| SPECIFICATIONS:
Overall length of boat: 6.1 m (20.0 ft)
Net weight of canoe: 88.5
kg (195 lb)
Concretes: 1129
kg/m3 (70.5 lb/ft3); 1094
kg/m3 (68.3 lb/ft3)
Reinforcement: Two Layers of
Spatially Separated Un-impregnated
Graphite
Placement: 6th at Nationals
Regional Conference: Auburn University, Auburn, AL
National Competition: Cal Poly - SLO, San Luis Obispo,
CA Officers:
P: Jorge
Cacciatore
VPs: Jennifer Bowers; Stephen Phillips
S: Charlsie Smith
T: Chris Shaw
COB: Jorge Cacciatore
SBC: Vinny Liebner SEC
Conference Coordinators: Ester Sala; Stephen Icolano Community
Service Coordinator: Kimberly Wander
Faculty
Advisors:
Dr. Houssam Toutanji; Dr. John Gilbert Contact
Members:
Mr. Jackie Whitaker
Dr. Teng K. Ooi US Navy
Campus Liaison Officer:
Dr. Teng K. Ooi Concrete
Canoe Project Manager:
Jorge Cacciatore Concrete Canoe
Project Engineer:
Matthew Pinkston Concrete Canoe
Team Captains:
Jorge Cacciatore; Stephen Phillips Coaches:
Sarah Yeldell
Todd Watts
Jackie Whitaker Professional
Training and Development:
Mr. John Bentley
Media Relations:
Mr. Ray Garner Technical
Editor:
Dr. Tom Lavin |
Our competition
theme:
2010
Team UAH Design Paper
In
1500, when the Spaniards brought the first horses into the Huntsville
area, a group of Cherokee youths helped a massive Andalusian stallion and three
mares escape into the mountains. This was a great blow to the
stallion's owner, Don Philippe é Garcia de Velasquez, and
the expedition's leader, Ponce de Leon.
The
horses prospered and the story of the great charger which escaped from
the Spaniards was told and retold throughout the region. The
animals prospered and, following sightings of wild "blue"
horses grazing on our pastoral campus in the “white” early morning
mist, “Charger Blue” became our school’s mascot.
Since
blue and white were selected as our school’s colors, we decided to
incorporate them and the magical spirits of these elusive beasts into
SUPER
CHARGER,
so that our team is so fast and so smart that no one will be able to
catch us as we paddle to victory!
We
flew our school colors (blue and white)
in California and based our theme on
the true story of how our school's mascot, "Charger Blue," was
selected.
The Team UAH
"Chargers" pose with mascot "Charger Blue" in
California.
Photo by Ms.
Sara Tollefson: (716) 622-9763; email
Southeast
Conference Concrete Canoe Champions!
UAH celebrates Southeast Conference Concrete Canoe Championship.
 
Chapter President, Jorge Cacciatore (left and center), and
Vice-President, Stephen Phillips (right), served as team
co-captains. They helped put Team UAH in the hunt for the
national title.
This was our ticket to nationals. Thanks to everyone for
getting us there.
We really
appreciated our media coverage!
Hats off to Robert Reeves (Channel 19 WHNT) who interviewed Team
UAH. See here.
TV
Coverage - 4 Segments 1
2
3
4
 
Channel 19 (WHNT.com)
newscaster Robert Reeves (left) and photojournalist Gregg Stone (right)
interview
Ms. Alex Stavaru (Graphics Designer) and Jorge Cacciatore (Team UAH President).
The
Weekly Databyte 03/16/10
The
Weekly Databyte 05/26/10
The
Weekly Databyte 06/26/10
"We may not have had fancy buses, nice jackets, hats, or
shirts...or as many Chapter members as some of our competitors...but
we fought hard at every turn and gave it all we had... even when the obstacles
in our path seemed impossible to overcome. Facing
these adversities together brought us closer as a team."
Team UAH pulled together to win the Southeast Conference Concrete Canoe
title.
"We dedicated this Championship to
the family and friends of the faculty members that lost their lives, and the
faculty and staff who were wounded on February 12th, 2010.
You will never be forgotten." Jorge Cacciatore, ASCE Chapter
President
Team UAH and "SUPER CHARGER" place first at the Southeast Conference.
California Here We Come!
 
We saved money on T-shirts (left and right) but invested heavily in "SUPER CHARGER"
(center)... best product at the Southeast Regional.
Our outer graphic (left) depicts our 24 past entries while the inner graphic
(right) tells the true story of how our school's mascot was selected. We placed ribbons in the horseshoe graphics located in the bow and stern of
our canoe to help Team UAH "CHARGE ON" toward victory!
ASCE Chapter member Alex Stavaru and her graphics team worked 40 hours straight
to get the job done in time for the regional competition.,, and they used our school colors (blue and
white) on this, our 25th
anniversary.
We built our dynamically tuned cementitious structure in 28 days!
Four members of our paddling team face off against the
University of Central Florida at the turn buoy during the co-ed sprint
(center). High winds and rough water on Georgia's West Point Lake tested the teams'
paddling prowess to the limit.
We had fun at the awards banquet (left) especially when we learned that we
had won the Southeast Conference Concrete Canoe Competition (right).
Team UAH women's team members (left to right in the photo to the left):
Nikki Gibson, Jennifer
Crabb, and
Katie Morell.
Jennifer was unable to
make it to nationals because of a job offer. But Joanna Fischer joined the
crew to help us paddle to victory. The ladies were on the UAH lake five days per week... and competed on Lopez
Lake in CA.
Team UAH made the 2010 Princeton
Review's Guide to 286 Green Colleges.
According to the Princeton
Review:
"Team UAH is renowned for its award-winning participation in the National
Concrete Canoe Competition, sponsored annually by the American Society of Civil
Engineers. The team has five national titles to its credit, and placed ninth at
nationals in 2009 for its construction of "ITZ Civilized" which
focused on sustainability in design and construction." Read more here.
We placed 6th
overall at Nationals!
Team UAH (right and left) and our pit crew (center) give it their all at the 2010
National Concrete Canoe Competition in California.
Women's (left) and men's (right) endurance races. Photos
courtesy of Concrete
Canoe Pictures.
Team UAH negotiates the turn buoy in the co-ed sprint at the2010 National
Concrete Canoe Competition.
Photo by Phil Klein courtesy of ASCE.
Women's (left) and men's (right) sprint races. Photos courtesy
of Concrete
Canoe Pictures.
Team UAH was looking good at the Awards banquet in San Louis Obispo.
Team profiling:
We realize that people are our most valuable resource... and
consider ourselves fortunate to have been able to work with John Bentley,
professional training and
development consultant from Power2Transform (P2T),
to help overcome some of the difficulties that we encounter.
See the P2T
Newsletter
Alumni Notes:
Thanks Todd, Sarah, Jackie, David, Kirk, Teng, ,...
Your continued dedication as UAH alumni is greatly appreciated!
It took us nine years to do it but we finally designed
mixes that are better for concrete canoeing than the one that allowed us
to win in 2001. Both mixes are slightly heavier but more flexible
so they lower the natural frequencies of the hull. Since the
latter are closer to the rate at which we paddle, we force the boat into
a swimming motion that lowers our deceleration between strokes.
Unfortunately, the water was so rough at nationals that the boat
contorted to such a degree that the boundary layer separated and out
technology actually worked against us.
On a more somber note, we dedicated our
effort to the faculty and staff that were shot on
campus during the initial
construction
of our canoe.
The victims and their families have our deepest
and most heartfelt sympathy... and we'll forever remember those killed
and wounded as some of our school's most dedicated
"Superchargers."
We
were surprised when our canoe turned from brilliant white to bluish green until we
discovered that this was due to "Greening." In the end, we
inte3grated the strange patches into our design.
 
We integrated the strange patches into our design.
Our sponsors joined forces to send Team UAH to California.
Turner Universal, M&D Mechanical, Fuqua and
Associates, Goss Electric, and Reed Contracting team played with our other
sponsors to close the financial gap
required to send Team UAH to the 2010 National Concrete Canoe Competition in San
Luis Obispo, California. Each company donated $2k. We thank our four
local TV stations and the Huntsville Times for coming out to the big show,
We really appreciate all of your support!
UAH Contacts:
Our media contact is Ray
Garner. Ray is a member of University Relations at UAH.
His telephone number is (256) 824-6397.
Our faculty advisors are Dr.
Houssam Toutanji [(256) 824-6370] and Dr.
John Gilbert [(256) 824-6029].
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