Americans on their way to the Top-class

Americans on their way to the Top-class

Cedarville University, an American solar team, has great ambitions. They started their Frisian Solar Challenge 2010 with a design for the Challenge A-class. Meanwhile, JA Solar has agreed to provide them with solar cells, which has allowed them to move up to the Top Class. Cedarvilles first Top-class designs have been approved by the Technical Commission.

‘The competition is very difficult in all classes. Having solar panels donated for the competition makes the event open to many teams, but boats in Classes A & B are handicapped by the limited power and the weight of the panels. Therefore, very good engineering work in Classes A & B can be overshadowed by the limitations imposed on those classes. The boats in the Top Class are faster and racing in that class is also more prestigious.’, says Tim Dewhurst, faculty advisor of the Cedarville Solar Boat Team.

Even though the solar cells they will be using are less efficient than those used by some of the other teams, Cedarville expects to be competitive with the other Top-Class boats. Dewhurst: ‘We plan to thoroughly test our boat here before traveling and know what it can and cannot do. However, anything can go wrong in these competitions to any of the boats; traveling overseas adds to the number of things that could go wrong, and the consequences are more severe. However, we have raced in the Netherlands before, so we shouldn’t be surprised by anything we encounter’, Tim hopes other teams will follow their example and join them in the Top-class race.

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