The hydrocontest is an engineering competition, which takes place in Lausanne in Switzerland on Lake Geneva. To compete the team has to design, and build two boats. These vessels then compete in three races, for which they have been specialised for.

Lightweight: The lightweight boat must carry 20kg as cargo and race around a 400m course

Heavyweight: The heavyweight boat must carry 200kg as cargo and race around the same course as the lightweight

Endurance/Long distance: The long distance race sees the boats driving continuously for 2 hours, the boat that goes the furthest wins.

The Team

The team this year comprises of members from the University of Southampton and Southampton Solent University as well as the French universities Centrale Nantes and Arts et Métiers. Many thanks to Arts et Métiers for their support in this crowdfunding campaign.

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Concepts

The lightweight boat:

As stated above, this boat will carry a weight of 20 kg. In order to reduce the friction acting on the boat, we have designed hydrofoils to lift the boat out of the water, and hence reduce the drag that acts on the hulls.

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Our lightweight boat is still in development, but the render above provides an idea as to what this boat shall look like.

Heavyweight boat:

For the heavyweight boat, which carries a load of 200kg, the team is going with a SWATH design, which stands for Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull. The cargo itself is stored in the main hulls, but under the water will be a torpedo which is filled with air or some other form of buoyant material. This will lift the hulls, and provide less waterplane area, and hence reduce the resistance acting on the vessel.

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The team is currently at the design stage, but we anticipate the completion of this over the Christmas period, with construction aiming to take place around Easter, allowing for a month of testing prior to the contest itself.

Last year was the second year that the team entered the competition, and we acheived some amazing results.

4th in the Heavyweight category

4th in the Endurance category

6th in the Lightweight category

The team also won the Communications Prize for having the best external communications of all the teams.

Stay up to date with our progress via our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/SouthamptonHydroTeam

Check out our website:

www.southamptonhydroteam.co.uk

For more information email:

info@southamptonhydroteam.co.uk

Hydrocontest 2017

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