You like the sea, Captain?
Yes; I love it! The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides; it is the ‘Living Infinite’ as one of your poets has said.
Captain Nemo – 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, by Jules Verne, 1870
Today we carry out many activities on either the shores or the surface of the oceans, from transport, fishing and power generation to exploration, surface sports and recreation, but many have lost the sense of awe and wonder about the vastness and the variety of the oceans.
The SubRacing Series was created from two projects which converged around 2019. A chance meeting between dedicated ocean advocates, who were looking for new ways to generate wider interest in the oceans, and the University based human-powered Submarine Racing teams who were looking to extend their races into the ocean, led to the SubRacing Series being founded.
The founders all recognise the need to get more people engaged with the coastal oceans from engineers to the general public, and hope that by creating a global racing series we can increase that engagement and turn it into valuable scientific research.
Finding and developing talented graduate students to become future innovators and managers within the marine science, engineering and technology fields is one of the principal goals of the SubRacing Series.
The current races feature our “Human-powered” class, where prototypes developed compete in Open Water, with the two-man class expected to debut in 2025.
There are no shortage of applicants for the places as the project excites, intrigues, and above all challenges the enquiring minds of these young engineers.
The concept of being able to race these fragile craft in an environment, lacking in oxygen, and every bit as strange as the surface of the Moon or Mars gets people talking.
The next step is therefore to start creating true racing submarines – electric powered and capable of carrying two pilots. These will have greater range, speed and capability – to generate a complete race!
By expanding the audience, highlighting the thrill of the races, and exposing the mind-blowing challenges of creating a safe craft to race at speed, we want to get more adventurers interested in the racing, and the inshore ocean in which we race.
After researching different options for a race location, in March 2023 a key group of founders arrived in Gran Canaria and started a tour of possible dive sites.
While many of the dive sites looked promising, the team encountered local currents, silty sea-beds and poor visibility, or sites with poor infrastructure. It was only on the last day that a speculative dive found the ideal site, just 400m from where they started 3 days earlier.
The town of Arinaga, long famous for the quality of the marine life in the nearby ‘el Cabrón’ marine reserve, was chosen as the best place for submarine racing in Gran Canaria.
The ultimate aim of each team is to compete in the ocean! Once in the water they can achieve their technical and engineering goals as they speed along at speeds similar to a swimming dolphin.
The first ‘proof of concept’ was held in Arinaga, on the eastern coast of Gran Canaria, in September 2023. There was a lot of nervousness about the safety and security of the submarines in the open sea, but almost all the doubts proved to be unfounded, and the location was judged to be perfect for depth, current visibility and general amenities.
The SubRacing Series returned to Arinaga in September 2024 with our first full racing event. Five teams travelled from Canada, the United States, Germany and Holland to take part with their submarines and equipment. We scaled up from the first event with increased signage and branding, improved local communications and a professional film crew both above and below the water.
We also managed to capture more of the local atmosphere thanks to help from the local Ayuntamiento, who were delighted to have a unique International Racing event with free access for the local residents and an outreach programme for the local schools.
The ultimate aim of each team is to compete in the ocean! Once in the water they can achieve their technical and engineering goals as they speed along at speeds similar to a swimming dolphin.
But this in itself creates interest and intrigue, and will hopefully inspire the next generation of submarine builders and racers!
From the experience and interest gained, this will in the future power more oceanic research in the coastal oceans.
Our ultimate goal is to reinvest into projects which extend or refine Ocean Science Models.
We have identified that localised inshore current data is vital for effective submarine racing, but is simply not available. We have therefore identified this as our initial research area.
From the experience and interest gained, this will in the future power more oceanic research in the coastal oceans.
