In the second week of June, it was that time again: students from the University of Kassel were finally able to present their concrete canoe at the 18th Concrete Canoe Regatta in Brandenburg an der Havel. The regatta takes place every two years and is not only a sporting competition, but also a concrete technology challenge for the participants.

This year's special feature was a polygonal formwork concept that allowed the use of recyclable formwork panels. The admittedly not entirely streamlined vehicle was allowed to compete against teams from educational institutions in several countries, including Austria, Hungary and Turkey.

A team of 6 students from the University of Kassel designed and built a formwork that could be filled several times with a fiber-reinforced UHPC-based lightweight concrete. The result of each concreting was a canoe half, two of which could be bolted together to form a complete canoe. The wall thickness was only 1.5 cm. With the motto "Is this art or does it really float?", a floating curiosity was to take part in the race in honor of this year's documenta. Due to its polygonal shape, one half of the canoe standing upright is reminiscent of an obelisk. This inspired the students to "incorporate" the biblical lettering from our Kassel "original" by Olu Oguibe from 2017 into the watercraft. The fusion of an obelisk and a canoe gave rise to the name: "Kanulisk".

The Kassel team arrived on an extremely sunny Thursday to set up the presentation stand and accommodation. The following day, the canoe was presented to the public and the jury. Finally, on Saturday, the race was contested by a men's team. Despite the disadvantageous design in terms of fluid mechanics, the University of Kassel was able to keep up with the 3 slowest teams in terms of time! The evenings between the events were used for professional exchange between the students of the different teams, and there was also live music and an entertaining evaluation of the team shirts. We congratulate our Kassel students on their successful expedition on new terrain and look forward to the next regatta!

More information about the concrete canoe regatta: https://www.beton.org/inspiration/betonkanu-regatta/

Impressions of the 18th Concrete Canoe Regatta in Brandenburg an der Havel: https://www.picdrop.com/izb/2022