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Press Release:

SubRacing Series hit all major targets with first multi-team open water submarine racing event.

The SubRacing Series have completed their reviews of the first ever multi-team championship for human-powered submarines in open water and ticked off all the major event targets. The event that was held at the end of September included teams from the USA, Canada and Europe, and was held in Arinaga, on the Island of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands.

“Racing two miniature prototype submarines, head to head, in the open sea is a very complex activity with people, submarines and technology all working against the challenges of the oceans” said Matt Silver-Vallance, Chief Business Development Officer at the SubRacing Series. “We invited the world’s best submarine racing teams to help us, and together showed that we can not only overcome these obstacles but also create an engaging racing event”

“The event created great interest among the local community and our associated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programme gained considerable interest from the schools in the town. ”

“As we implement our vision we will get people really engaged with the oceans by developing a series of these underwater racing events, where the combination of intriguing designs and technology, and physically fit and active pilots delivered by advance TV technologies will help the audience feel like they are inside the submarine and interacting with the oceans.”

The team from the École de Technologie Supérieure in Montreal, Canada, led by captain Jonathan Létourneau triumphed at the event in Playa de Arinaga, Gran Canaria.

The team of eight students spent over 20,000 hours over the last year designing, building and then testing their human-powered submarine. They took part in the European International Races in Gosport, England in July where they also took the top prize with their submarine OMER XIII.

The combination of calm weather and gentle sea conditions meant that the teams were able to complete multiple heats, both against the clock and head to head in front of the Muelle de Arinaga. The pilot for Team OMER, Hugo Breton was able to complete every single heat, and ended the week with the highest points score.

“We were all really pleased with the performance we obtained from OMER XIII in open sea conditions” said Jonathan. “This is the first time that we operated this submarine in sea water and fortunately all of our planning and design features coped with the changed conditions. It was exciting to be part of the first multi-submarine open water races, including the first ever head to head races.”

The North American teams dominated the event – team Owlbacore from the Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida took the Silver Award, and team Sockeye-II from the University of Victoria in British Columbia took the Bronze Award.

The Race Director, Professor Dr William Megill from the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Science was delighted with the outcomes. “We had to adapt the safety and racing protocols that have been used in indoor events like the European International Submarine Racing in Portsmouth, England to the open water conditions here in the Canaries. There were some practical challenges such as implementing timing over long distances without a dock alongside, but by sticking to existing protocols with additional resources we achieved the level of safety and control we wanted and were able to run a complete ‘round-robin’ of head to head races among the teams. It was fabulous to see the teams take up the challenges of open water diving and racing at the end of the long development paths they have all followed.”

The event was captured by a film crew from Making Creative Work using acclaimed underwater photographer Andrew McLeod who is also based in the Canary Islands. “We wanted to capture the thrill of the boats racing against each other in the open ocean as well as the back-story of the ambition and vision of the management team. It was great to work with the talented young engineers who had designed and built these submarines and see them putting their energy into making the event a success” said Sam Stocking, Owner and Creative Fixer at MCW.

The Vision of the SubRacing Series is to create a global submarines racing series that has a transformational impact on the relationship between people and the ocean…while having fun.