Two original vessels will be taking up the HydroContest challenge

For a few days already, there has been a joyful excitement in the HydroContest tent, set up at the gardens of the Nautical Center of the University of Lausanne and EPFL. French, Colombian, Australian and Dutch banners bring color to a giant workshop where students hasten among boats with different degrees of original design and accomplishment.

They have set their hopes in winning the competition organized by the Hydros Company, based at EPFL’s Innovation Park. These student teams are expected to make boats that are as energy efficient and operational as possible within the limits of a certain size, with a 1200W electric motor and batteries provided by the organizer. One of the rounds requires a 200 kg load and the other only 20 kg. The boats must cover from 400 to 600 meters in a record time. A total of 12 universities have submitted their teams. The competition starts today on Lake Geneva (free access to the UNIL-EPFL Nautical Center, Lausanne, until Sunday. Complete Program and results on www.hydrocontest.org).

A "torpedo"...
One of the boats representing EPFL looks like an upside-down dirigible. The boat that Felix Cazalis, Sacha Pollonghini, Jordan Holweger and colleagues will present consists of a torpedo-like structure that operates one meter below the water surface and on top of which an ultrafine hull floats. "We imagined this configuration could work for the round that requires the boat to carry a 200 kg load," said Felix Cazalis. Since the ballast and the motor are located in the submerged part of the boat, this guarantees the stability of the whole structure.

… and a flying boat
For the light-weight category, the team had a totally different approach. This time, they devised a flying boat, a.k.a. a foiler. Remote controlled "wings", fixed under the keel and rudder, should allow the vessel’s hull to come out of the water since the very first propeller spins so as to reduce the water resistance to its movement and thus the energy losses.

"We had to grope for finding a way in which the boat could fly without rearing up or losing its lateral stability," said Jordan Holweger. Suffice to say that the last few weeks, which were also the end-of-year exams’, were intense. "We still have some adjustments to make for ensuring a better stability as weather conditions may be difficult," he said.

The goal of Hydros, through this competition that aims to become an annual event, is to make young engineers face the challenges – mainly energy saving –encountered by maritime transport of goods. Students only have two semesters to design, build and test their vessel. "We started from scratch, even though none of us had any experience in boat manufacturing," said Felix Cazalis, mechanical engineering student at EPFL, as well as his two colleagues. Still, they were able to draw on the skills of the Decision shipyard in Ecublens to manufacture the boat structures they envisioned.