A new 25-nautical-mile race between Monaco and Nice let shipyards and young engineers compete side by side for the first time — the format that grew into today’s Open Sea Xperience.
Competing teams
Classes
Nationalities
Speed record
A new 25-nautical-mile race between Monaco and Nice let shipyards and young engineers compete side by side for the first time — the format that grew into today’s Open Sea Xperience.
Clafis Victron Energy Solar Boat Team clocked 47.906 km/h (≈25.9 knots) over one eighth of a mile, the fastest yet recorded.
Gerhard van der Schaar’s Clafis Victron Energy Solar Boat Team swept the Open Class — endurance, speed, slalom and duels — and also set a new YCM speed record.
Fitted with 50 solar panels and room for three people, Heliodive completed the inaugural Offshore course in 3 hours 10 minutes.
Solar A-Class 2nd–3rd — WhisperPower Solar Team, Jeroen Antonisse (869 pts), Antwerp Maritime Academy, Jos Noteboom (825)
Solar Open 2nd–3rd — Sunderbird – Emden, Matthias Graf (769 pts), Solar Boat Twente, Jasper Admiraal (694)
Speed Record — Clafis Victron Energy Solar Boat Team, 47.906 km/h ≈ 25.9 kn, over 1/8 mile (231.5m)
2017’s defining move was reaching beyond the university fleet: the new Offshore Class, built to YCM specification in collaboration with the UIM, invited shipyards and professional builders to race three-seat solar-electric boats over open water — the same logic that today lets production shipyards compete in the Open Sea Xperience alongside student teams. On the Solar side, Gerhard van der Schaar’s run of four consecutive Open Class titles, capped with a new speed record, remained unmatched.
From 2014 to today, browse every chapter of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge.
