Newsletter

8th of July

Speed Challenge

Today was our last racing day.We started the day full of confidence having scored second place in the Manoeuvrability Challenge and first place in the Endurance Challenge. The upcoming Speed Challenge was very important to us because we could finally show the potential of hydrogen to the world. We knew that we had fierce competition as our competitors with their battery-powered boats can achieve high speeds. This made it a challenging and exciting day. We started the day with a good feeling, because we were very happy with the results of the previous days and we were confident about this race.

Yesterday we experienced for the first time how rough the Open Sea can be. From the start of the race today, we noticed the waves hitting the boat and flooding the deck. It was very difficult to handle these rough conditions. In the beginning we were close to our competitors and we immediately tried to foil above the waves. Due to the big waves a lot of water entered the boat, causing technical difficulties. We investigated the problem and tried to fix it on sea. However, the waves were too high to safely perform maintenance and the decision was made to tow Aurora back to the harbour. In the harbour the whole team rushed together to fix the boat and so we could sail again.

After consulting with the race organisation, we decided to stay in the harbour to guarantee the safety of our boat and the pilots. Our strategy crew was confident that we would stay ahead of our competitors thanks to the amazing results of the previous days. We became world champions in the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge! We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished here in Monaco. We sailed efficiently on hydrogen and we foiled stably on the Mediterranean waves. We showed that by working together in a high-performing team you can build a fully functioning boat in just one year, because only together we can turn the tide.

Back to Delft

After our final race, the Speed Challenge, our journey in the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge 2023 has come to an end.
In the evening we attended the prize ceremony as World Champions! A title we are extremely proud of to take back to Delft. After celebrating our results we’ll pack everything back up. In the coming days we will be driving back to Delft where we’ll tidy up and prepare the handover for next year’s team. After that it is time to relax, reflect and recover from this year of hard work and amazing experiences. We can look back full of pride on the wonderful year we have had.

Newsletter

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