On the last weekend in June, the University of Kassel presented itself at the 17th Concrete Canoe Regatta in Heilbronn, competing against universities and educational institutions from all over Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland with two self-built canoes made of high-strength concrete with a wall thickness of just one centimeter.

A potpourri of interdisciplinary cooperation made it possible to build the canoes according to their own ideas and plans. After arriving on Thursday, the representatives of the various universities got to know each other and engaged in lively discussions to find out which university could win prizes in which category. On Friday, under a blazing sun and cold drinks, the McFly and DocBrown canoes were presented to the public by us, the 13 Kassel concrete canoe experts who had traveled with us, at the presentation stand with a display board on the banks of the Neckar. In addition to many spectacular canoes from other universities, we received a lot of praise for our ideas and designs. Considerable competition could not stop our three rowing teams from further training their concrete canoeing skills and familiarizing themselves with the racing procedure. In the evening, the first competition began, in which the teams had to present their team jerseys on stage as creatively as possible, be it in the form of singing, dancing or other talents. Once the team spirit had "hardened more than the concrete", the race started early on Saturday morning and the Neckar filled up with canoes of all kinds. Every team that competed was cheered loudly and cheered on with appropriate slogans. Although the students from University of Kassel were unfortunately denied a prize in one of the various categories, the competition was still a lot of fun and the regatta was a good opportunity for the participants to put the theory they had learned into practice and exchange ideas with fellow sufferers from other universities. We hope that many experts will remain in our team and look forward to welcoming new faces to our team for the next regatta.

Last but not least, we would like to thank our sponsors Holcim and F.C. Nüdling as well as Poraver and Schwenk for their support, without whose help our participation in this multifaceted event would not have been possible.