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UCL Racing HydroContest Team 2017
The UCL Racing HydroContest team
Team Members:
- Ciaran McKeon
- Lucy Wiles
- George Robertson
- George Curtis
- Aditya Kumar
- Joseph Sealey
Supervisor
The Project
Have a look at the poster for the project
The HydroContest is a global naval architecture competition, in which teams from around the world compete in a number of races with the goal of improving naval efficiency. The competition champions not only innovation, but also speed and design. The UCL Racing HydroContest team consists of six mechanical engineering Master’s students who represented the university at the HydroContest 2017 which was held in Saint-Tropez, France, in September 2017. The teams compete in three categories:
- First the ‘Mass Transport’ race where the vessels represent cargo-carrying ships,
- Then a ‘Private Boat’ race in which the vessels represent luxury passenger yachts,
- Finally an endurance race during which either vessel races non-stop for two hours.
The team aimed to successfully qualify their vessels for both the lightweight and heavyweight categories, and place in the top five positions across all the races.
The Design
The team has designed a brand new lightweight (LWT) catamaran along with a modified version of the 2016 heavyweight (HWT) trimaran containing a new central hull.
The team raced with the HWT hull for the ‘Mass Transport’ category while the LWT hull was used for both the ‘Private boat’ category and the endurance race.
Compared to the 2016 equivalent, the lightweight catamaran has shown a resistance decrease of 50% while the heavyweight trimaran has shown a reduction of 35%,as a result of Using MaxSurf and QinetiQ’s towing tank. The team completed the manufacture of both vessels on schedule and continued testing over the summer to ensure they were ready for competition.
The UCL Racing HydroContest team and their prototype
UCL Racing HydroContest on the web
Read about the 2017 HydroContest.
Follow UCL Racing Teams on social media
