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SeaQuest Episode 3: Sink or Swim

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In this episode the team take the first prototypes to QinetiQ Haslar's Ocean Basin to test the boats in different Sea states.

The Ocean Basin is 121m long and 61m wide with a depth of 5.5m. It contains 40.8M litres (40,000 tonnes /9 Million gallons) of water and is one of the largest testing tanks in the world. So it's pretty big! All of us wish we had taken our swim shorts!

At the facility they test scale models of ships and submarines, simulating sea states with their powerful wave machines, but it has also been used to film underwater scenes for the film industry.

After a frantic build over the weekend, the team manage to build 3 boats and take them to the facility to find out if they can sink or swim and stand up to the simulated waves and currents!

Find out how the team get on in Episode 3 of our SeaQuest adventure.

SeaQuest_QinetiQ_13ee088950d02350ce0ec9181ca5dde77191ae26.jpgTwo boats testing in the Ocean Basin

Follow this SeaQuest Team adventure and find all episodes on the DesignSpark SeaQuest Team page

Follow our engineering challenge to design, test and build a 3D printed automated model boat that is capable of setting a World Record.
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