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Please be invited to eat ‘rusk with mice’ on the 29th of june in Solar Village in Groningen. It’s a Dutch tradition to welcome a new born. During this feast we would like to pick your brain about the design of a new class: ‘new born class’.
To attract new teams we need a good affordable and partly prescribed class, with room for innovation. Let’s develop this together to make the Solar Family bigger. We’d love to have your input! Questions to debate are:
– What must an entry level class contain?
– What are the largest and most fun challenges for you as a team? In other words: what part of the boat needs fixed rules and which parts not.
– Who would like to join the core team formation?
The core team will examine a number of research questions in the coming period.In the attached picture you can find our interpretation of the current different classes and potential new possibilities.We are very curious about your opinion, feel completely free to get on this forum to respond. We’d like to add that this is not a commercial activity. This is brought together by the foundation of Solar Sport One in cooperation with Young Solar Challenge foundation. -
Thanks for the invitation, I hope the New Born Class will be as successfull as the V5 :).
In my opinion the V5 is a very good entry class for our students (Technasium, VO), but for one year only. It would be great if they could improve this boat the next year, in a class more focussed on inventiveness and improvement than on matches. Starting from the V5-hull we’d love them to go wild on technical improvements concerning streamlining, steering, balancing, propulsion optimalisation and weight minimalisation etc, without making it a race for just the money (most expensive equipment wins). So basically the V5 would be the starting point, with it’s solar panels and motor (Power) and safety requirements, but the technical specifications would be set free. If they think a lower streamlined wind shield, adding wings to the sides, a rudder at the front or a hydrofoil at the outboard motor, let them build it! If they wanna remove the heavy parts from the solar panels and position them adjustable, use a different type of batteries on a trolley or attache the motor to the boat adjustable? Go for it! Even if they go as fas as adding foils to make it fly, why not let them design, build and test it?
In my opinion safety regulations would be most important, like still being able to get out of the driver’s seat in 5 seconds etc, but technical specifications would be less. The design-process would become more interesting and more challenging, the races would become somewhat less important (maybe only two a year?) and the costs would stay low, starting from a ‘second hand’ V5. This new class would not compete with the existing V5, but it would add a new challenging level to it, technically as well as environmentally :).
Christiaan de Leeuw
Technasium Helen Parkhurst, Almere -
We would like to share some more information on the New Born Class. In the last weeks we have given the topic more thought, discussed with teams, possible development partners, etc. In the attached document (it is in Dutch!) you will find more information on the goal, the budget, different technical aspects like dimensions, etc. It is meant as feedback document, so nothing is decided yet, as we do won’t to have your opinion as this is very important to do this together.
Please feel free to share your thoughts on the document. Regards Frank Schoenmakers
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