Sunshine and winners for Schools Marine Challenge South East Race Day
Schools and Colleges from across the South East Region met once again to compete in the 5th annual Schools Marine Challenge Race Day on Thursday, 24th June 2010 at Bluewater, Kent.
Supported by the Hampshire Economic Partnership, British Marine Federation, Techsoft and hosted by the Bluewater Shopping Centre, the day was a great success with staff and pupils enjoying great sunshine and close boat racing.
The day was filled with varied racing with vessels competing in three power categories: Solar; Electric; and Internal Combustion. Teams of pupils design and construct their boats, often as part of their curricular studies culminating in the ultimate challenge to test their skills and boats against other schools.
For the first time competitors were joined by pupils from local primary schools who experienced 'Formula Sun' building their very own solar boats. The primary school students showed excellent team effort building their boats from build guides, designing stickers with Techsoft and the racing their finished craft in just a few hours! All had an enjoyable time and the pupils of Knockhall County Primary School left with big smiles having collected their first trophy.
Overall the South East Race Champions 2010 were the Leigh Academy, Dartford, Kent who repeated their success of previous years. The school designs its curriculum around events such as the Schools Marine Challenge and believes they encourage the students to be innovative, work hard and learn practical skills. The Academy's recent Ofsted inspection highlighted its particular success in preparing youngsters for the world of work and its reputation ensures a high demand for pupil places.
Bishop Luffa C of E School from Chichester won the Solar Powered Category with an effective design which was much admired by other teams. The vessel was significantly faster than other competitors even in overcast conditions. After the final race the team admitted that they didn't want brilliant sunshine as they were still perfecting the trim of the craft and a very fast run would have buried the bow and slowed the boat!
Formula Sun will achieve another first in January 2011 when the British Marine Federation will be hosting a National Solar Race Day for UK schools at the Tullett Prebon London International Boat Show. If you know a school which would like to participate or your company would like to support the Challenge further details can be obtained from: http://www.engineeringyourfuture.com/page17.html
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