SDU Krakens
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SDU Krakens is a student engineering team at SDU Sønderborg. We design, build and test a zero-emission racing boat for the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge.
An engineering student club making sustainability fast, fun and educational.
Nineteen students from mechanical, mechatronics, electronics, software and business programmes at SDU Sønderborg run the project themselves. We decide what to build, find the money and do the work. The university, companies and mentors give us sparring, facilities and a network.
Krakens has no end date. Each year new students take over the boat, the documentation and the test data, and push it further. We believe clean energy can be quick and exciting, and that more engineers should end up working on the water.
Every summer the Yacht Club de Monaco invites university teams to race boats they built themselves, on electricity, hydrogen and sunlight. It is where student ideas for cleaner boating are tested in open water, in front of the industry that could build them.
We are a young team and we have not raced in Monaco yet. Everything on this page is the work of getting there: a boat that passes technical inspection, a trained pilot and crew, and a team that can keep it running for a week of racing.
The organiser's websiteEnergy Class is the fairest fight in Monaco. Every team starts with the same hull and the same amount of energy. What you do with it is the competition.
The Yacht Club de Monaco supplies every Energy Class team with the same one-design catamaran hull. Nobody wins on hull shape or on the size of their boatyard.
The energy stored on board is capped at 10 kWh for everyone, and the source has to be zero-emission. With the same budget of energy, the most efficient boat goes furthest and fastest.
The part between the hulls is ours to design: the structure that carries the pilot, the seat, the steering and the safety systems. It has to be light, stiff and quick to get out of.
Battery, motor, electronics, software and propeller are our own system. This is where a student team can out-think a bigger budget, and where most of our engineering hours go.
Rules as published by the organiser for the current Energy Class. The Yacht Club de Monaco has asked students to propose a new catamaran platform for future editions. Read the class rules
Every part starts as a model. We draw the hulls, crossbeams and cockpit in CAD, then run flow simulations on the drive unit to see where the water pushes back before anything is cut or printed.
The same models go to the electrical team, so batteries, cables and control boxes have a place before the first bracket exists.
Our first boat fits on a meeting table. A radio-controlled catamaran with printed hull sections on a metal frame, assembled over two afternoons on campus by whoever turned up.
It taught us how the hulls, frame and drive go together, and gave new members something to hold in their first week.
One cold afternoon at the marina, the prototype went in. It floated level, answered the controls and drove out across the harbour.
We came home with a list of things to change, which is what a test day is for. We hold at least four joint work and test days a year.
The next step carries a person. The club owns two catamaran hulls that we are turning into a full-size test platform, joined by crossbeams we sized in our own load study, with a cockpit that lifts off.
On it we can test batteries, motor, steering and telemetry on real water long before the trip to Monaco.
This is the model our teams work from. Drag it to look from any side, look inside the battery box, and pick a part to see what it does.
The 3D model loads when you scroll here.
The design is still moving. Parts inside the box are simple blocks in their planned positions.
Hull, structure, hydrodynamics, materials, drivetrain and safety
Batteries, power electronics, sensors, control and software
Marketing, finance, fundraising and partnerships
Supported by Tuborgfondet. The foundation, part of Carlsbergfondet, backs young people who want to shape a hopeful and sustainable future. Their support helps us turn drawings into a boat.
Our home. SDU Sønderborg gives us rooms, workshops and supervision.
Your name here
Become a sponsor
Your parts and your name on a boat that races in Monaco, a direct line to engineering students who have built something real, and a project you can show your own people. We are looking for components, materials, safety equipment, transport and know-how as much as funding.
Write to krakens@org.sdu.dk or fill in the sponsor form, and the business team will come back to you with what we need this season.
Open the sponsor form