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Rowing into the wind 

Engineering students design solar system for transatlantic race

By Anna Sarkissian

Crossing the Atlantic in a rowboat might seem like a crazy idea but seasoned adventurers Alok Chowdhury and Rob Idsinga knew what they were doing when they approached Concordia to design the hybrid power management system for their vessel.

Chowdhury, Idsinga and their third teammate, Alex Nicholson signed up for the Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race about 8 months ago — a 2 900 nautical mile voyage from the Canary Islands to Antigua. Their rowing team – dubbed Ménage à Trois in honour of one of their sponsors, the California winery Folie à Deux – will set sail in November. In addition, they are raising funds for the Children’s Wish Foundation and the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

An engineer by trade, Idsinga worked as a technician and supervisor at Concordia for six years and knew they could depend on the vast skills and resources within the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Five undergraduate and two graduate students were assigned to this unique capstone project, under the supervision of Assistant Professor Sheldon Williamson and Design Project Specialist Dmitry Rozhdestvenskiy.

“It’s a novel challenge for students,” says Williamson, noting most electrical components generally require dry conditions. In this case, they had to forgo some efficiency in favour of ruggedness as they designed tough casings and new ways to dissipate heat.

“He’s very innovative. We couldn’t have asked for a better supervisor,” says student project leader Sarfraz Salick of Williamson. Rozhdestvenskiy played a key role in keeping morale high when they experienced significant ups and downs. Salick said he was a real asset to the team.

“Most companies will sell you a product. Here, we have half a dozen engineers working on this,” Idsinga says, noting it wouldn’t be easy to find the same kind of custom service anywhere else.

The Ménage à Trois team will be depending on the students’ designs for their survival. They created a solar panel-battery hybrid system to power an on-board de-salination machine, communication tools (satellite phone and several radios) and the navigation system.

Ideally, they will finish the race in 50 days but are prepared to be at sea for up to three months. They’re packing 1 500 freeze-dried meals to try to replenish the 10 000 calories they expect to burn daily. Poisson du jour is also on the menu as they plan to spear fish.

Eating sushi on the high seas might sound like an attractive prospect. Once you factor in risks like great white sharks, huge container ships on auto-pilot, and hurricanes – the caper seems less enticing.

Though most of the work is now completed, the students still have to install the remaining solar panels and test the system in rough conditions at the Beaconsfield Yacht Club. Since Idsinga built the boat from scratch, the team can predict how it will withstand gale force winds or 40-foot waves.

“We know exactly how it was built so we know its strength,” Chowdhury said.

The Concordia engineering team, comprised of Imtiyaj Mahmud, Ignazio Russo, Sarfraz Salik, Naveen Goswamy and Rumi Guzder, with additional consulting from graduate students Manu Jain and Chirag Desai, will be closely following the boat’s progress from Canada.

“We don’t want to count our chickens before they hatch. The real celebration will come after the success of the race,” Williamson says.

Several fundraisers are on the horizon, including a dinner on Oct. 2 with Tania Aebi, who sailed around the world by herself at the age of 18. See their site to find out more about their grueling expedition, sponsor the team or donate money to their cause.