Vinicius Gondim turns his passion into an engineering project
28 Mar 2023
A keen sailor, this Brazilian student from Unicap-Icam Tech, currently based in Nantes, has put together a team to take part in the SuMoth Challenge, a must-attend foil boat demonstration event to be held at Lake Garda, Italy, from June 26 to July 6.
Born in Recife 22 years ago, Vinicius has been sailing for 10 years and dreams of specializing in naval engineering. So it’s no coincidence that he’s joined the 3rd year of the Open Course in Nantes: “I’m a competitive sailor, and over the last few decades, the practice of sailing has undergone great evolution thanks to the development of foil boats. But most applications of these new technologies are still not widespread in Brazil, unlike Nantes, which is a leading region in this field. This year in France is thus an opportunity to improve his knowledge and bring it back to his country, to make the practice of this sport more accessible.
Two years of patience
It was during his international internship as part of foiling week that he discovered this challenge and decided to take part: “The SuMoth is an academic competition organized since 2020. The aim is to design a prototype foil, a kind of small dinghy, which combines performance and sustainable composition. It’s an opportunity to take part in a top-level competition in the field of sailing and naval engineering, while contributing to its ecological revolution!”. Vinicius has been gathering information on this competition for two years now. And to ensure his success, he’s counting not only on his years of experience as a sailor, but also on his team, made up of three girls and seven boys from open and integrated courses, and hailing from France, Brazil and Cameroon.
In his opinion, studying at the Nantes site is an asset for this competition: “The strong presence of companies in the naval sector gives us privileged contacts with professionals in this field. What’s more, our school has clear objectives in terms of sustainable development, which is a winning combination for this project”. To finance the project, a crowdfunding campaign has been set up.
