Glorious sunny blue skies greeted the 2010 Solar Boat Challenge on Saturday at Penrith Pools. Almost 30 schools were pitched against each other in a bid to see who could build the best solar powered boat. Primary aged students built crafts which follow an overhead wire, whilst high school aged students built boats which were fully remote controlled.
The day started off with each team making presentations to a series of judges on how they designed, built and decorated their boats. This included a panel of engineers, who assessed the boats on their technical design and use of recycled materials. The engineers also had the all important task of allocating racing classes to each boat based on its design and construction.
You could tell when racing got underway, with all of the noise and excitement from the crowd of teachers, family and friends! The wire guided boats raced in a specifically constructed pool with a wire ‘track’ above it, while the remote controlled boats had to navigate around a series of buoys in the full size pool. A series of heats were held throughout the day, with a little bit of time allowed for the students to make those crucial tweaks (and in some cases emergency repairs) to their crafts. The wire guided boats finished their heats a little early, so some handicapped grudge matches were held for those all important bragging points, not to mention chocolate freddos for the winners!
Overall it was a fantastic day, with a number of winners over a range of different classes. Congratulations to all of the students involved, and we look forward to seeing you next year!
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| The wire guided boats ran in their own specially built pool. |
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Everyone was able to get close to the action
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| Preparing for a start with the remote control boats. |
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GO! The marshall signals the start of the race.
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| There was a big crowd in attendance |
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| The crowd got into it too! |
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