Franklin Team Departs for Solar Cup Race

After working for months to fund and build a sea--or in this case, lake--worthy vessel, the Solar Cup Team will on Friday depart for the annual Metropolitan Water District Solar Cup Challenge.

This year's Solar Cup, to be held between May 18-20 at Lake Skinner in Temecula Valley, will be Franklin High School's first competition, according to team President Salvador Perez.

In April, the voted in favor of awarding the team a $1,000 neighoborhood purposes grant, which will help the squad recoup construcition and competition fees.

On some nights, the Solar Cup Crew worked until 9 p.m. inside Franklin, either preparing one of the three technical reports required by the Solar Cup competition, or fine tuning the design of their vessel.

Though the basic premise of the Solar Cup contest is simple--design a solar powered vessel that can withstand both endurance and speed trials--the devil is in the details.

The rules and regulations for the Solar Competition run 18 pages long, dictating everything from the maximum energy output of vessel's solar panel's (320 watts), to the maximum weight of the boat's skipper (60 kilograms) to the configuration of the skipper and the craft's instruments (skipper, steering, and instruments must be forward of the bulkhead, and the propulsion batteries and drive train must be aft).

Entrants are judged both on their craft's performance in both 1.6 kilometer and 200 meter races, as well as the quality of their design.

Since September, the solar cup team has recruited a small but dedicated team, ranging from students like Henry Li, whose future aspirations include a job in math or science to Maria Jiminez, who said she was looking for a club that would allow her some hands on experience in engineering and fabrication.

"I saw some of the fliers around the school and I wanted to see how solar panels work on something other than a house," said Jessy Baltazar, a soft-spoken sophomore. "I wanted to work on something, first hand."