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2003 Solar Boat Challenge
Report by John Grant
The day started with Rain! Although it soon cleared up and the cloud began to break up much to the relief of all involved. The team arrived and began to set up, construction tables for the "on the day builders" and the laying out of the lanes for the races. All went well and passers by often stopped to chat and discuss the events to come. The first entrants arrived and the three "on-the-day builders" began construction - "Blue Ball" - "Zebra" - "Pond Skater".
After an hour's construction time & tinkering for the registered teams the heats began at 11.30am - the sun was still reasonably low in the sky so these weren't the fastest times of the day but certainly some of the most exciting.
 The opening race was for three unseeded boats (Zebra, Titanic II & Marie Celeste) although the speeds proved later to be unremarkable the cheers and enthusiasm certainly main up for lack of speed. Zebra (made from two drinks bottles taped with white and black tape - hence the name) took off well but its top speed proved to be quite slow. Titanic II (a vacuum formed mono hull) this was the second time we'd seen this boat, it was entered in the 2002 SUNDay races and was unchanged in design - it proved to be the only Mono-Hull boat to be entered this year. It sank repeatedly last year in the windy conditions - I guess that's what you get when a boat's called the Titanic? However this year in the calm conditions on the boating lake it took off like a rocket. Unfortunately, it proved to be very poor at keeping to a straight line and lost allot of the original speed to drag as it ran along on the lane markers. The Marie Celeste (made from shaped packaging polystyrene and a Perspex motor housing) was the heaviest boat in the race but it did hold its line better than the other two entrants and slowly gained in speed overtaking the other two and won the race with a time of 106 seconds.
The second race was between two school teams from Stockbridge ("Pri' Wood" & "Mobile") and a "On-the-Day" build - "Blue Ball" all the boats were built from shaped blue modelling polystyrene. This was the slowest heat of the day but the school teams had a lot of honour riding on these little boats. Mobile (a low slung Cat) held it's line and was away from the rest, Pri' Wood & Blue Ball had some serious control problems and lost allot of time scraping along the lane markers. The finishing time was a respectable 149 seconds.
The third race was avidly watched by all those involved in last years race and it included three giants from last years race. The winner (L.E.S.S) and "Dignity" (the fastest recorded sprint) and Banshee (second last year). LESS is a very simple two panel boat carved from blue modelling polystyrene, it's main advantage last year was it's high profile and ability to follow the lane which negated the poor weather conditions. Dignity is a Cat with Vacuum formed hulls, last year it was a mono-hull but poor stability meant it only managed only one run - but this was the fastest of the day. In addition to an extra hull it had a customised motor and high speed screw design. The third boat was "Banshee" a beautiful hand crafted balsa Cat (painted with red flames), this is the most experienced team in the event as they are the only team to have entered in all three SUNDay events. This experience and excellent design of this entrant would prove itself later in the day.
The race began with "Dignity" taking off a the fastest speed seen so far closely followed by Banshee and bringing up the rear was LESS at a much slower speed. Banshee's speed proved disappointing and Dignity pulled away significantly as the race progressed and finished with the fasted time of the day so far at 54 seconds. However, Banshee far from being disappointed were elated at completely destroying LESS, beating it by more than 10 seconds, revenge for the previous year's final! They were confident that significant improvements were possible through alternative wiring of the solar panels to the motor. LESS was a disappointing third, however, the LESS team were not in the least concerned. When interviewed they hadn't touched the boat since the year previous. Their resources had been thrown into their second entry this year - "Ray of Light" and were confident that Banshee's revenge would be short lived.
Race four was and interesting mix of experience and enthusiasm, the entrants were "Bodge it!", "Swell Ranger" and the dark horse "Ray of Light". Bodge it was a shaped foam boat very light but suffering from serious control problems. Swell Ranger is a beautiful boat hand crafted from wood, plastic and metal wonderfully designed (winning last years design prize), unfortunately the high wind conditions the previous year proved too much and it was unable to compete effectively and never finished a race - this year would be very different. Finally, Ray of Light is very low slung hand crafted Balsa Cat, it looked very fast but there were some concerns that it would stay the course as it has a very unstable motor mount.
The race began and Ray of Light began like it was being pulled along by an outside force (which of course it was - the SUN!!), Swell Ranger looked very slow in comparison but proved to be everything it's designer hoped for and was a stable steady boat that continued to accelerate down the entire length of the race - it's weight proving to be a major limiter its acceleration. Sadly Bodge it! proved uncontrollable and could not hold it's line or even follow the lanes effectively. The race was over before it had travelled a third of the distance down the course, with Ray of Light coming in at 52 seconds, cutting the record time by another two seconds and - there was going to be a race this year!
Due to boat numbers the last two races were to be just pairs these were to be "Pond Skater" - an impressive on the day build (made from modelling polystyrene) vs. "Hunter", a bottle boat, this was it's second year, it was a non-starter the previous year, what is worthy of note is the innovation of this design that it was designed to straddle a lane to hold it's line. Both boats performed fabulously setting off at a great pace. Unfortunately Pond Skater lost a lot of its speed rubbing along a lane guide whereas Hunters very smooth design at the water level meant it ran along the lane guide not losing any of it's speed and coming in at a respectable 63 seconds.
The last race of heat one was also just two boats; "Flutter bye" and "Comet HLH" both teams were from Stocksbridge school, this was going to be a grudge match, as the large amount of jeering and yells, before the race proved. As both boats were released and Flutter bye took off at top speed, followed with equal performance by Comet. However, it soon became clear that Flutter bye was an exceptionally good straight runner and Comet had some serious stability problems, which were only solved in part by placing it over the lane guide as although this kept it going towards the finish line the drag slowed it to a crawl. Flutter bye flew down the course and came in with a respectable time of 78 seconds.
All the winners of Heat 1 now had time to work on their boats, rewiring and the addition of dagger boards seemed most common in an attempt to solve the lane drag problem. However, everyone had one more chance to qualify for the second round. The 2nd and 3rd placed boats would be entered into four races were to be run two with three boats and two with only two. These races would truly sort out the wheat from the chaff.
The first race was between Zebra, Titanic II & Pri' Wood. Sadly the Pri' Wood Team were unable to solve their control problem, their race was over, as the boat spent most of it's race at right angles to the lane marker. The other two boats made a race of it, Titanic II took off very well the drag being very limited at the early stages and left Zebra in it's spray. However, halfway down the run Titanic II turned into the lane marker and slowed almost to a stop. However, the drag caused by the tape around Zebra proved to be just too much and although it did gain on Titanic she just had too much of a lead. Titanic II and came through first in the slowest winning time of 190 seconds.
The second race was between LESS, Banshee & Blue Ball. Banshee was very confident of victory and didn't change the wiring before the race. The race started with a sedate start Banshee pulling away steadily throughout the race and winning in 92 seconds, LESS again followed her in approximately 10 seconds later but unfortunately blue ball although running much straighter (due to the addition of a dagger board) just wasn't fast enough so they and LESS were out of the competition.
Race three faced the Beautiful Swell Ranger against the scratch built Bodge it! The race followed previous form with swell Ranger coming in comfortably at 73 seconds the control and drag facing Bodge it! just proved too much. Race four followed a similar pattern with Pond Skater facing Comet. Pond Skater just proving too clean in it's running giving it a huge advantage over the swerving Comet which although fast just spent too long going in the wrong direction to win.
This completed the line up for the second heat, was now set at; Marie Celeste, Mobile, Dignity, Ray of Light, Hunter, Flutter Bye, Titanic II, Banshee, Swell Ranger, and Pond Skater. This again would follow the pattern of two three boat races and two boat races. To achieve six boats in the next heat, the first two in the three boat races would be allowed through and only the winners on the two boat races.
The first race was to be Marie Celeste, Mobile & Dignity. Dignity was very confident, even Marie Celeste and Mobile were talking that they would be happy to come in second. The race followed the predictable end with Dignity coming in comfortably in 50 seconds (a new record for the day). With the Marie Celeste sedately coming in second with Mobile having serious control problems, so bad in fact the boat managed to "U" turn and start heading back to the start line.
The second race was between Ray of Light, Hunter & Flutter Bye. Flutter bye were confident that some fine tuning of their boat would result in beating Hunter and coming in second. Again Ray of Light team were feeling very happy with their redesign work and confident of a victory. The race began and Ray of Light left it's opponents as if they were standing still and finished with a time of 51 seconds (a time the Dignity team were very excited about as they had beat this time in the last race - the pressure was certainly building). Unfortunately the fight for second place was never in any doubt. The alterations made to Flutter Bye far from speeding her up resulted in the screw being completely out of the water for most of the race and allowed Hunter to come in as a comfortable second.
The third race was to be a comfortable win for the Banshee team who came in again at 90 seconds, Titanic II was never in the running although easily an equal in speed it's control and resulting drag from the lane marker meant it was more than a minute later than Banshee across the line.
The final race of the second round proved to be the most exciting of the entire competition. This was to be between well designed Swell Ranger and the nippy Pond Skater. The race began with Pond Skater going into the lead and it looked like it was all over. Then Swell Ranger began to overcome the weight penalty it suffered and began to take advantage of a much smoother hull and began to gain on Pond Skater. With two thirds of the race over Pond Skaters lead had dropped to less than two centimetres. The crowd were screaming themselves horse, as slowly and inexorably Swell Ranger gained and overtook Pond Skater in the last few feet and won by just over a second at 54 seconds.
The 3rd round competitors were now set as; Dignity, Marie Celeste, Ray of Light, Hunter, Banshee and Swell Ranger. To get to the final competitors would either have to win their heat or be the fastest second place in either of the races.
The first race was chosen the boats were to be Dignity, Marie Celeste and Ray of Light. The Marie Celeste were crushed, they had not even got close the time being recorded by their competitors. They were still hoping for a failure on one of the other boats and get through on the fastest second - they felt this was their only chance. Unfortunately, the race followed the predicted result with Marie Celeste finishing more than forty seconds behind Dignity and Ray of Light. The first two were watched with great interest, this was the first time the "Big Boys" were facing each other. They took off like their lives depended on it. But as the race progressed it became clear that Ray of Light had the advantage and almost impercievably she began to take the lead and cross the finishing line in a record matching 50 seconds with Dignity coming in 3 seconds later. The difference between these two boats was so little there was few who were confident who would win next time (that of course assumed that Dignity's time was enough to get her through to the final as the fastest second place boat in the semi).
The second race of the semi finals was to be between; Hunter, Banshee and Swell Ranger. On previous form this was going to be a race between Swell Ranger and Hunter as their fastest times were within a few seconds of each other. However, there was a murmur that Banshee had redesigned the wiring or their motor and was confident all would be clear in the next few seconds. The race began, unfortunately Banshee's redesign did not deliver and Hunter and Swell Ranger pulled away, Hunter was in the lead following it's lane marker like an aquatic monorail and Swell Ranger slowly building up speed and catching Hunter, was this going to be a photo finish again for Swell Ranger? Then half way along the course Swell Ranger slowed almost to a stop but still struggled on, Hunter unperturbed carried on along it's lane and came in with a time of 59 seconds (a personal best for Hunter). Banshee again came in with a time of 93 seconds and Swell Ranger retired when she was taken from the water it was found a large piece of pond weed had clogged the screw and slowed her to a stop - the only boat to be affected in the way over the whole day - rotten luck!
This now set the final as a race between the underdog Hunter and simple two solar panel boat built from two 1 litre drinks bottles and a small solar motor. Ray of Light, a puritan balsa boat with nothing on board except what was necessary and running so low in the water there was a danger her bow wake would catch the front panels and slow her down. Finally the hi-tech Dignity, two super lightweight vacuum formed hulls, four solar panels, a motor with twice the output of any other boat in the race and a racing screw. Who was going to win?
The time was now 1.00pm and the solar car race was to be run, the sun was now virtually directly overhead the cars raced well and a great time was has by the entrants. During this time official time keepers kept on the line and boats whether still in the competition or not were invited for time trials in the best weather in an attempt to get the "Fastest Run of the Day" prize. Many boats went for the record all but one were nowhere near the then record of 50 seconds held by both Dignity and Ray of Light. Then Banshee with yet another rewire raced (they had already tried three tries with no significant improvement). But this time it was like it was a different boat, and much to the amazement of all, Banshee literally flew down the course to cross the line in 41 seconds!!! A new record and an elated team, but they were out of the competition and would have to satisfy themselves with the fastest boat prize so long as this time wasn't beaten in the final.
The final was run after the car race and began at 1.30pm the entrants boats were placed in the water, they were: Hunter, Ray of Light & Dignity, in addition to these three since Banshee seemed to have had a rebirth the team was allowed to race alongside the finalists in the non-official "inner" lane adjacent to the edge of the boating lake. This was a massive disadvantage as the solar insolation was slightly lower due the cliff like edge of the lake reducing the ambient light available to the panels. Unfortunately all this was moot as shortly after the start a bulkhead on Banshee failed and fell onto the drive shaft slowing it down and taking it out of the race. The Gods were really against her on this SUNDay.
The other three took off very well Ray of Light taking the lead almost immediately, unfortunately Dignity swung immediately to starboard ramming into the lane and slowing down considerably. Ray of Light seemed much less effected, and Hunter seemed to doing it's fastest run yet following the lane superbly and moving faster than Dignity. But neither Dignity or Hunter could come close the Ray of Light's speed which won decisively to the huge cheers of the crowd. Experience and a good set of hulls had proved to be the deciding factor, as well as an experimental larger motor.
The final times were as follows:
Ray of Light: 43 seconds
Hunter: 49 seconds
Dignity: 52 seconds
A fantastic day was had by all, the confidence of last years team was well founded and they now have two successive wins under their belt. Williamson Trophy was handed to Leon Clemitshaw, team leader on the Ray of Light team by Andrew Williamson owner of "Williamson Hardware" and sponsor of the trophy. All the competitors said they would be back with faster boats next year. In fact, it was said by everyone that SUNDay June 20th 2004 is just too long to wait for the next race!
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