eISR 2024

The 6th edition of the European International Submarine Races was held between June 24th and July 5th 2024 at QinetiQ’s Ocean Basin facility at Haslar in Gosport, UK. Eleven student teams from Canada, USA, UK, Germany, Singapore and Taiwan took part in two weeks of exciting submarine racing! Overall winners were Omer ÉTS with their 3D-printed submarine Omer 13. Runners-up were Florida Atlantic with Owlbacore. The eISR 2024 saw the debut of the Nautical Knights from the Singapore Institute of Technology, who secured fourth place with their submarine Mako.

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The Teams

Stories from the races

The eISR 2024 got off to a quick start! On Monday, June 24th, the race and QinetiQ staff began preparing the racecourse, cameras and timing station. The teams were allowed on site on Tuesday and began unpacking their crates. After diver checks and scrutineering by the judges and the Army, the first wet checks began on Thursday. UWHPS’s Orca was the first submarine in the water, just as it was during the eISR 2022.

In a new eISR record, the racecourse and a majority of the teams were ready to race by the end of Thursday! Kudos go to FAU, who were ready to go even though Owlbacore only showed up at QinetiQ three days into the race. The race staff and judges decided to make use of this unexpected extra day and allowed exhibition racing on Friday morning. On Day 0 of the races, FAU, UVIC and Omer all managed to post zero-fault runs, setting the stage for an exciting competition. The biggest spectacle of the day, however, was the rapid unscheduled disassembly of NCKU’s 3D-printed propeller mere metres from the finishing line. Nevertheless, with no propulsion left, the pilot expertly managed to use the submarine’s inertia to guide the submarine through the finish line!

Racing officially began on Monday, July 1st. NCKU, with a fresh new propeller that they designed and printed over the weekend, posted the first official time of the competition, quickly followed by FAU, Omer and UVIC. All three teams clocked speeds above 3 kts, faster than any team has posted at the European and American races since COVID. HSRW and newcomers SIT got off to a good start as well, posting their first times in the afternoon heat. At the end of Day 1, in terms of speed Omer XIII was ahead with 4.92 kts, followed closely by an ever-faster Owlbacore with 3.84 kts and UVIC’s Sockeye II with 3.29 kts. Monday also saw the release of the new eISR website and live scoreboard, which the race staff had been finalising over the weekend.

On Tuesday, the slalom poles were moved closer, presenting the teams with an increased challenge. Owlbacore and Pegasus set times in the morning heat; in the afternoon, Sockeye II, Omer XIII and Mako were joined by UWHPS’s Orca, who completed their first run with a speed of 1.51 kts. Omer had a very strong afternoon, posting first 5.16 kts and then both the fastest speed and course time of the eISR 2024: 5.29 kts and 1:12.5 min, only 8 seconds slower than the course time record set by WASUB VIII in 2018! Eight teams were now in the running for the eISR title. Warwick and Archimède continued to struggle with directional control and buoyancy but were making progress; Michigan broke a significant part of their steering system; and UBC were working hard to get Beagle operational.

The slalom got significantly more challenging on Wednesday, as the poles were now placed in line with one another. The morning heat pitted Pegasus, Archimède IX, Mako and Omer XIII against one another. Pegasus set two zero-fault runs and was proving to be a very reliable submarine; Mako continued to gain speed, setting a time of 2.48 kts; and Omer nearly topped their fastest speed from the previous day, coming in at 5.24 kts. Archimède IX also managed to set a speed through the timing gates, even if their submarine aborted the run in the far corner of the tank. Owlbacore started off the afternoon heat, followed by Orca, Warwick’s Godiva, Sockeye II, Chelonia and even Beagle. As with all long submarines that attempt the eISR course, the slalom proved a big challenge for Owlbacore, but the pilot did an excellent job, even setting a zero-fault time. The remaining afternoon subs struggled: Except for Owlbacore, only Sockeye II made it around the course on their final attempt. In the last run of the day, however, Godiva crossed the finish line for their first successful run at the eISR 2024. We now had nine teams in the running!

Thursday was July 4th, so the day started with much fanfare and enthusiasm from the American teams. The slalom was now at its most difficult extent, the poles were now placed even further, past the centreline, resulting in very tight turns. Of the morning’s submarines – Pegasus, Archimède IX, Mako, Orca and Chelonia – only Mako managed to make it around the race course. The afternoon’s submarines fared better: Owlbacore, Godiva, Sockeye II and Omer XIII all set times, though none were faultless. Michigan were back in the water again after major repairs, but unfortunately could not get their boat going. Also on Thursday, the first ever eISR race merchandise arrived! Since then, the eISR has set up its own on-demand merch store, which you can find here. More interesting merch will also be available for upcoming races, so watch this space!

The final day of racing at the eISR is reserved for the agility competition. Teams who have shown their reliability during the previous days of racing are invited to do two laps of the course. The slalom poles are placed back into a single line, like on Wednesday. This year, the teams selected were Omer, FAU, UVIC, NCKU, SIT and UWHPS. Omer, FAU and UVIC managed to all set zero-fault times. Omer was fast as usual, completing two laps of the track in 3:18.2 minutes with a fastest speed of 4.73 kts. On their final run, FAU set their fastest speed of the competition, 4.53 kts. The pilot then proceeded to ignore the racecourse entirely, simply going in a circle around timing to make it through the finishing line again with an impressive two-lap time of 2.31.1 minutes. Unfortunately, this also came with a record breaking 144 faults… However, that particular record held for only 29 minutes, as Sockeye II did the exact same thing, also racking up 144 faults. Congratulations to both for this now joint record! 😉

The awards ceremony was held Friday evening at Thorngate Hall in Gosport. A good night was had by all! Only downside, all teams had to be out of their caravans by 10:00 the next morning… And with that, a very exciting eISR 2024 came to a close.

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