Naval Architecture of Tomorrow: International Waterbike Regatta

As part of the "Naval Architecture of Tomorrow" section, Luka Đoković, a Naval Architecture student at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade and a passionate sailing enthusiast, guides us through current projects, innovations, and challenges that are shaping the new generation of Serbian yachting

Zagreb naval architecture students successfully organized and held the International Waterbike Regatta after a seven-year break. This year, 14 teams with a total of 26 vessels participated in the competition. Unfortunately, due to logistical and technical problems, our team “Confluence Belgrade” was forced to withdraw from the competition the day before departure and cheer other teams from the comfort of their homes.

The competition consisted of seven disciplines, six races, and a static bollard pull test. The idea of the competition was that each built waterbike must have the best possible general navigation characteristics in order to achieve a notable result in the overall ranking.

OUTSTANDING TEAMS AND TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

The Polish team “KSTO KORAB” from the University of Gdańsk won first place in the general classification, thanks to the simple catamaran design and the excellently thought-out power transmission mechanism of the waterbike Rektor, as well as the extremely well-coordinated pilot-cyclist tandem. The team triumphed in the sprint, acceleration race and marathon, while it came third in the slalom and twelfth in the bollard pull.

Second place went to the team “Tretboot AG TUHH” from the Hamburg Technical University and the waterbike Reynold, which was right behind Rektor in almost all races. This result is not surprising, since the Hamburg team has been competing seriously with their waterbike Imperator for years.

Third place was taken by the team of the technical school HTL Rennweg from Vienna, with the waterbike Tegethoff.

In addition to exciting races, two teams attracted special attention with their technically innovative solutions. The first is the Waterbike team from the Technical University of Bremen, which after several years of development successfully presented the hydrofoil Reignbow. The second is the team from the University of Rostock, whose once again revived design of the Frida waterbike used the total energy of a children’s swing and flaps as a drive, instead of pedals. Thanks to their bold technical creativity, these waterbikes won the first two awards for innovation.

After a break of several years, the team from Rijeka reactivated and presented its waterbike – Šijun. The catamaran storm wind that comes accompanied by rain on the coasts of Kvarner and Istria fought bravely this year and achieved decent results considering the time the team had available to make it. However, that did not prevent our colleagues from having a great time, getting to know peers from all over Europe and embarking on further projects full of enthusiasm and sportsmanship.

"Honestly, I am not too satisfied with the result, but I would like to emphasize that this is the first year after 2018 in which the Rijeka team was active again in the competition. All members were new, and this year's goal was first of all to introduce the colleagues to the competition itself and to arouse interest in shipbuilding. In this sense, we can say that we have fulfilled our goal"

Matej Tokić, the leader of the Rijeka team

Tokić added that the preparations for next year have already begun in earnest, and that he is especially looking forward to the increasing number of participants, especially teams from the region.

The Croatian Association of Naval Architecture Students (HUSB), which consists of students from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture in Zagreb and also the organizers of the event, points out that they exceeded their own expectations and could not have hoped for a better event.

"Considering all the responsibilities and the strong competition, we failed a little in the racing part of the competition, but we are satisfied with the overall result of our many months of work. At one point we thought we wouldn't even be able to compete at all, because we didn't have enough members, so we are very proud of the final ranking and the success of the entire organization of the competition"

Florian Štefić, Deputy President of HUSB and undergraduate naval architecture student

Štefić added that the competition went without problems, that the captains of the teams agreed on everything in a timely manner, and the logistical challenges were easily resolved. The wonderful ambience of Veslača Island, with plenty of shade, and socializing with great people after the races will remain in his memory forever. He pointed out that they hope to stay in touch with as many teams as possible, because the general impression of the event was that they are like one big family, which is not far from the truth.

All the colleagues with whom I had the opportunity to talk emphasize that, in addition to the races themselves, the most beautiful moments of the event were the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the socializing between the races. During those meetings, the participants exchanged experiences, got acquainted with the way of studying the same field in different cities and countries, and gained business contacts that will surely be useful to them in the future. The organizers, sponsors, professors and general professional public expressed great satisfaction with the organization, especially considering that everything was realized by a small team. I hereby congratulate them on an exceptional undertaking.