| SOLAR
SPLASH®
2007
(Click
on the photo if you want to see a higher resolution version of the
photo. |
||
| Sunday, June 17, 2007 | ||
| The rain held off until after the Endurance Event and the awards ceremony. The day was a partly cloudy one, with the sun coming and going throughout the day. This gave an extra energy management challenge to the teams. | Cedarville turned in the most laps in the morning and was leading in the afternoon when they had a drive train failure. After a very quick pit stop, they were back on the course but more than a lap behind second place Arkansas. |
Cedarville managed to "unlap" Arkansas and was closing on them when the horn sounded, ending the two-hour event. Arkansas won the Endurance Event by about 50 meters after both boats traveled more than 22000 meters! |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, June 16, 2007 | ||
 |
The Sprint Event was run today because the weather looked better for Sunday. As it turned out, the day was mostly sunny, though we got a rain shower late in the afternoon. |  |
 |
« Temple University had their share of problems. ETS got their boat to "fly" on hydrofoils. » The Sprint final, won by Arkansas, had a photo finish for second place. Click here to watch a video of Cedarville edging out South Carolina by 0.03 seconds for second place (2.4MB wmv file). |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Friday, June 15, 2007 | ||
 |
After battery charging and some final touches, all boats completed Qualifying for both the Sprint and Endurance Events. |
 |
 |
« Teams set up visual displays, which are judged and figure into the total point score. The media interviewed participants and filmed some of the competition. » The first round of Sprints were run in the afternoon. Because of weather predictions, the Sprint will be run on Saturday and the Endurance on Sunday. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Thursday, June 14, 2007 | ||
 |
« Boats were launched into Lake Fayetteville and the competition began. On-the-water inspections began today. » |
 |
 |
Many of the boats ran qualifying runs - both the Sprint qualifier and the Endurance qualifier - and the Solar Slalom. |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Wednesday, June 13, 2007 | ||
 |
« David and Richard ran the high line (start line) and hung the checkered flags. Teams arrived and unloaded and unveiled this year's entries. » |
 |
 |
Skippers had to weigh in for ballasting purposes. Later in the afternoon all skippers had to swim 25 meters and tread water for one minute. After the swim test and very interesting talk by Wal-Mart's Charles Zimmerman, all participants enjoyed a dinner on the lawn of Old Main on the University of Arkansas campus. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Tuesday, June 12, 2007 | ||
|
The site is ready for the teams to arrive! Several teams have already arrived - the Turkish team has been in town for a week now. There will be 15 teams in the competition this year. |
 |
