In September 2024 we held the first ever open-ocean, head-to-head human-powered submarine racing Arinaga, Gran Canaria, Spain.  Five of the world’s top submarine racing teams, made up of postgraduate university students and amateur engineers, had taken up the challenge to design, build and race human-powered submarines in a head-to-head format in open waters. The combination of engineering design challenge with technical skill development set them in a unique and exciting sporting competition.

Human-powered submarine racing has a long history that began in the 1990s. The GCI was both a new extension and a return to the roots for this unique sport. Five teams of student and amateur engineers and athletes pedaled their muscle-powered one-person submarines, propelled either by propellers or fins, along a course in a head-to-head format. The Teams took part in several head-to-head heats during the week, building up points with each successive win. The overall winner was the team with the best combination of engineering and athletic prowess.

To emphasise the multi-disciplinary nature of the exercise, the scope will include (in addition to the traditional naval architecture aspects) specific responses on safety, construction methodology, regulation/legal aspects, cost estimates and project management.

The relatively short timescale of competition 2P/H-2025 makes this a “real-life” full sized marine engineering project with the challenges of assimilating complex subjects such as hydro-dynamics, sustainable electric propulsion and flotability to create a feasible design in a few months.   It is anticipated that when they start to translate their designs into reality as the second phase of the project. they will make use of advanced manufacturing and implementation techniques such as 3D Printing, prototyping and CNC machining.

The Gran Canaria Invitational was hosted by the quiet fishing village of Playa de Arinaga, on the east coast of Isla de Gran Canaria, Spain. The racecourse was set out in 7m of water 100m off Arinaga’s historic Muelle (pier). The event was carefully planned together with local authorities to minimise local disruption and maximise the benefits for businesses, locals, and visitors. From Opening to Awards Ceremony, the race turned out to be an exciting week for all.

The racing rules for the Gran Canaria Invitational were developed to ensure a fair competition while still retaining the flexibility to enable participants to push the limits of their underwater technology and athletic prowess. The rules retained as much compatibility as possible with those of other submarine racing events around the world, to facilitate teams’ participation in multiple competitions. They also form the basis for future competitions.  These rules have been developed over many years and are well recognised within the Submarine Racing community for the balance of safety, secuity and fairness.

The feedback from the event has been highly favourable.  The racing zone, with warm, clear waters, a depth of 4-8m and lack of obstructions proved to be ideal for the racing.   The town of Arinaga with it’s relaxed friendly atmosphere turned on the entertainment on Thursday evening with the weekly ‘Ruta de Pinchos’ with live music, and the final gala dinner was held in an unusual cave restaurant up in the mountains.

We proved that racing human powered submarines, fin to fin in the coastal ocean is safe, practical and fun!   All the teams were delighted to see that their machines could handle the challenges of racing in the open oceans.

One of the big challenges that the event faced was the simple language barrier between the teams and officials and the local audience and authorities.  “We had to apply for various permissions to hold the event, from the local council, the Capitania Maritima and the regional police authorities” said Brian Goldthorpe, Director of development for the Canary Islands at the SubRaciing Series, “but by having professional highly specific plans, rules, structures in place, and world authorities on submarine racing involved, we were able to get it all translated and presented well in advance so that in the end the permissions were all approved on time.

The event tested many of the race and safety procedures as well as logistics options and a local entertainment package.    Despite a few minor road bumps all the systems that were tested showed that holding similar events in the future will be straightforward if planned using the experiences gained.

Racing in the underwater environment presents a unique set of challenges that must be addressed carefully. Submarines must be outfitted with mandated safety systems and the race itself has been designed with safe operations in mind.

In addition to the carefully created design and construction requirements, we had to plan the activities with the knowledge that the general public could walk all through our control areas.

To provide cover to both competitors and residents we included local professional life-guards in the safety team, and during the event held two simulated rescue drills which integrated the resources into one team.

The Gran Canaria Invitational was the first event in a new and developing international league of submarine racing whose overall objective is to highlight and actively address the challenges currently facing the ocean around the world.

Climate change, unwanted plastics, ocean acidification, ocean current fluctuations, biodiversity loss, fishing impacts – our athletes, engineers and fans will literally be submerged in the marine environment, looking for human-powered solutions to more than just underwater speed.

As part of the education program that ran alongside the event, local schoolchildren visited the race-course and learnt more about the long term challenges facing the oceans.