Almost 150 students put their engineering skills to the test in a unique “land yacht” race along the north-east coast yesterday morning.
The third year engineering students from the Robert Gordon University (RGU) took to Balmedie beach in vessels specially-crafted for the shores in what was the culmination of a two month project.
The students split into 22 teams and set out designing, constructing and assembling the yachts in February on a budget of just £200.
And yesterday, the teams were pitted against each other in a mile-long race around obstacles set up on the Aberdeenshire sands.
The yachts consist of 6.5ft long bodies similar to go-karts with brakes, steering and sails attached.
The teams used old recycled bikes, tarpaulins and wheels, and were assisted with welding by university technicians.
The winning team was the Beach Bullets, followed by Team Unicorn.
Michael Thain, 20, group coordinator of third placed team, Nuts and Bolts, said: “I’m really pleased with how things went today – I had my doubts that the yacht would work, as I’m sure every team did.
“We knew we were one of the fastest teams so it was pretty exciting waiting to hear the results.
“It’s been a great team to work with – as soon as we were grouped up we set to work and there weren’t any arguments about how we were designing or building the yacht.
“It is definitely quite a competitive day, but we’re all friends on the course so the banter in the lead up to the race is all in good fun.”
The event saw Mr Thain pitted against former Peterhead Academy classmates Ryan Jamieson, 21, and Dean Thomson, 20.
Mr Thomson, who competed in the Cool Runnings team, said: “I’m definitely happy with how things went today, our land yacht made it to the finish which is all we could ask for.”
Senior lecturer at the school of engineering, Douglas Robertson, said: “The race went really well today.
“The wind blew and some of the yachts managed to take advantage of that but the ones that ended up being the fastest were those with the strongest drive trains.”