Hovercraft designed to save Lake Winnipeg

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This article was published 08/02/2012 (5077 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Attempting to build the best hovercraft in the province isn’t enough for a group of Windsor Park Collegiate students — they want to save Lake Winnipeg, too.

The six students built a radio-controlled hovercraft to compete in an annual competition for high school students sponsored by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters group.

The Windsor Park team’s vessel ranked in the Top 10 during the first round of the competition, held Jan. 19 at the University of Manitoba.

That means they’ll have a chance to take home coveted scholarships during the hovercraft finals in March, explained student Christian Whitehill, who lives in Sage Creek.

But even if they don’t win, the students’ hovercraft will serve a noble purpose.

The craft has been designed to help take water samples from ailing Lake Winnipeg, said Briana Kelly.
The students were inspired by the David Suzuki documentary Save My Lake, which chronicles how the lake is dying a slow death because of blue-green algae blooms.

While scientists working to save the lake can take water samples from the lake by boat, the students say a hovercraft can do tasks a research vessel can’t — such as taking samples from shallower waters.

“And it prevents the gas from going into the lake from research vessels,” said student Brennen Wachal, a St. Vital resident.

The hovercraft works by using a fan to push air through a bladder on the bottom of the vessel, creating a bubble and pushing the craft off the ground — as much as a half an inch, said team member Peter Stanley.

Student Morgan O’Leary christened the vessel HC ADAMS — or Hover Craft Algae Destroyer And Marsh Saver.

Jean-Luc Susko, a metals teacher at Windsor Park who is supervising the extra-curricular project, said most schools that compete in the hovercraft competition don’t think about what purpose their vessel might serve.

But his students have always found that creating a craft that has a practical application — such as taking water samples — helps them in front of the competition’s judges, Susko said.

Windsor Park has been competing for six years, and has placed in the Top 3 — with a scholarship prize — five times.

The students will compete in the finals on March 20 at the Winnipeg Convention Centre, and are building a new and improved model of the hovercraft for the event — one that can take the water samples automatically, a task that must currently be done manually.

But whether they win or not, the students will be taking their hovercraft onto Lake Winnipeg in the spring, offering to lend their vessel to organizations working to save the lake.

“The lake is dying pretty much, and it really needs our help,” Kelly said.

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