Concrete canoe lightest yet
UniSA civil engineering students set an impressive benchmark with their emphatic win in this year’s Concrete Canoe Race at West Lakes.
The 2009 ‘Sharks’ canoe achieved the highest score in the history of the race which is held each year between engineering students from UniSA and the University of Adelaide.
UniSA Associate Professor and Program Director in Civil Engineering Julie Mills said the Sharks achieved a total score of 59.5 out of 60, after winning two sprint and two endurance races and scoring well in design and flotation judging. The University of Adelaide canoe scored 33.5 out of 60.
The ‘Sharks’ canoe – designed, built and paddled by students Adnane Benhammouche, Karzan Aryan, Ghulam Ali Hussaini, Ali Mohammadi and Pyrros Radimissis, with extra paddling support from Paul Koufalakis – is the lightest concrete canoe ever built by UniSA students.
"The Sharks boat is definitely the best concrete canoe in the history of the race," Prof Mills said.
"The difference in weight from other year’s entries was really quite amazing.
"The students worked really hard over the summer on this boat and their success is well deserved. They also received excellent support from technical staff in the civil engineering laboratories. Another factor was the paddling instruction they received."
Water and cement are the basic materials used to make concrete, as well as sand, gravel or stone, reinforced with steel bars. To get a lightweight concrete that can float, students experimented with replacing stone with materials such as foam, and steel with fibreglass or synthetic fibre.
Associate Professor Mills said being involved in the race was beneficial to the students’ studies and personal development.
"Besides finding out more about concrete, the students liaise with industry, build teamwork skills, gain project management experience and of course they actually learn how to paddle a canoe," she said.
"They also gain six of the 12 weeks’ industrial experience required as part of their degree."
The South Australian Branch of the Concrete Institute of Australia supports the event.