- Introduction
In 2006-07 Club FEAST was formed by Garry Brock and I. That first year we started the biggest engineering project I have ever been involved with, i.e. eBoat 1.0. The eBoat (a name lovingly dubbed to the 2nd Elizabethtown solar boat) quickly helped spir excitement about the new club and soon we had 13 members.
- Mission
The mission was to design, build, and race a solar boat in the international Solar Splash '07 competition. SOLAR SPLASH is week-long international intercollegiate competition that pits student-designed solar boats against one another through various competitions.
We decided that our goal would be to create not only a fully functioning solar boat that would be capable of completing all events during competition, but we would do it in style. The true goal of these competitions is to bring new ideas and innovation to this developing field. In our mind, the final product is valued truly on its usability.
So, our boat will be 100% commercially viable. It will be made from common and affordable materials. It will serve the most common use of boats in this size class with... well, class. The magic word is recreation and so we gear ourselves toward creating a boat that's all about fun.
- Design
The primary goal of the design is create an innovative, commercially viable, and technically-sound boat that will successfully complete all events at Solar Splash.
Innovation – The 2007 boat includes an open space with large seating area, a small putting green, a sound system, and ample storage space.
Commercial viability – The most common use for a boat under 26ft long is small time recreational use. Our design is geared toward leisure cruising and recreational fishing.
Technical level – The craft will meet all technical rules set forth by the Solar Splash committee. We strive for safety; it has no closed areas/open-air design, is able to float supporting over 1 ton, and has virtually no chance of overturning or sinking.
- Construction and Changes After conclusing the overall direction we wanted to go we began construction using some interesting methods. Note that these images are resourced from a poster I made about the project in summer 07'.
The pontoon process above turned out to be a somewhat flawed one for us. Our first mistake was using the wrong type of foam, and things didn't go any smoother as things progressed.
The bars above also had some problems with distribution of weight and some bowing.
Again, the console design changed allong the way during attempts to make it light weight and more user friendly.
The Torqeedo is a german made motor we stumbled upon during the spring semester. It turned out to be a great choice with a combination of light weight construction and high effiency.
The construction and testing phase by far was the most labor and time intensive. This lead to much growth in our experience with new materials and managing timelines.
This is one of our first rides out on the lake. That's me standing in the blue shirt. Pretty fun stuff.
We travelled some 1000 miles to compete with schools from around the globe, including Temple University, a college from Turkey, Carnegie Mellon, and many more.
The competition is broken down into 5 events: Qualifying, Slalom ( both pictured below), Endurance Race, Sprint, and the Visual Display.
Sadly I am not picture because I was not at the competition. I happened to be studying in China at the time. Sidenote - China was really awesome.
Etown Students take solar boating to the People
Five students from the student club FEAST – Garry Brock, Mike Patrick, Doug Eroh, John Artieda Romero, and Liz Prettner – traveled with advisor Troy McBride to Fayetteville, Ark., to compete in Solar Splash, the five-day 2007 World Intercollegiate Solar Electric Boat Competition. Competing among top notch engineering universities such as the United States Naval Academy, Cal-Poly Pomona, and Carnegie Mellon we ranked well. The eBoat finished 12th out of 19 registered teams, scoring a total of 488 points – an improvement of 140 points over their 2005 performance. The team finished 11th in the Solar Endurance competition, 7th in the Maneuvering qualifying event, tied for 4th for Visual Display, and tied for 9th for their Technical Report. The team’s boat, which can cruise at 5 mph all day in sunny weather while carrying up to six people, won the award for “Most Commercially Viable Hull."