Introduction
In the year 2007, to celebrate her 75th anniversary, MARIN (Maritime Research Institute Netherlands) organised a design contest on October 19th. Contestants were to design, manufacture and sail the fastest model sailing boat in Wageningen.
In the year 2007, to celebrate her 75th anniversary, MARIN (Maritime Research Institute Netherlands) organised a design contest on October 19th. Contestants were to design, manufacture and sail the fastest model sailing boat in Wageningen.
Rules and track
It was an open class: (almost) everything and all kinds of hull shapes were allowed. So the teams could design a catamaran, trimaran, monohull, etc. However, there were certain conditions:
It was an open class: (almost) everything and all kinds of hull shapes were allowed. So the teams could design a catamaran, trimaran, monohull, etc. However, there were certain conditions:
- Maximum length of the complete design: 50 cm. Maximum size of the sail surface (incl. projected mastsurface): 0.15m²
- Remote controls for steering and sail trim other than the the set provided by MARIN were not allowed. Energy-storage on board was only intended for use with this set.
- Only sailing boats designed and constructed by the team itself qualify for this race.
The track consisted of two stretches to be sailed with the wind on the quarter, rounding the buoy once. It was up to each team how to do this best: by tacking or gybing.
The track looked as follows (not to scale):
The track looked as follows (not to scale):
The distance from start to buoy was approximately 15m. The height of the wind field was approx 1m above the watersurface and the wind speed was between 1.5 to 2 m/s.
Results
The results of this contest, which took place on October 19th, 2007, are as follows:
The results of this contest, which took place on October 19th, 2007, are as follows:
| Position | Team number | University/school | Teamleader | Boatname | Time [s] |
| 1 | 6 | Delft University of Technology | Ko Stroo | Brak 2 | 36.78 |
| 2 | 2 | University of Amsterdam | Marjet de Ridder | Checkmate | 39.72 |
| 3 | 4 | University Twente | Hidde Dijkstra | Euros | 49.09 |
| 4 | 3 | Delft University of Technology | Jorrit-Jan Serraris | Wikkert | 50.19 |
| 5 | 5 | Delft University of Technology | Christiaan Pouw | TUdeloe | 80.69 |
| 6 | 1 | Delft University of Technology | Wim van Rees | Catamarin | 89.63 |
Innovation prize
An additional prize was put up for the most innovative design. This prize was awarded to the Catamarin, by the Delft University team consisting of Wim van Rees, Christiaan Pouw, Bas Overpelt and Thiemen de Haij.
Brak 2: Winner of the design contest
Checkmate: number 2
Euros: number 3
Catamarin: winner Innovation prize
More photographs can be found here.