Daylin Frantin and Ben Sorkin grew up together on Long Island and spent summers upstate at Sorkin\u2019s family cabin on Lake George, where the pair put in a lot of time together working on old boat engines.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would always drag me along for strange trips to buy old outboard motors from local folks around the lake,\u201d Frantin says. \u201cAs young as middle school, he was fixing outboards, and he made me his assistant. I liked the boating part, but hated the fixing part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now the friends lead Flux Marine Ltd., a start-up that is tantalizingly close to turning the small marine engine market on its head. \u201cWe always knew we were going to get it done,\u201d Frantin says, despite many setbacks and challenges. \u201cThe passion for the idea kept us going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sorkin went off to Princeton to study engineering, interning at Tesla and writing his thesis on efficient engines. Frantin attended BU\u2019s Questrom School of Business, where he studied business administration, with concentrations in finance and accounting.<\/p>\n
He left campus in 2019 with a few liberal arts requirements unfulfilled because he and Sorkin had gotten serious about creating an electric outboard.<\/p>\n
Such an outboard would be better for the environment and require less maintenance than those old gas engines they\u2019d worked on. Along with Sorkin\u2019s Princeton friend Jonathan Lord, a heavyweight crew team member and fellow engineer, they founded Flux, a start-up now based on the harbor in East Greenwich, R.I., in 2018. A year later, Flux was a full-time job\u2014if not always a paying one.<\/p>\n
Many people already have electric motors on a skiff or canoe, of course\u2014dinky trolling motors that will, eventually, get them from one fishing hole to another. At the high end, you can buy a powerboat with an expensive inboard electric motor to cruise over to the yacht club. The Flux team has a different vision: bringing a reliable, nonpolluting electric motor for marine use to a mass market.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike our competitors, who are just repurposing gas outboards and putting a new power head on them, we\u2019re designing this from the ground up,\u201d Lord says, \u201cwhich is allowing us to fully realize all the benefits of electric propulsion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The name Flux Marine has a dual meaning, one derived from the definition of \u201cflux\u201d\u2014\u201cWe are bringing change to the marine industry,\u201d Frantin says\u2014and the other from engineering\u2014a magnetic flux field is responsible for generating torque in an electric motor. \u201cWithout flux, there is no power.\u201d<\/p>\n
They say the advantages of the Flux engine are obvious, among them:<\/p>\n
Sorkin is Flux Marine CEO, Frantin is COO, and Lord is CTO. But all 3 are deeply involved in all aspects of the business, which currently employs 15 people, including the founders and 5 other full-time employees. Andy Whitman (ENG\u201920) is their subsea systems engineer, and more than one BU student has rotated through as an intern.<\/p>\n
![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/files\/2021\/06\/feat21-1156-FLUX-010-1024x684.jpg\")