Month: August 2021

Our time at the temporary office of Scheikunde was very enjoyable, it was very spacious, had a lot of light coming in and even a balcony! Here I did a lot of ground work for the design of the systems that I’m responsible for, the communication interface with the pilot (so-called dashboard), and the fuel cell system. Because of our transition to hydrogen we need a fuel cell that can convert the hydrogen into usable electricity, which would be a first for Solar Boat/Hydro motion. Since we want the integration to be smooth, we also had a lot of meetings/talks within our department but also with engineers of other departments. Learning how to do this effectively was a good skill and will probably help me with my work experience outside of Solar Boat too!

The move to Schiehallen was once again a big task, where our moving skills improved even further somehow. However it was a very spacious place and other teams as Forze and DUT were moving in as well. It even came with a very nice kitchen. It was a cozy sight to see all the wooden houses next to each other in this hall, even though the hall itself is hidden in the industry terrain of the Schiehallen.

After moving in such a big place it was of course time to move to the next step of our building process, the actual production! For elektro this meant buying components, printing circuit boards, and assembling/soldering.

It had been a while since we had a team activity that did not include working on the boat, this is why our team manager organized our team weekend! We were split up in groups, that were mixed up between activities. We had for example many challenges to complete and went even for a swim in the cold sea in Scheveningen!

During these months, the departments are decided and every engineer has got their task and role, it still consists of office work and researching/documentation. So it is nice to alternate this with some team activities where we can also grow as a team in a more relaxed environment.

Of course we also had to give our update to the world of who we were and what we were going to do: Build the first foiling hydrogen boat! The plan is to reuse the hull from the 2019 boat that won the championship in the open sea class, and to modify it and fit it to become hydrogen powered and to give it strong hydrofoils to be able to lift the 1000kg of the boat. As far as our name, we decided to keep the logo and official team name the same: the one of Solar Boat. However, the project would be called Hydro Motion. This would make for an easier transition for coming years, although we were introducing ourselves by that name as well already.

It then was time to say goodbye to our little office at Schiehallen, and to become a moving company (again). Meanwhile, our office was being made in the M2 hall of Schiehallen, together with the ones of Forze and Dut. This would also include a workplace and would be the solution for at least this year’s production. These offices should have been made already but had some delays, this is why we moved to the old chemistry building of TU Delft in the meanwhile.