A very exciting International Energy Boat Challenge in sunny Monaco. With a fantastic result for the HAN Solarboat. The HAN University of Applied Sciences team is bringing back the bronze medal!

This solar boat challenge, in which teams of 20 different nationalities participated, was held last week for the 8th time in its history. With help from various partners, students have built their own solar boat in the last period. The boat is full of technical innovations and it makes use of solar energy to get into motion.

Watch the Techtalk of HAN Solarboat in Monaco!

The race in Monaco consisted of several parts, such as a slalom race and a speed race. In the classifications, the HAN Solarboat ended in the third position and was awarded the bronze medal. Prince Albert, prince of Monaco, visited the race an has seen the HAN Solarboat in action. Rob Verhofstad, chairman of the Executive Board, has let us know that he is very proud at the team: “Great achievement! Very proud at the team!”

But the real ‘game changer’ was already achieved on Friday morning 9 July. The team finished in 3^rd place at the very exciting fleet race!

• All the results

Take a look at this video for an overview of day 3 of the Energy Boat Challenge:

Leonie Dijkhof, who works at QConcepts Design Engineering B.V. (QConcepts) in Doetinchem, is supervisor of the HAN Solarboat team. She looks back on an intensive period, in Monaco, but also in the preparation phase at home. She says that it was more than worth it! “We received many compliments for our boat and our performance. We couldn’t have had imagined to end up in third place. Thanks to everyone who has contributed; sponsors, students, teachers and all fans at home. It was great!”

After the summer holidays, the student team of the HAN Solarboat will get back to work on further optimising the boat for even better results in the future.

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