With their team spirit, engineering expertise and athletic prowess, the students from the Faculty of Civil Engineering paddled their way to the top at the 2019 concrete canoe regatta last weekend. Following nail-biting heats, the Weimar paddlers were the only ones to all qualify for the final of the top four boats on the Neckar in Heilbronn – and for the first time! 

Students Tabea Gabi Ziegler and Saskia Gesch were awarded an impressive second place in the ladies’ race with their boat »inFORM«, closely followed by »FUNKTIONiert« crewed by Luise Dehnert and Maria Adler in third place.

The two men’s teams from Weimar – Paul Malsch and Lukas Rentsch as well as Niklas Rödiger and Lukas Roll – also completed their numerous runs of the competition course with ease to make it through to the final. They summoned all their remaining energy to rank third and fourth overall in the men’s standings. 

Design award for Weimar

The Weimar boats not only shone in the sporting competition, but also with their outstanding designs according to Bauhaus design principles. The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar was awarded first place in the design competition for the puristic-yet-high-quality design of the »inFORM« concrete canoe. According to the motto of »form follows function«, the students designed matching T-shirts and delivered a worthy homage to the founding year of the Bauhaus with their overall look. 

»With its consistent team performance, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar has once again proven that we can hold our own in an international comparison and meet our biggest competitors from Leipzig and Holland on an equal footing«, commented project manager Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Bock proudly. »Our special thanks to Opterra GmbH, who has been advising our teams for 25 years now,« Bock added. 

Background

Faculty of Civil Engineering students successfully participated in the concrete canoe regatta, which is held every two years in changing locations, for what was the thirteenth time. Thirty boat enthusiasts spent several months developing filigree and constructing stable concrete canoes at the F.A. Finger Institute of Building Materials Science. The result was two identical boats with walls just five millimetres thick and weighing 60 kilograms with a length of 5.3 metres. At the same time, the students spent six weeks training in a test boat on Großbrembach reservoir, the home training ground of the Seesport Weimar e. V. In Heilbronn, the Weimar canoeists paddled to success against a total of 55 men’s and 50 women’s teams. Around 50 institutions offering courses in cement chemistry and concrete technology participated in the sporting event organised by the German cement and concrete industry.

The cement manufacturer Opterra GmbH has been a sponsor of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s concrete canoe project since 1994. In addition to its generous financial support, the Karsdorf-based cement plant also provides the necessary building materials and technical advice for construction of the canoes.

In case of questions, please contact Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Bock (Tel: +49 (0)3643 584747; thomas.bock@uni-weimar.de).