For those of us who couldn’t make it to the Solar Boat race at Lelystrad, Flevoland, Holland last Saturday (10th June) there was an ingenious real-time vessel-tracker ‘app’ available. Watching it was almost as much fun as the real thing!
…almost as much fun as the real thing!
However, those who could make it enjoyed over 40 minutes of nip and tuck in the ‘Trial’ race which began at 0900. There were thrills and spills aplenty which caused five of the nineteen competitors to withdraw or fail to finish. The winning time, with sun-generated speeds of around 16kmh, was 41m 50s which was achieved by Bogerman Sneek.
Leeuwarder Lyceum came second with a five-lap time of 42m 35s, and Da Vinci College gained third place with a time of 43m 55s.
The afternoon saw the start of the ‘Sprint’ races. For these, the average speed is taken over two heats. The fastest average was achieved by Leeuwarder Lyceum with a time of 20.51 seconds; Maritieme Academy Harlingen clocked up an average time of 21.74 seconds to win second place; and Bogerman Sneek came third with a time of 21.4s. All nineteen entrants successfully completed this element of the competition.
There is a complicated points system used to arrive at overall winners which I shan’t explain to you as I don’t understand it myself – but I can tell you that the winning three entrants emerged as Leeuwarder Lyceum, Bogerman Sneek, and Da Vinci College, in that order with scores of 7, 7 and 10.
Engines revving!
Three cheers for Leeuwarder Lyceum!
Thanks to Kiki Merkies for those results.
At Victron Energy we take a keen interest in news concerning Young Solar Challenge. Entrants are all students aged between 14 and 17 years who have had to build their own boats, install the solar power-train, choose a pilot, and also form a maintenance team to perform dock-side repairs on their boats. All this experience is invaluable to the mind of a young scientist …and we are proud to assist Young Solar Challenge with the purchase of Victron Energy products.
All eyes now turn to the final event of the season which is to be held on 30 June at 12:00 to 1 July at 17:00, Appelscha, Netherlands. The event is called Young Emotions.
