The Rowbots (from left to right): Brad Burt, Howard Hu, Matthew Perttula, Andrew Nobles, Alim Jiwa, Kevin Lowe, Kevin Baillie, Andrew Porritt, Jared Cunnington
Day of the longboat; a 2 day festival situated at the Jericho Sailing Centre, in which over 270 teams participated in a 2 km canoe race of epic proportions. A competition hosted by UBC REC, mechanical engineering team RowBots came in 1st in the divisional and second campus wide.
The race consisted of up to 8 teams in a single heat; starting with a push from the beach from one of the members , teams are tasked with following a set path, eventually making landfall at the first buoy. Picking up a baton, each team then proceeds to head for the second buoy, where the baton wielder exits the canoe, runs and strikes a giant blue gong to finish the race.
“Training involved hours upon hours of programming and design” says “Admiral” Kevin Lowe, a member of the RowBots team. “Yelling was a key factor”.
AΩE also participated in the race that day. Although not fairing quite as well as the RowBots team did, they accomplished their goal; to have fun and compete.
“I feel a certain pride to be competing in an all-girls team from the Engineering division” says Melody Tsou, a team member of the AΩE longboating team. “We definitely kicked the Arts girls’ butts that day!”
AΩE Longboating Team
Both teams have stated that they will be participating in next year’s competition. Alim Jiwa, the Chief Communications officer for Rowbots, had this to say; ”We’re not just going to compete next year, we’re going to win.”