The SuMoth Challenge is a unique design competition for students to build and race foiling International Moth dinghies similar to Formula StudentLake Garda, Italy is about to welcome its annual meeting of speed-focussed sailors and designers at Foiling Week, which combines on the water racing with the chance to showcase and share innovative design ideas around all things foiling. Running alongside Foiling Week will be the SUMoth Challenge, a design and build competition for students who are tasked with creating a foiling boat that conforms to the International Moth class rules, but has efficiency and sustainability at its heart.
\nThe idea was conceived of by engineer Bruno Giuntoli. Giuntoli is familiar with student design, having been a key part of the team from \u00c9cole de Technologie Sup\u00e9rieure (ETS) in Montreal, which built a foiling C-Class catamaran for the 2015 \u2018Little America\u2019s Cup\u2019 in Lake Geneva.
\nThe SUMoth challenge was launched off the back of that challenge. The key driver, Giuntoli admits, was to keep that university club running.
\n\u201cThe C-Class is not a realistic project for a university. Our uni was quite up for projects and we started from a non-existent club to ending with the biggest project in the school,\u201d he says.
\nGiuntoli\u2019s C-Class catamaran Rafale at the 2015 \u2018Little America\u2019s Cup\u2019 in Geneva in 2015. Photo: C\/O SUMoth Challenge
\nThe C-Class catamaran is a highly sophisticated, incredibly expensive foiling cat with a 15m tall wingsail built almost entirely from high-modulus carbon fibre, and costs \u00a3100,000s to design and build.
\nThe class has long been used for what is officially called the International C-Class Catamaran Championship, but is commonly referred to as the Little America\u2019s Cup \u2013 despite a legal ruling banning the official use of the name.
\n\u201cWe had worked incredibly hard to build this club and if you do not have some competition to aim for then there is really no reason for one to exist at a university,\u201d Giuntoli continues.
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\u201cSo I invented this sustainable moth challenge where one of my goals was to change these super-efficient construction methods [the foiling Moth class is similar to the C-Class in the high-tech and expensive materials used] to more sustainable ones with different materials.
\n\u201cAnd I was also thinking it would help the new students to latch onto the concept and keep the club running.\u201d
\nMultiple levels
\nThe student design competition has seen some adjustments made to the format during the Covid pandemic. However, in 2022 eight university teams will assemble during Foiling Week, four with working foiling Moths to compete \u2013 although the on-the-water competition only forms a very small part of the overall scoring.
\n\u201cAt the beginning we said: \u2018These are the rules, see you in Garda in a year, goodbye\u2019,\u201d Giuntoli recalls.
\nHowever, it soon became clear that while there was significant interest in the project, some universities simply did not understand the complexities and some student teams would be unlikely to pull together the funding for a highly complex boat build.
\n\u201cIt is not the easiest competition to be honest,\u201d Giuntoli notes, explaining that the complexity in designing just the working hydrofoil is vastly greater than many might realise.
\n\u201cThere have been many teams that registered and then realised just how much work was involved. So early on we had maybe 12 registrations and then midway quite a few realised that it is far too much work.\u201d
\nMembers of the PoliMe team from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Photo: C\/O SUMoth Challenge
\nWith a high attrition rate the decision was made to create a three-stage competition.
\n\u201cThe idea was that the first stage is purely design, so if you don\u2019t have the materials or the money, all you need is a computer and brain oil \u2013 plus time and passion,\u201d Giuntoli says.
\n\u201cBecause we want the competition to be design-led, this is the stage that gives the most points overall.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s the key, we wanted this to be mostly an academic competition, not just an on-the-water competition, because most of the students are engineers, not professional sailors.\u201d
\nThe second stage is a \u2018Plan B\u2019 for an on-the-water competition where travelling to Garda is not possible, which involves recording the boat\u2019s sailing performance on a GPS tracker.
\nThe third and final stage is the one taking place at Garda during Foiling Week, where the boats will compete and teams will also make a public presentation (this can be viewed via live stream from The Foiling Week website).
\nSUMoth\u2019s expert Expert judges
\nThe design and ideas are evaluated by a panel of expert judges, which includes America\u2019s Cup designers, Moth builders, sustainability officers, speed sailing designers and many more top names.
\nAs the brief is to push forward design, and the rules are open to a reasonable amount of interpretation, the judging panel will be key to deciding winning designs.
\n\u201cThere are lots of different approaches and teams have embraced the challenge in different ways,\u201d says Giuntoli.
\n\u201cThe boat from Southampton [University] is a really nice boat, but they went to Maguire [Boats] and made a Moth with their borrowed moulds, but out of different materials. And they\u2019ve made the wings from wood and stuff like that. It looks great and it sails great, but it\u2019s not necessarily developing any brand new ideas.\u201d
\nThe official launch of Southampton University\u2019s Moonshot Moth. Photo c\/o Harken
\nUltimately, teams will be judged and marked on how much innovation has been brought to the table but Giuntoli is happy for the rules to be interpreted in any way the teams see fit.
\n\u201cTake the Southampton University entry that I\u2019ve mentioned. They are doing it as their final uni project.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s for their degree and they are able to fit that into the SuMoth concept, but they are not necessarily there merely to get technical points from us,\u201d he concludes.
\nWomen in STEM
\nSUMoth is not just a design competition, there are other facets to the challenge too. Giuntoli is very aware of how few women are represented in both the field of marine engineering and this type of design driven academic challenge, so female inclusion is rewarded with additional points.
\nHattie Rogers will be sailing the Southampton University entry in Garda, for example, and that will net the team some extra points.
\n\u201cUsually these student clubs tend to be mostly guys. And I think women don\u2019t often get the chance to be involved, so we are trying to give a push to try to get more girls into the teams. So far that seems to have been successful,\u201d Giuntoli explains.
\nSuMoth sustainably rules
\nAnother element that makes the SUMoth Challenge stand out is its focus on trying to create new design solutions while avoiding the use of materials that are environmentally harmful.
\nHowever, defining what might be considered a \u2018good\u2019 material and a \u2018bad\u2019 material is, in itself, a significant challenge.
\nThe aim is to reward innovations without adding new hard-to-recycle products to the ever-expanding global wasteheap, as well as maintaining costs at a manageable level. Upcycling old hulls and turning them into foilers is something that is very much encouraged.
\nThe team from \u00c9cole de Technologie Sup\u00e9rieure (ETS) in Montreal with their Moth, Rafale. Photo: c\/o SuMoth Challenge
\nThe solution that Giuntoli came up with for using new materials was to provide all teams with an upper cost limit of $10,000 \u2013 roughly the same price of a Waszp, itself a simplified, cheaper version of the foiling Moth.
\nBut whilst providing that price limit might go some way to forcing teams to use upcycled materials, it does not restrict cheap but environmentally expensive new-build items.
\nTo keep control over what products might be used, Giuntoli came up with a conceptual currency, SuDollars, with each material also having an SUDollar cost.
\n\u201cTake MDF, for example \u2013 which is essentially mostly glue. It\u2019s super cheap to buy so it\u2019s an obvious choice for building moulds but we didn\u2019t want to see moulds made from MDF by our teams,\u201d he explains. MDF is a very expensive material in SUDollars.
\n\u201cThis is a problem we see throughout our industry. So the idea is that if we have this currency it should help push to essentially make people find new, better, ways of doing the same thing.
\n\u201cAnother example is EPS foam [Expanded Polystyrene, used between glass in foam sandwich construction]. That is more expensive to recycle than to make some new foam, so that is expensive too in SUDollars.\u201d
\nThe plan going forward is to have an annual competition during Foiling Week, although the two are organised separately.
\nSee the winners and learn more about the teams at the SUMoth Challenge website.<\/p>\n
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The SuMoth Challenge is a unique design competition for students to build and race foiling International Moth dinghies similar to Formula StudentLake Garda, Italy is about to welcome its annual meeting of speed-focussed sailors and designers at Foiling Week, which … <\/p>\n