WATERBIKE TEAM RIJEKA

    Waterbike team Rijeka consists of students at Technical Faculty, University of Rijeka, who allways wish to gain knowledge and take any new challenge to prove themselves. Our new test in May 2000. will take us to Flensburg, Germany where will take place the XXIth INTERNATIONAL WATERBIKE REGATTA. This will be for the first time that WT "Rijeka" takes it's colors outside Croatia. Till now we participated only at XXth Waterbike regatta that took place in Zagreb, Croatia, last year.

    For those who doesn't know, a waterbike is a vessel, six metters long, powered by feeth. Students from all over the world make this waterbikes following their own design, and than show off with their work at international waterbike regattas that take place every year in another country.

    We are thrilled about this, although there are still four months till competition, becouse we want to show our best and respectable vessels at the foreign ground. We met our rivals last year and we know what could we expect, so we have organised to give our best response this year. The team is aware what is necessary to achieve succes and ready to acomplish it.

    Setting off toward Zagreb last year we never hoped to come back with one of the three significant trophys. We won Inovation award and that was acknowledgement for effort from which hatched our first waterbike "Esmeralda" that you can see on picture above. For the firsth time in the history we used CROCKA system to make "Esmeralda", a very succesfull way of modular building, invented by S.D. Bruno Calic, that combined with the plastic hull made by Zlatko Marovic & the team gave an excellent result. However this award means an obligation for future achievements.

    Our new project is in phase of research and there were some considerations of building SWATH - waterbike, witch would be the first use of this form for such a small vessel. This is chalenging task, but there are ideas and solutions we could use. Our intentiones are not only to develop the conception of form, but use sophisticated materials and some new systems for building the hull and be the first to do it in building small vessels.

    We are ready for the greathest chalenges and aware of the meaning of our presentation in Flensburg. By participation we wish to show what we have invested in this project: our knowledge, work and spirit. We will proudly wear our flag on our vessel and make our country proud of us.

    This kind of competitions are ideal for exchange of expirience and knowledge and for creating new friendships between contestants. This is a way to widen and enlarge our expirience which will soon be necessary to organise such a regatta in our hometown. This could be a greath oportunity to promote our beautifull city Rijeka, sea, countryside, people and country Croatia.

    All these are our goals and we can achieve them especially being supported by all the significant institutions in our city: The City of Rijeka, Zupanija Primorsko - goranska, Inovators from Rijeka, University in Rijeka, Technical Faculty and many profesors, asistents and students. We have a number of other sponsors and supporters.