Submarine captain Frauke Waßmuth accepted a total of six awards on behalf of the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences (HSRW) submarine team at the ‘European International Submarine Races’ competition. The team from Kleve won the top prize in almost every category.
Frauke Waßmuth, a student and submarine captain, took to the stage several times in Gosport, England. The bionics master’s student accepted an award on behalf of the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences (HSRW) submarine team no fewer than six times at the international ‘European International Submarine Races’ competition. The team from Kleve won the top prize in almost every category, including the coveted European International Submarine Races trophy, which is awarded for a team’s overall performance.
During the multi-day competition in England, the team clearly dominated the field with their submarine, the ‘Rivershark’. The seven-strong squad, led by team captain Frauke Waßmuth, who piloted the submarine, won three of the four slalom courses, took gold in the 500-metre agility competition and won the design prize for the ‘Rivershark’s’ sustainability concept.
The submarine competition takes place every two years at the “Haslar Marine Technology Park” in Gosport, England – home to Europe’s largest freshwater basin. It brings together teams of students from universities around the world, who design and build their pedal-powered submarines and then race against the clock through various courses. What makes this event special is that the submarines are completely submerged; the pilots, clad in diving gear, squeeze into the cramped underwater vessels and propel them using their own physical strength. The challenge during the design phase is therefore to construct the submarine in such a way that physical strength is transferred to the propulsion system as efficiently as possible.
Before it comes to that, however, the contenders must overcome a major hurdle, as only those teams that present a convincing safety concept during the design process are permitted to compete at all. This year, nine teams were allowed to take part, including teams from the UK, Canada, Taiwan and the USA. These teams then had to demonstrate on site that their safety systems and supporting diving teams worked not only in theory but also in practice underwater. Apart from the ‘Rivershark’ team, only four other teams were able to convince the organisers from the outset; during the first week of the race, the teams that had not been immediately approved were able to make improvements, meaning that all nine teams were ultimately allowed to compete in the races.
Background
The ‘Rivershark’ submersible has already taken part in six international submersible races in the UK, France and the USA. As part of its sustainability goal, the HSRW submersible team recycles the hull and rebuilds the propulsion and control systems from scratch for each competition. After a short summer break, the team will get straight back to work on the new design; at the same time, some team members are completing their diving training so that they can accompany the new submersible underwater next time.
The 2022 HSRW Submarine Team comprises: Frauke Waßmuth (captain and pilot), Joshua Biehn (pilot), Sophia Döring, Martha Grupp, Lysander Trapp, Aaron Hinkle, Hannes Jaschinski, Karthick Onnu – all of whom took part in the races – as well as Ernest Malov, Marcello Tania, Ben Vafis, Leen Nijim and Manav Thakkar, who supported the team during the design and construction phase.
