Moscow Poly students have been engaged in building and testing solar powered boats since 2015. Over the last 7 years, the ‘Manta Ray’ project team has designed and produced 5 boats. Now, the guys have set a goal before themselves to build an extralight, fast and strong carbon vessel.
The project supervisor who also happens to be a ‘Manta Ray’ team member, Valentina Kaplina shares that the idea to design and produce boats of this type was born in 2014 when Russia started holding the first “Sunny Regatta” international contest in engineering. In the course of the event, the team have to show off the capacities of the boats and powerboats that run on solar power. Back then Valentina was a second-year student that became a part of the project accidentally because of a friend.
“Over time I realized that Manta Ray has become an inherent part of me. Probably, my whole life will be related to boats in the future. The interest grows when it`s something that you do not because of a credit, but when you can see something that you created with your own hands works. A huge role here was played by the realization that we are engaged in an unusual process that sparks interest in other people. Solar power engineering is poorly explored in Russia yet, and by carrying out our projects we`re making a contribution to the topic, promoting this sphere”, - shared Valentina.
The team is currently working on ‘Valentina Queen’ and ‘Murena’ boats. The significant part of the process is water testing. During the warm season, the team carries out the boat testing in Izmailovo at the Serebryano-Vinogradnyy Pond. They test the boat speed, maneuverability and staying power, as well as train before the contests. Over these years, the team has repeatedly took prize winning places at various international contests in Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Grozny, Wildau (Germany) and Altenhof (Germany).
The freshman, Sergei Ivanov notes that he especially likes that the project merges both the science and sports activities.
“In addition to that, the project sphere has something in common with my specialty ‘IT in Dynamics and Endurance’ that can be applied when producing power engines for our boats. That is to say, our knowledge almost immediately finds practical application”, - said Sergei.
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