Newsletter

May – Testing

During the last few weeks we have been busy with testing our boat in the water, and we also had our boat reveal!

Hull and Body

In the Production & Assembly phase, the entire hull with all interior and exterior parts was completed. Furthermore, the hydrogen system was pressure-tested and the tanks were filled with hydrogen for the first time. Now, testing the fuel cell could finally begin. After several tests on dry land next to the Dream Hall, we could test the fuel cell with a sailing boat.
A lot of tests were promising and we had to work on some parts of the boat to make it work. In the next few weeks we will see the boat tested to its limits.

During testing, the roles in the team changed. The Hull & Body Department deals a lot with the logistics for our race in Monaco. The first steps have been taken by arranging a sleeping place in Monaco. They are now working hard to be able to transport the entire team, our entire workshop, the RIB and our boat Aurora to Monaco.

Embedded Systems

These times are very busy for the Embedded Systems department. They are present at the testing site in Drimmelen almost every day, because they need to test our electrical systems, and adjust our software and hardware until we have a perfectly working boat. This process is as follows: they do a test in the water with the boat, while carefully looking at all data from our systems and sensors. This data is also saved on a server in the cloud, so that we can analyse it after the test. The last few weeks we were busy with the fuel cell. Integrating it in our system proved difficult but with the support of Horizon we were able to fix the integration and we are now sailing on hydrogen again. In the coming month the Embedded Systems department will put all their time into making the system perfect for the race in Monaco, to make sure that it is as robust,efficient and safe as possible. Besides that, they will put a lot of time in the height control. Getting the boat to foil stable above the water will be a difficult process in which we have to test and tune a lot.

Vehicle Dynamics

In May we started testing on a more extensive basis. For Vehicle Dynamics this means making sure that all the systems are running at their desired operation point. We received our newly designed propeller by Marin and built by Promarin with which the Vehicle Dynamics department could test the driveline. The driveline got tested several times with the help of a so-called bollard pull test. This is a test in which the boat is moored to shore with its motor put in forward at (almost) max speed.  This way we could test the fuel cell and the motor + driveline in one test. We managed to  get some valuable information out of it and got to see it working fully. Furthermore, the cooling system is now being fine-tuned so that it will perform optimally. Next to that, one of the most critical systems has been integrated into the boat: the foil actuation system. It has been mechanically and electrically tested outside the boat, and now it has all been put together in our boat. The only thing that is left for the Vehicle Dynamics department is tuning the PID controller, which will be done shortly! The PID controller makes sure the foils actuate based on the data the boat receives via sensors.

Our calendar for the coming month will be entirely filled with testing our boat and getting it to foil! This means that all parts of the Vehicle Dynamics department will be used a lot. Therefore wear and tear could occur. So, they will be doing maintenance tasks and checks after every test!

Boat reveal

On Monday the 8th of May we proudly presented our flying hydrogen-powered boat to the world after months of hard work. Since presenting our design in December, we started realising it and in just four months our design came to life. The traditional boat christening was performed by John Williams to wish the boat a safe journey in Monaco. John Williams is committed to getting people to work together towards a sustainable future, just like we do. At the moment John Williams is an energy coach and works with Dutch football clubs to make them more sustainable. 

Now that our boat is built we are fully focused on testing and preparing for the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge that will take place from 3 to 8 July. We will compete in the Open Sea Class, where we want to become world champions by excelling in three parts of the challenge; endurance, speed and manoeuvrability. In Monaco we will compete in the world championship to urge the maritime industry to take action and move towards a sustainable future, because together we can turn the tide.

Newsletter

For the coming weeks we will be testing the boat inside the water. The next newsletter will be out in a month! Do you know someone who is not yet receiving this newsletter but would like to? Send an email to exposure@hydromotionteam.nl or click on the link below. Via the link, you can enter an email address and will be asked to confirm via Mailchimp’s email. Feel free to send any comments or questions to exposure@hydromotionteam.nl

See you next month!