Pierre-Antoine Tesson from France has won this year's model yacht race for Southampton Solent University yacht engineering students
It was a close fought race for the model yachts, but first-year BEng (Hons) Yacht and Powercraft Design student Pierre-Antoine Tesson had already scored highly for his design and build. Marin Lauber from Switzerland came second and Aladin Montel, also from France, took third place.
Winner, Pierre-Antoine Tesson
Giles Barkley, Programme Group Leader of the yacht engineering courses says, ‘Congratulations to Pierre-Antoine on a very well deserved win. All three boats were excellent, beautifully designed and built. The sun was out, conditions were good and we didn’t finish until the early evening.’
This year, 30 first-year student yacht designers competed for the coveted title on warm and sunny Friday 5 June at Gosport Boating Lake, under the scrutiny of their lecturers.
The annual model yacht race, first held more than 40 years ago as a bit of end of term fun, now forms part of the first-year unit assessment for students on Solent’s BEng (Hons) Yacht and Powercraft Design and BEng (Hons) Yacht Design and Production degree courses.
The students spent 100 hours designing and building the vessels to conform to the yacht design rules, with 85% of the unit mark awarded on their computer aided design, and the build quality of their models. They then race them upwind and downwind to pass their design unit. The last 15% of their mark is awarded on how their yacht performs on race day.
Previously successful winners of the model yacht race are now responsible for designs of Open 60 race yachts and Ben Ainslie Racing’s Americas Cup campaign.
This year the University is celebrating 25 years of Yacht Engineering degrees at Southampton Solent. With a reputation for leading the world in maritime education and technology, Solent continues to produce graduates who shape the world of sailing, including: Jason Ker, who is currently working on Sir Ben Ainslie’s GB America’s Cup bid; Guillame Verdier, who designed the yachts that came both first and second at 2012 Vendee Globe; and leading UK designer, leading UK yacht designer, Ed Dubois.
For more information about the yacht engineering courses visit www.solent.ac.uk