Where do you find a pioneering boat race in 2019? In Monaco for the Solar & Energy Boat Challenge organised with the support of the Yacht Club de Monaco. The title of the event is clear, no fossil fuels and internal combustion engines, only clean energy. In the first week of July the boats of 40 international teams of young students and professionals met to compete, divided into categories according to the type of propulsion or challenge. The objective? Design to transform what is experienced for racing into “everyday” pleasure boats. In essence, where more than 100 years ago there were the first petrol motorboats, today there are futuristic design boats that could become commonplace in the future.
All these ideas and projects go through the hands and minds of young engineers and designers, the event also offers an important showcase to show off with the main international shipyards.
The Monaco Solar & Energy Boat Challenge in numbers
- Teams: 34
- Nationality: 14
- Energy forms: Bio fuel, battery, hydrogen, compressed air, LNG, sunshine
- Speed record 2019: 74.49 km/h (Antwerp E Lab)
- Previous record 2016: 49.10 km/h
Divided into three classes – Solar, Energy and Offshore – over 300 athletes from 14 countries have given free rein to the imagination. In the first, as the name suggests, the boats used only the sun as a “fuel”. The “Energy” class, introduced in 2018, has tested competitors in developing boats that use electricity, hydrogen, etc. in a propulsion system as powerful and durable as possible. The offshore class tested the boats on an offshore route from the Principality of Monaco to Ventimiglia, Italy. In the latter class there were two Italian teams, one from the Politecnico di Milano and the other from Anvera, a shipyard in Romagna specializing in rib. Torqueedo, one of the big names in electric marine propulsion, supervised the technical aspect, verifying that the boats were in order.
