Santa Barbara is the premier exclusive Real-estate development on the beautiful island of Curaçao, located just 30 minutes north off the coast of Venezuela. Residents and quest enjoy luxury waterfront homes, exceptional marina facilities, a world class golf course, amenities, and a peaceful place to get away from it all. In 2021, Santa Barbara sold its 350-room hotel to Sandals who converted the hotel into a premium all-inclusive hotel and renamed it “Sandals Royal Curacao”.
Not only do the administration take pride in going above and beyond for their residents, but they also are continually improving the infrastructure while reducing costs for the development. With this in mind Santa Barbara partnered with SkyBlu on a project to power their security vessel with an auxiliary electric outboard with the goal of reducing fuel costs, reducing maintenance costs, and increasing the security presence along the waterfront community homes. The choice for the auxiliary power was the Epropulsion Navy 6 Evo (10 horsepower equivalent) electric outboard paired with the Epropulsion E-Series E-175 battery. 
The Epropulsion Navy 6 EVO electric outboard will reduce the overall maintenance of the larger gas outboard by an estimated 85% monthly. Fuel costs are also expected to be reduced by 90% in the normal patrolling operations. In addition to maintenance and fuel savings, patrolling with the Epropulsion Navy 6 EVO electric outboard will allow a slower patrolling speed for security officers to provide more vigilant rounds under the silent propulsion. The security team at Santa Barbara worked to develop a rounding schedule and optimized speed for patrol, that will allow for up to 12 hours of electric only operation during the evening hours before returning to the dock in the morning to charge from the 3300-watt solar array dedicated to the security boat charging.
Santa Barbara is the leader of clean technologies with the largest number, and growing, of green projects on the island. They are also the first and only known operator of an electric outboard in commercial operations in Curaçao. With the current cost of fuel on the island, it is estimated that Santa Barbara will achieve cost recovery on this project within 8-9 months and provide both savings for their development and protection of their beautiful environment for many years to come.