FSC behind the scenes

You can follow the Frisian Solar Challenge on Twitter, but I am sure you already knew that. Happenings around this competition are regularly past online. But did you know that you can follow each of the organizers on Twitter? Every day they tweet what they are doing. From the logistic till the competition committee you can follow them. Now you know exactly who is doing what, where and when.

The people from the organization you can follow on Twitter:
- Andries van Weperen: event director
- Christel Pieper: communications and PR
- Inge Roosenburg: contact person for participants
- Janneke Spoelstra: logistics
- Kiki Merkies : logistics manager
- Marieke Bentink : communications and PR
- Nanny Niemarkt : coordinates the side events
- Natasja Kesteloo: competition leader

Dutch boating event Boot Holland

One week Boot Holland
The yellow solarboat, Gowrings Energy from Joop Steenman is getting the attention from many visitors of Boot Holland (a large boating event in Leeuwarden). In the yellow and purple Frisian Solar Challenge stand you can find team pictures and images from the race of 2008. Not only the people who are interested were visiting  this event there were also different competitors of the Solar Challenge.

Solar boats attracts visitors from different ages. They are surprised about the power of solar-energy and the speed of the solar boats. Some visitors even dream about having an own solar boat. Many people intended to go to the start and finish place in Leeuwarden on the 4th of july. “The young students have a lot of knowledge, during the Solar Challenge this knowledge is well used” says an enthusiastic visitor.

Delivery of the first sponsored solar panels
The symposium ‘what is the technological benefit of Frisian Solar Challenge’ was the start of the six days during boating event, Boot Holland. Klaas Hoekstra from The Sun Factory reached out the first solar panel. To lower the costs for participants of the Solar Challenge The Sun Factory sponsored the solar panels.

Recordings for Dutch television
During this boating event there was a camera crew from Yacht Vision, a Dutch television programme about boating. The Frisian Solar Challenge stand is
spotted by this crew. The sustainability and innovation of Frisian Solar Challenge brought attention to the presenter of this programme. Next week it will be shown on nationwide Dutch television.

You can find pictures of the symposium, stand and recordings by Yacht Vision in ‘latest photos’ on the bottom of this page.

Team Ipanema form Rio de Janeiro

If there is one, the rest will follow. In 2008 there was one Brazilian team joining the Frisian Solar Challenge, this year there are four teams from Brazil! One of the teams is Team Ipanema,  they are formed mostly by participants in Grêmio Nautico of UFRJ (University Rio de Janeiro) and teachers from the Naval Engeniering department of UFRJ.

‘Grêmio Nautico is a student association, closely connected to Polo Nautico, devoted to give sailing lessons to other students and competing on national sailing tournaments. Gremio Nautico is also responsible for the maintence of the federal university boats, that is how most of our team had their first experience with boat building and repairing’.

‘During the preparation for the Frisian Solar Challenge 2008 we intended to join team Copacabana, although most of key members were out of town either on vacation or on a summer internship. Not being possible to dedicate enough time to help during all the stages of the project we decided to stand back and just gave some occasional support to team Copacabana.’, tells Thiago Vasconcelos.

Thiago: ‘Our team members were the only one in Desafio Solar, a Brazilian Solar Challenge, that designed and built their own boats from the beginning to the end. I believe this team dedication to this project is its most valuable quality. During Desafio Solar Ipanema finished in 3rd place behind two identical monohull from the same team and well ahead of all other multihulls.’

‘Right now we are redesigning all of Ipanema’s propulsive system, buying it’s components and looking for new sponsors. The hull will most likely be the same we built for Desafio Solar. Our expectation is to improve the winner speed average of the 2008 edition on the A class.’

Technical specification

The technical committee has received several questions about removing or adding parts during the race, the allowed maximum voltage and about the design of the solar panels. These technical specifications are now available on the website, you can find them under ‘regulations’ or you can download them here.

Last chance to win a professional hull for your solarboat

This contest is dedicated to participants from A-class. Cree Yacht will sponsor a brand new professional hull done in infusion technology with all parameters for the winning team and will help them to build a solar racing boat. The designs has to be ready at 15 January 2010.
 
The rules are simple:
Make a design of cruising solar boat for 5-6 people, 4-5m length, catamaran type. The design has to include 5m2 roof  with solar panel. Designs will be shown on the website. Cree Yacht team will choose the winner of the contest.

You can find more information about this designcontest at www.creeyacht.pl. You can contact Cree Yacht by e-mail: bartosz@creeyacht.pl or call to +48 600412902.

Frisian Solar Challenge 2010 live on internet

Good news. As in the last edition, it will be possible to track the teams live during the race. The company GeoSports will sponsor us again by handing out transponders to every team. Everybody is able to follow the race in real time on-line. Each team’s position will be visualised on a map.

The Furia One team will install a cam on their boat and send out live images. All this data will be dealt with in a green way as the webservers we host our site on are also powered by solar energy.

Natasja Kesteloo: “Catched by the solar fever”

From the beginning Natasja Kesteloo is involved by the organisation of the solarboatrace. With her ‘solar roots’ she saw the FSC becoming a great event. Natasja is owner of Noordplan in Leeuwarden an office specialized in events  and she is also leader of the competition. She pulls the strings regarding to the organization of the challenge.

For the third edition in 2010, there is made a big progress in the quality, as well as in the organization as in the challenge. For example the minimum speed of sailing is changed, that makes the level of the race higher. Natasja gets a lot of energy from the collabaration between the teams and the extern partners. “Adolecents and professionals learn from each other. The mix between this two groups in one race is very special. That’s why it’s very pleasant to organize the event.”

Natasja’s hopes that the FSC in the future becomes a returning event.  “The FSC is the precursor of other (international) solarboatraces. For example the Brazilian solarboatrace used our regulation. We’re going to see each other about six months. I am looking forward to it, because what is more beautiful than to see solarboats sailing through the Frisian waters with the sun on your face?”

HAN winner innovation award

The dutch technical school of Arnhem and Nijmegen (HAN) has won the Dutch innovation award 2009. One of the reasons of winning this award is the participation of six students of the engineering faculty to the Frisian Solar Challenge 2010. The students (the Han Solarboatteam) have almost finished their technical systemplan and will soon start building their solarboat.

Last chance: Win professional hull for your solarboat

This contest is dedicated to participants from A-class. Cree Yacht will sponsor a brand new professional hull done in infusion technology with all parameters for the winning team and will help them to build a solar racing boat. The designs has to be ready at 15 January 2010.

The rules are simple:
Make a design of cruising solar boat for 5-6 people, 4-5m length, catamaran type. The design has to include 5m2 roof with solar panel. Designs will be shown on the website. Cree Yacht team will choose the winner of the contest.

You can find more information about this designcontest at www.creeyacht.pl. Or you can contact Cree Yacht by e-mail: bartosz@creeyacht.pl, call to +48 600412902.reeyacht.pl.

Brazilian team Ipanema in FSC 2010

Several international teams have already applied for the 2010 Solar Challenge. One of them is the Ipanema team from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. It’s not the first solar boat race for the Brazilians. Last October the team organised and competed in their own solar boat race ‘Desafia Solar Brasil’. This race was held in the bays around Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian team will compete in the A-Class of the 2010 FSC. All the teams that are competing in that class can be found here.