem. We made it really efficient, right? Because everybody wants efficiency. And then we did a couple of things we made. put simple things like adding threaded suction cup feet on the bottom of it. So when you set it on your countertop, it doesn't fall over. It's not on the wheels. It doesn't just little things.

Maryline Bossar: I know all of them have wheels, you noticed that?

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah, because they're so big and heavy and you don't, a sailboat you don't want anything on wheels, right? No way. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: I know. And here is the other fun part too is when you actually go racing, you don't want the thing on the boat. You want to take it off, take it to your car. And it's again, it's a major enterprise. So thank you for solving that problem. I will look into how I can add this to our boat.

Cabe Regnerus: Yes, it's right? It's complimentary to any boat. mean, it works, It's going to work for anyone. I mean, it doesn't have to be on a boat. can have it, you know, we've had people who put them in their basements. We've had people who, you you can them in an RV, anything. Just like any other dehumidifier, just to offer the customer another product, give them a product that is more suited their need.

Maryline Bossar: And in an RV I bet

Cabe Regnerus: and just keep in front of them, you know? And then now that's where, know, we're continuing to do that. We're continuing to develop number of things and people come to us to shows and say, what's next, you know? ⁓

Maryline Bossar: So I kind of want to know, do you any secrets you can share? And maybe Brian would be like, no, no more sharing. Is there anything else you can give us that's exciting and on the horizon that we haven't heard yet?

Cabe Regnerus: Yeah, we're on a number of things. There's on the side, we have, you know, we're continually approving pumps. That's that's an ongoing problem that will that will be able to something that's that's going to be completely different to the market, would be We have a number, we have a few products we're working on even outside of the marine space that could be a fit inside of the marine space as well. We have a lot of our kind of specialties in growth prevention. So we're working on a number of things to prevent growth in other places on your boat. So there's a few things that are working on. A lot of these projects are very, you know, they require a lot of resources and a lot of time and we're

Maryline Bossar: Sure.

Cabe Regnerus: not afraid of that. It's just we want to make sure when we come to market with something that we're It's entirely in-house. do everything in-house. Our other role is to report back what we see in the field to engineering and help come up with other things to have. So we have really, really

Maryline Bossar: And all of your R &D is in the US is like your team, right?

Bryan Billic: Yeah.

Maryline Bossar: Learn from the field. Yep.

Cabe Regnerus: well-versed engineers, a of them in our let's say, Minnesota. They're hard at work on a few things, so we're looking forward to the future. ⁓

Bryan Billic: Yeah, we try to we try to put out a product every year the goal. But as Cabe said, we're ⁓ always a goal. But if the product's not ready for launch, we won't rush it just hit that mark. But the Dry Genie was a product that we put out in twenty twenty six. We hope to something available for Fort Lauderdale. That's going to be another nice innovation. So that's that's the goal ⁓ here. So it's been really And Cabe's mentioned points is to get things back to engineering as much as possible. So anytime we identify a problem, as we said, listen to the customer, ⁓ get it back to engineering and they start working on something new. it's always, that's fun about it.

Maryline Bossar: How many employees are there at ElectroSea today?

Bryan Billic: I believe we're just, around 30 we came, was the four of us and now growing to 30 So it's been ⁓ an awesome process. We're actually in the of looking to hire somebody to agent in Europe also now. ⁓ So we're growing the sales team, we're growing engineering team. So it's been, it's ⁓ the electric strainer system actually 20 parts per thousands to generate the amount of chlorine that we deem efficient to kill living organisms inside of the electro strainer.

Maryline Bossar: And does that mean the salinity level of like the Chesapeake Bay would meet that threshold or?

Bryan Billic: say that the north part of the Chesapeake Bay does not. So north of like the Kent Island area. It's kind of more fresh with the Susquehanna dumping a lot of fresh water into it, especially during our rainy season. south ⁓ the Kent Island area, it does meet that and other parts around the world. We really don't have a problem with the salinity level a lot of areas, just in that fresh water. And it's also good to note that the electric trainer is not harmed or damaged when it is entered into fresh water. ⁓ It just stopped working and it waits for salinity to come back in.

Maryline Bossar: That makes sense. Okay, thank you for that.

Bryan Billic: So the other feature that dry genie had, um, which was really eyeopening to that Cabe actually created and made it a big feature for us was called last state is what we call it at Dry Genie the last state. last state is if the dry genie turns or loses power from, let's say a shore loss of power, um, typical dehumidifiers were turned themselves off. turn ourselves during the power loss, but once power is restored, we automatically restore power. Now, I walked into Viking Yachts one day and they were looking for a small compact dehumidifier. And their engineering team was like, you guys have anything. And I said, by the way, we actually do and it's coming out. And they were like, it has to able to turn itself back on when power is lost. And I patted Cabe on the back and I said, he's already figured it out. So actually implemented last state into the dry genie. Again, don't want to be the guy on the dock where you turn your dehumidifier on on Sunday, walking away from the boat and come back on Friday and realize that the dehumidifier hasn't been working because the power surge. So dry genie.

Maryline Bossar: Nah, running.

Bryan Billic: turns itself back on and continues to work through that process. And it's a really big benefit knowing that your dry genie is working 24-7.

Maryline Bossar: Is it another one of your solutions that some OEM, some builders have incorporated into their factories for in factory installation?

Bryan Billic: So we, with the adoption of Viking on the 55 Valhalla, they installed on now all the Valhalla 55s that are coming out of line. We've then moved to introduce it and provide it to other center console manufacturers. Tiara has a sample, Scout has a sample, Boston Whaler has a sample. with, it is a newer product, so we are still trying to get traction with it, but we feel confident that the OEMs will adopt it. Another big player in the game that did adopt it right out of the gate was Lewis Marine and BOW. It is a product that is now available off the BOW and Lewis Marine store shelves. So if you want one, you can easily go down to, if you're in Fort Lauderdale, go to Lewis Marine BOW that's right there. Also, all of our dealers have access to it. So dealers do have the availability to stock. So you can also contact one of your local ElectroSea dealers.

Maryline Bossar: Sounds great. So I will leave your contact information Brian. This who they should talk to, right? Any customer that's to add the ElectroSea solutions to their boat can contact you. You can help them troubleshoot through the best option, and then they can work with a local dealer for the installation. Is that how the process works?

Bryan Billic: Yeah, Brielle or other sales manager or myself really like engaging with the customers. We're here to answer any questions. or provide the right direction for you.

Maryline Bossar: Yeah, sounds great. So I'll put the link to ElectroSea from our marine directory in the description of this show and you can find all their information there. Thank again so much for your time and sharing this technology with us. I know it's helped our audience understand better how it works. Thanks again for to the Full Displacement Podcast. We hope to see you on the next one. Fair winds. manufacturers have adopted ElectroSea solutions on the factory floor.

Bryan Billic: So we work with over 75 boat manufacturers today. That list is growing every week. 50 % of those boat manufacturers have ⁓ made us a standard option the factory floor.

Maryline Bossar: And how long ago did you start?

Bryan Billic: The adoption has been fast. We have been on these manufacturers about five years. So can you imagine starting in 19 and five years later being with 75 different boat manufacturers, working with the engineering team on the factory floor with these guys? It's a fast and fun process.

Maryline Bossar: Cabe what do you think is ElectroSea's superpower?

Cabe Regnerus: values relationship we build with our customers. I think that we really try to listen to customer and really try build exactly what they need.

Maryline Bossar: Out of all the products that you offer today, how many installs do you think ElectroSea has done since you started the company in 2017, 2018?

Cabe Regnerus: I would say ⁓ more than ⁓ probably four five thousand. ⁓