Solar electric boat is powered by an electric motor which gets its supply from photovoltaic (PV) panels and utilizes solar energy. The study started with designing of the seven-seater solar powered boat for short distance transport from Bahir Dar boat transport port to Debremariyam Monastery by first conducting a survey, which was administered to boat operators and boat manufacturers to determine the specifications of a typical benzene powered boat used for Lake Tana transport to redesign it by solar powered boat. The main specifications of the redesign benzene powered boat (solar boat) are; length of overall (LOA): 7.18m, beam (B):2.0m, hull depth (D): 0.75m, height (H): 2.30m.The collected data served as bases for many design considerations of the solar boat designed. This thesis work presents the designing and modeling of 7-seater solar powered boat for short distance transport from Bahir Dar boat transport port to Debremariyam Monastery’s a substitute energy source instead of ordinary benzene powered boat. The design includes sizing and selecting of solar pv, solar charge controller, battery and outboard electric motor. The solar panel that selected for the system is 5 mono crystalline 320W solar modules. Four lead acid 12V/200Ah batteries are selected to operate at any time. To control the charging and discharging of the battery one 60A charger controller are used. The outboard motor selected was Torqeedo outboard electric motor with 24V DC, 6 Hp. The design based the speed of the boat to the hull speed and it gives 7.58kph.A battery’s capacity is very important to predict how it will last during its operating period. It needs 5.44hr to charge its 80% potential and its time of discharge is 3.77hr. Our solar boat can operate for 3.77hr per day, so our solar boat can travel 2 trips per day from Bahir Dar to Debremariyam Monastery for 10 months and 1 trip for the worst months in July and August. Initial cost of solar and benzene powered boat without its hull was approximately 316,356 birr and 156,824 birr respectively. We can save 28,368birrs from benzene per year. The payback period of this solar powered boat when compared with ordinary benzene powered boat is 3.5 year. Based on the points outlined above solar powered boat is better.