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Swiss boats scoop prizes in Lake Geneva races

Morven McLean
Morven McLean - [email protected]
Swiss boats scoop prizes in Lake Geneva races
Photo: Hydrocontest

Boats designed by Swiss students proved to be among the fastest and most innovative in an international contest held on Lake Geneva.

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Sixteen international engineering schools were pitted against each other in the week-long Hydrochallenge staged at Pyramides de Vidy, Lausanne.

The innovative prototypes they had designed battled it out in a number of races leading up to finals on Sunday July 19th.

The races were staged in partly optimal and partly extreme weather conditions, the organisers said in a statement, with the teams and equipment both suffering under the high temperatures.

In the ‘mass transport’ category, the semi-submersible craft of the EPFL Lausanne beat French rivals from the École Polytechnique 3-1 thanks to their constant high speed.

The French crew, however, went on to win in the ‘lightweight transport’ category, defeating a Swiss team from the Haute École d’Ingénierie et d’Architecture (HEIA) in Fribourg.

“Much to the public’s delight, throughout the week, these teams took turns in clocking up exceptional times with their foiler catamarans, both fast and stable in flight,” Hydrocontest said.

The final event was the long distance race, which was won by the HEIA Fribourg.

The Hydrocontest prize for innovation went to ENSM Marseille for the heavyweight category and to the National University of Colombia in Medellin for the lightweight one.

 A trophy was also awarded to the Australian Maritime College for its prototype in the ‘Best Boat Design’ category.

The second edition of the Hydrocontest opened on July 14th.

Hydros, the event organiser, wants to demonstrate that it is possible for maritime transport to reduce energy consumption by improving energy efficiency in the boats of tomorrow.

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