Student Engineers Race Human-Powered Submarines at Historic Ocean Basin

QinetiQ has hosted the European International Submarine Races at its historic Ocean Basin facility in Haslar, Gosport, for the seventh time.

The fortnight-long event, hosted by the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) and QinetiQ, welcomed 12 university teams from eight countries to compete for world championship honours. The participants included defending world champions and world record holders Team OMER from Québec, Canada, as well as UK entries from the University of Southampton and the University of Warwick.

The biennial competition challenges students to design, build and race human-powered submarines, often described as underwater bicycles. Each craft is propelled by a pilot wearing scuba equipment who pedals to generate power, requiring teams to apply their knowledge of marine engineering, hydrodynamics and propulsion to create fast, agile and efficient designs.

The University of Southampton and University of Warwick teams tested their submarines on the Ocean Basin’s challenging out-and-back grand slalom course. The event provides emerging marine engineers with an opportunity to develop and demonstrate their engineering and teamwork skills in a specialist testing environment.

Opened in 1961 by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, QinetiQ’s Ocean Basin is used for hydrodynamic testing and evaluation. It forms part of the historic Haslar site, which has supported maritime research and testing since 1886, and is used to evaluate the performance of defence and commercial vessels.

The event was held with support from Engage Technical Solutions, maraneo, U-Boat Worx, BMT, Amentum and UKNEST.