Monaco Energy Boat Challenge

05/07/2025

13:00 – Packing up time!

And just like that, the final race is behind us! The last few boats are still coming in, but for us, it’s officially a wrap on the water. What a day! Now comes the less fun part: cleaning and packing up. Stuff is being packed in, gear stashed, and Mira herself is getting ready for the disassembly of the struts and foils and to go back on the trailer.

12:11 – Finished on 3rd place!

We are very happy to announce that we just finished the 16 Nautical Mile Speed Challenge! We had some troubles along the way, but we are resilient and we still managed to finished on 3rd place! Tonight at 20.00h, the price ceremony will take place. Stay tuned for more!

11:50 – Back in Monaco

We just entered the territorial waters of the country of Monaco. Still 3.3 km to go!

11:45 – Slow but steady

During foiling, the pilots heard a rattling noise, and since we are now unable to determine what this means for the boat, we decided to play it safe. We are now sailing at 10 km/h on the third place, and aiming to finish this race!

11:00 – Our fans are cheering!

Some friends and family are cheering on Mira from the water, thank you so much for your support! We also feel all your support from home as well of course!

10:50 – Halfway!

We are now halfway through the race course, and are turning around back to Monaco. We even managed to foil a part of the first half, we are very proud!

10:45 – We just entered Italy!

10:15 – First buoy passed!

We just passed the first buoy!

10:06 – The 16 Nautical Miles Challenge start!

PEW! And we’re off! Go Go Go Mira!

10:00 – The 16 Nautical Miles Challenge

Ten minutes ago, we undocked and sailed to the starting area. The starting signal of the Challenge will sound any moment. Let’s show what the true potential of hydrogen is! Stay tuned!

09:10 – Race Day 2 Video

The video of race day 2 is online. You can watch it here:

08:00 – Getting ready for the final race day!

Today is the final race day of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge. After winning the Endurance Challenge yesterday, placing second in the Speed Record Challenge and placing third in the Manoeuvrability Challenge the day before, it is now time for our last race: The Speed Challenge. This is our last chance to show our best performance and become World Champions!

At 10.00h, our race will start. We will sail 16 Nautical Miles to the Italian city Ventimiglia and back as fast as possible. This is the final opportunity to show the efficiency and performance of our boat. Our pilots are ready for the race, are you?

04/07/2025

21:45 – End of the second race day!

Our second day is finished! In the morning, we foiled smoothly over the Azur waters. In the afternoon, we participated in the Endurance Challenge and are very excited that we won this race! 

Tomorrow, the final race will take place: the 16 Nautical Mile Speed Challenge! The boat that sails this distance, which is approximately 30 kilometers, the fastest, wins. Today we have already sailed 22.4 Nautical Miles (which is as long as a marathon), so we have already got a good ‘practice run’ for tomorrow!

Bonne nuit et à demain!

19:00 – WE WON THE ENDURANCE CHALLENGE!

We finished first in the Endurance Race! Mira completed 28 laps in 3 hours and left our competitors behind us. All the friends and family that cheered on shore were so supportive. It was a great race and we are so proud of what we achieved!

Right now, next to be very happy that we won, we are investigating the problems we had during the race with the foil actuation systems. We are working hard to fix this problem before the 16 Nautical Mile Speed race tomorrow!

17:00 – Finished & Celebration Time!

We finished! The official results are not in yet, but we did very well according to the race announcers. Currently, we are waiting for the official results and preparing the boat to be in the best condition for tomorrow, when we will sail the 16NM speed challenge. Now it is time to celebrate this big achievement together with the team. Join this celebration with us by keeping your eyes on all our social media channels!

16:45 – New lap record!

With just fifteen minutes left, we set a new record for sailing 1 lap: 4 minutes and 10 seconds! We could not be more proud! “The fans are cheering the TU Delft Hydro Motion Team Boat from the quay, it is impressive!” is what is said by the race announcers. Let’s go, Mira!

15:50 – Overtaking our competitors!

We just overtook the electric boat from the Red Wave team from the University of Bologna, and are now in the second place! Only the Inocel hydrogen-powered boat is ahead of us, with 7 laps.

15:30 – Halfway the race

We are halfway through the endurance race and have completed 13 laps! We are continuing steady with an average speed of 20 km/h!

15:00 – We are sailing again!

After a software update, Mira is sailing again! Currently we have completed 7 laps, and are in 3rd place of the competition.

14:26 – Technical issues being fixed

As you might have seen, Mira was not moving for a while during the endurance race. Due to the waves, we had problems reaching the takeoff speed. We did a software update on the water, and we hope that the problems are fixed now. Stay tuned for more!

14:10 – First Lap completed!

Mira just completed her first lap! The team and our fans are cheering on the quay and we feel your support from home too! She is sailing at 25 km/h right now! We do have some trouble to get to foiling take-off speed, due to the waves created by the other electric powerboats. Hopefully our pilots Bouwe and Willemijn will manage soon to lift Mira out of the water!

14:00 – The Endurance Challenge

PEW – with the sound of the starting gun the Endurance Race has officially started! Want to stay updated about who is taking the lead? Follow this live blog for the latest updates, or track Mira’s live location via here:

13:00 – Preparing for the Endurance Challenge

We are now preparing Mira and the pilots for the Endurance Challenge. They both are receiving the care they need to be high-performing the upcoming hours. In one hour the race will start!

12:30 – Hydrogen Conference

We are currently part of the hydrogen conference in Monaco. Our Team Manager Olivier is part of the panel “Moving beyond gas: The role of solid-state & liquid Hydrogen storage in maritime innovation”. We hope to inspire a lot of companies here to make the change for a greener future!

11:00 – Race Day 1 Movie

The video of Race Day 1 has just been put online. If you are curious how the day went, don’t hesitate to watch! Click here:

10:45 – Test Briefing

Before we participate in the Endurance Challenge, we will first practise with a few test runs and see how the boat behaves. We will then be optimally prepared for the race! Stay tuned for more!

05:00 – Start of the day: hydrogen tanking

Bonjour! Today, the endurance challenge will take place. For this, we need enough hydrogen in our tank, so we started the day early with hydrogen tanking! The endurance challenge will start at 14.00h. Stay tuned!

03/07/2025

19:45 – End of the first race day

Our first day is finished! After the official opening of the competition with the parade, all boats participating in the Sea Lab had to tackle four manoeuvres in the manoeuvrability trial: a slalom, turning, reversing and docking. What a great way to start the competition!

Afterwards, the Speed Record challenge took place. We sailed steadily above the waves, at a comfortable 50 km/h, a record for Mira! We could not be more proud of this!

In the evening, our own Chief Powertrain Bram performed at the E-Sports Challenge and managed to end up in the top 10! We are really proud of this achievement.

Tomorrow we will continue with our second and most important challenge: the Endurance Challenge. For this challenge, we sail laps for 3 hours straight. The boat completing the most laps wins. Here we will demonstrate the true potential of foiling and hydrogen!

Bonne nuit et à demain!

19:00 – E-Sports Challenge Qualification

Our Powertrain Chief, Bram, is hitting the virtual waters after weeks of intense training. He’s been selected to represent us in the E-Sport Competition of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge! The iconic Monaco Marina has been digitally recreated for this E-sport challenge, where teams from around the world compete to earn points in a race that’s all about speed, strategy, and innovation. This E-Sport event has been set up, to dive deep into the tech and performance behind these cutting-edge boats. Stay tuned as Bram takes on the digital waves with a digital Mira!

18:00 – Prince Albert II Award Tech Talk

The Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, together with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, is proud to introduce the “Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Sustainable Yachting Technology Award“. This award is dedicated to recognizing and supporting outstanding initiatives by universities and research institutes presented during the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge. The winning organisation will receive a grant to further develop and implement their solutions. 

The TU Delft Hydro Motion Team is nominated for this award, together with student teams from 4 other universities. We are now presenting the innovative design of our liquid hydrogen powered boat at the award ceremony, in front of the jury and an audience. 

16:50 – We finished the Speed Record Challenge!

We just foiled beautifully on the Mediterranean waters, and finished the speed record challenge! In the picture below you can see us foil in the challenge! 

16:20 – We are sailing again! 

We just took off, and will perform one short foiling test before participating in the Speed Challenge!

16:15 – Technical difficulties

We are experiencing some small technical difficulties right now. Our engineers are working very hard to fix the problem. With a bit of luck, we can still participate in the Speed Record Challenge! Stay tuned! 

15:45 – Speed Record Challenge

The speed record race has just started. One by one, boats will be timed while sailing a distance of 500 meters between 2 marks in each direction consecutively. The winner of all MEBC participants together, will be the boat with the best average time over the 2 consecutive runs. Bouwe and Willemijn are fully prepared and will soon start with the first run!

14:40 – Finished!

We have completed our first race: the Manoeuvrability Trial! The pilot and copilot worked together seamlessly to perform all the manoeuvres with the support of our team and fans on the quay. Later today we will hear the set times of us and our opponents and find out if we won this race element. Stay tuned for the official results of this first challenge!

For now, we will continue with some foiling tests on the open sea, and participate in the speed record challenge afterwards.

14:30 – Manoeuvrability Trials

We have kicked-off the Manoeuvrability Trial! It is finally time to show the abilities of Mira. This morning we practiced the manoeuvres and thought of the best strategy to complete the course as fast as possible. The boat crew is ready to set the fastest time and win this first challenge. All our fans are cheering from the side to help us win this race! Are you supporting us from home too? You can follow Mira’s location live from here:

12:00 – Preparing for manoeuvrability trials

Mira just returned to the Monaco Yacht Club, and we are now preparing for our first race: the manoeuvrability trials. With the fully rotating backstrut, Mira has an incredible trick up her sleeve: she can spin 360° on the spot, turning easily around her own axis! 

11:00 – Parade

It is a beautiful, sunny day here and the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge 2025 has officially started! We are now sailing in the parade. It is an impressive and cheerful showcase of solar, hydrogen and battery powered boats. The 42 teams are representing 20 nations world wide. We are happy to set an example for the maritime industry together!

08:00 – Getting ready for race day 1

Bonjour and welcome to the live blog of the first day of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge! We just came together to discuss the plan of the day.

Today the event starts with a parade where all the boats participating in the various competition classes can be admired in the harbour. It is amazing to see all other boats sailing on different sustainable energy sources, such as hydrogen, solar and battery.

After the parade we will start with our first challenge of the race: the Manoeuvrability Trial! In this challenge we are tested on our ability to make specific manoeuvres in the harbour. Let’s show what Mira can do!

02/07/2025

18:00 – MEBC Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony of the 12th Monaco Energy Boat Challenge has just started. All the teams have gathered at the 5th floor of the Yacht Club of Monaco, and are introduced to each other. We brought our Dutch flags and kicked off the races together with the other 42 teams! 

15:30 – Returning to Monaco

We just finished our second successful test and are returning to the Monaco harbour, due to a bad weather prediction. One week ago we had a foiling hydrogen-powered boat in inland waters and now we took the next step: we are foiling on the Open Sea! We could not be more proud of what we have already achieved, but this is just the beginning. Tomorrow at 13:00 the first race starts and we will now prepare Mira for this manoeuvrability trial. Are you ready for the race?

15:00 – We just sailed into Italy

We just entered the territorial waters of Italy. Mira has visited 4 countries already whilst sailing! We will shortly sail here, before returning back to Monaco for our foiling and cooling tests.

14:45 – We just sailed into France

We are now on the open sea and we just entered the territorial waters of France. We will shortly sail here, before entering the territorial waters of Italy, for our long range connectivity tests!

13:00 – Preparing to sail out

In a few moments, we will sail out of the Monaco Marina to perform the final tests with Mira. We will perform some short foiling tests, and afterwards longer runs towards Italy. More will follow!

08:00 – Final sea trials

Bonjour! Today, the final sea trials before the races will take place. We started the day at the Yacht Club Monaco with a briefing, together with the complete team. We will fine-tune the height control system for foiling on the open sea. Additionally, we will verify whether the cooling systems are functioning as designed in these warmer Mediterranean Sea waters. Before sailing out, we will fix some small problems with temperature sensors and the dashboard, so we can optimally test Mira. Stay tuned!

01/07/2025

19:30 – The first sea trials with Mira

Before we can start racing, we first have to check whether all systems that we carefully tested in the Netherlands also work in the warmer waters of the Côte d’Azur. That is why we just went out of the Marina and sailed on the Mediterranean, for the first time!

16:30 – We passed the technical inspection!

We are really excited to share that the Technical Committee of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge has checked our boat, and we passed this technical inspection. This means we fulfill the requirements set by the race organisation! We got 3 stickers, one to show the world that we are a hydrogen-powered boat, one to show that we passed the inspection, and one with our race number: we got 42. We are therefore allowed to start the races!

08:30 – Setting up in Monaco

The boat has been hoisted into the Mediterranean water, our necessary gear is near the quay. Racing takes more than just a boat and its pilots. That’s why we brought nearly all our belongings with us, making sure we had everything we might possibly need. We are now preparing for the technical inspection of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge!

30/06/2025

10:00 – Arriving in Monaco

We have just arrived with all team members, Mira and the rest of our gear in Monaco. All year we have worked to perform in Monaco and now we are finally here! The boat is almost fully ready for the races, and will now be prepared to be put in the Mediterranean water.  

29/06/2025

08:00 – Continuing with our journey to Monaco

After 14 hours of driving yesterday, we arrived safely at our hotel. We got something to eat and some rest. Today we will drive the last 560 km of the trip to Monaco, through the lovely mountains of France.

28/06/2025

09:30 – Going to Monaco

Today we completed our last preparations to travel to Monaco with high ambitions. One of the things that still needed to be done, was filling up our hydrogen tank with green hydrogen. MEBC 2025, here we come! 

27/06/2025

Welcome to our live blog 

Welcome dear reader to the live blog of the 2025 TU Delft Hydro Motion Team. On this website you can stay tuned about the races of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge with our hydrogen-powered foiling boat. Stay tuned!

Watch the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge live stream to follow the race in real time!

We’re excited to announce our participation in the Monaco SeaLab 2025, taking place from July 1st to 5th. Our races are scheduled as follows:

Thursday 3rd July

1pm to 4pm             Manoeurvrability Trial

3.30pm to 5pm        YCM Speed Record

Friday 4th July

2pm to 6pm             Endurance Race

Saturday 5th July

10am to 1pm           16NM Lab