Boats in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, designs and colors took to the water at the Rancho Seco Recreational Area on Friday as 20 teams of high school students competed in SMUD's 7th Annual California Solar Regatta.
The students not only raced the boats, they designed and built them, said Jacobe Caditz.
"We are getting them out of the classroom and giving them some hands on experience," he said.
The event is designed to give students real-world experience in applying knowledge from various disciplines -- emphasizing solar power -- to build a working boat.
"That's what's so cool about this race, these teams start about a year ago and they come up with the design and then have to engineer their boats, they have to figure out what kind of material they're going to use. We give them four solar panels and that's it," he said. "...You'll see paddle wheel boats out here, you'll see canoes, you'll see boats built entirely from Styrofoam -- everybody comes up with a slightly different concept."
Ryan Rob of the BSA Boaters (a team of Boy Scouts from Sacramento) said his team's vessel was mad entirely of recycled materials, reflecting a commitment to sustainability.
Besides the nautical and engineering details, each boat featured a bit of its team's personality, and BSA Boaters was no exception -- their boat came complete with a mascot, Wilson, a soccer ball named for the Castaway 'character' that kept Tom Hanks company.
Many teams came from the Sacramento area, but one team made the long drive from Arcadia in Southern California. They were proud to say that boat owed nothing to teacher intervention.
"This is pretty much a complete student-built boat, all of it, from the wood, from the building , to the electtrical system... to the steering system, all of that built by us everyone here had a hand in the boat, I don't believe any teacher has ever tightened a nut or anything like that,' said Marvin Tsao of Arcadia High School.
"It takes a lot of research, a lot of research a lot of people handing down information things like that," he said.
Tsao said he believed his team was in the top five for the endurance race -- a point of pride.
The regatta continues Saturday with college student entries, although the top scoring high school team will be allowed to compete with them, Caditz said.
Seventh Annual California Solar Regatta
A previous version of this story misspelled Caditz's first name.