Connectors
Connectors and current: what plugs into an electric boat
Seven connector standards, two kinds of current, and the one rule that cuts across all of them: who owns the cable.
Every station on this map lists its connectors, and a connector name on its own answers nothing. Three questions sit behind it. Is this AC or DC, which decides how long you are staying. How much power, which decides the same thing more precisely. And does the cable come with the charger, or does it have to come with you, which decides whether the stop works at all.
AC or DC, and why it decides everything
AC: the boat's own charger does the work
An AC supply hands the boat alternating current and leaves the conversion to the charger already installed aboard. That onboard charger is the bottleneck, not the post: plug a boat whose charger accepts 3.7 kW into a 22 kW pillar and it will draw 3.7 kW, all afternoon. This is why two boats on the same pontoon can report completely different charging times from the same socket, and why the kW figure on a station page is a ceiling rather than a promise. Almost all overnight charging is AC.
DC: the charger does the work, and skips the boat's
A DC charger converts the current itself and feeds the battery directly, bypassing the onboard charger and its ceiling. That is the whole reason DC exists and the whole reason it is rare: the conversion hardware is expensive, it is heavy, and somebody has to put it on a pontoon. A marine DC unit delivers 25 to 150 kW, which is the difference between an overnight stop and a lunch stop. The boat still has the last word, because its battery management system sets the rate it will accept and tapers that rate as the pack fills, which is why 80 percent arrives so much sooner than 100 percent.
The connectors
CCS2
The DC fast-charging standard across Europe, and what almost every marine fast charger on this map uses. It is a Type 2 socket with two extra DC pins below it, so the same physical inlet on the boat serves both AC and DC. The cable is attached to the unit: CCS2 charging is heavy, thick and liquid-cooled at the top end, and it is not something anybody carries. If your boat takes CCS2 and the station lists it, you arrive with nothing.
CCS1
The North American equivalent, built on the J1772 inlet rather than Type 2. Electrically it does the same job; the connector simply does not fit a European boat and a European one does not fit an American installation. It appears on this map only at the United States sites. Tethered, like CCS2.
Type 2
The European AC standard, shared with electric cars, and what a dedicated dockside charging pillar almost always offers. Three-phase capable, which is where 11 and 22 kW come from; on a single-phase supply the same connector gives about 7.4 kW. The cable is usually NOT attached. A Type 2 post with a bare socket needs a Type 2 to Type 2 lead, and that lead lives on the boat. Some posts are tethered and some marinas keep leads at the office, but the connector alone does not tell you which, so this is the one to check before you rely on it.
CEE (16 A, 32 A, 63 A)
The blue industrial socket bolted to a pontoon pedestal in almost every marina in Europe, also called IEC 60309 and often just "shore power". Three pins, weatherproof, and rated by current: 16 A is about 3.7 kW single-phase, 32 A about 7.4 kW, and 63 A appears on commercial quays where a barge or a river cruiser needs it. The cable is never attached. A shore lead is standard equipment on any boat that has ever plugged in, and the amp rating on the station page tells you which end you need.
Schuko
The ordinary German domestic socket, the one on your wall at home, sometimes found on smaller inland moorings and lock islands. Rated for 16 A but usually derated in practice, so treat it as a slow trickle rather than a charge. Never tethered, and the lead is an ordinary one. Where a source documents it we list it, because on a canal it may be the only thing there.
Do I need to bring my own cable?
This is the question the connector name is really answering, and nobody states it. The rule is about the infrastructure and it holds:
| Connector | Who brings the cable |
|---|---|
| CCS2 (DC) | The cable is attached to the charger. Arrive with nothing. |
| CCS1 (DC) | The cable is attached to the charger. Arrive with nothing. |
| Type 2 (AC) | Usually a bare socket. Carry a Type 2 lead, and check the station page or call ahead if you are relying on it. |
| CEE 16 A | Never tethered. The lead is yours. |
| CEE 32 A | Never tethered. The lead is yours. |
| CEE 63 A | Never tethered. The lead is yours. |
| Schuko | Never tethered. The lead is yours. |
What YOUR boat needs is a different question, and this article cannot answer it. It depends on the inlet the builder fitted and on the onboard charger behind it: a boat with a CCS2 inlet can still be limited to AC if the DC side was never specified, and an inlet that looks like Type 2 may be wired for single-phase only. The boat's handbook is the authority. Check it once, write the answer on a card, and keep the card with the leads.
What this means at the three tiers
DC fast charge
A dedicated marine DC unit, 25 to 150 kW, CCS2 in Europe and CCS1 in the United States, cable attached. Expect a useful charge over lunch and 80 percent well inside an hour on a boat that can take it. These are rare, they are almost all run by one operator, and they are the reason a passage plan works or does not.
AC charging pillar
Fixed dockside equipment, usually 11 to 22 kW through Type 2, cable usually yours. Rated far above what most boats' onboard chargers will accept, so the realistic outcome is a solid top-up across an afternoon rather than a full charge in an hour. Worth planning a long lunch around, not a quick stop.
Shore power
The CEE socket almost every marina already has, 16 or 32 A, cable yours. At 3.7 kW a 60 kWh pack needs roughly sixteen hours, which is exactly one night alongside. This is how most electric boats actually charge, most of the time, and it is why the map lists shore power at all rather than only the fast chargers.
What to carry aboard
For anything on this map that is not DC, the answer is leads. A CEE 16 A shore lead is the one nobody sails without; a 32 A lead pays for itself the first time a pontoon offers 32 and you can only take 16. A Type 2 to Type 2 lead is worth having if your boat takes AC through a Type 2 inlet, because the pillar that has one is the pillar that will not lend you one. And an adapter or two, because a marina that lists 32 A somewhere on its site may still have 16 A on the pontoon you are actually tied to.
Every station page on this map lists exactly which connectors that location publishes, and the date somebody last checked. Where the page says nothing about connectors, that is a gap rather than an absence, and it says so.