Washington College Electric Boat Team visits Radcliffe Creek School

CHESTERTOWN — Radcliffe Creek School students were treated to a special presentation by the Washington College Electric Boat Team Sept. 20. Team members shared their inspiring story, detailing the design failures they overcame in the process of building their electric boats, which eventually led to the team’s success, winning first place in multiple races against other teams from universities with large engineering programs.

Electric Boat Team President Douglas Hewes, a member of Radcliffe’s Class of 2018, spoke, along with Washington College students Mac Sansbury, Tiyaba Jamil, and team adviser Brian Palmer, about the strategies they used to design their boats each year and remain competitive against teams like Princeton University.

By thoughtfully building better batteries, stronger electric motors, more efficient solar technology, and hydrodynamic hull designs, they were able to start bringing home top place awards. Palmer noted, “Our students are taking away technical insights that are valuable of course, but perhaps more important is the practice they are getting at recognizing problems to solve, learning how to design solutions, and not getting dissuaded when things don’t always turn out as they hoped. It’s a great opportunity for them to build technical capabilities as well as perseverance and grit that is needed to see complex projects through to fruition.”

Palmer excitedly shared the news about the team’s most recent success — breaking the Guinness World Record for the greatest distance by an electric boat on a single charge without solar Sept. 2. The Washington team broke the previous world record by 21 miles.

Hewes remarked, “When we were building the trimaran, we didn’t even think about beating a world record or even thought we could. … Then, we did the calculations and then we realized, hey, we might actually be able to beat the record.”

The students had the opportunity to watch video footage of the record-breaking success and see the winning boat in person, as well as to ask questions about the boat’s design and the team’s plans for the future.

“We are grateful to the Washington College Electric Boat Team for sharing their story about how they overcame failure to find success. It’s important for our students to hear that it’s OK to try hard and come up short; in all good design thinking, failure is just part of the learning process. It was apparent from the number of hands in the air and the thoughtful student questions that this remarkable story had a real impact on our young learners,” Head of School Peter Thayer said.