Sixty five solar boat teams from all over Victoria turned out to compete in the division 1section at Science Works Spotswood. 

Golden Square Secondary College Science Department fielded two teams:  BLITZ - Captaind by Charlene Mackenzie and crew of Rebecca Taylor and Kristy Freeland.  and   FLYSCREAM- A solo entry by Peter Twiss.

Both Golden Square Secondary College entrants had spent many hours designing, building, testing and fine tuning their boats. They had attended a Solar Workshop and five weekend workshops held by Steve Donaldson at Kangaroo Flat Secondary College.

The BLITZ team ventured to LaTrobe Open Day for the Bendigo Solar Challenge for Primary Schools. In its demonstration runs against Kangaroo Flat Secondary College they showed some very good form. With the Vic Challenge in October plenty of trialing of different motors, solar cells and propellers took place.

Unfortunately, clouds were in evidence on arrival at Science Works on Sunday the 20th October, 2002.  Scrutineering, judging of boats, posters and practice were soon forgotten and it was down to the first round robin races. Congratulations to Peter Twiss who received an honourable mention for his poster. Well done Peter.

Peter Twiss and Flyscream

At 2.15 pm the first of the knock out races began. BLITZ in race 4 won through to the next round but unfortunately FLYSCREAM faltered out of the competition. 24 boats made it to the next round.

BLITZ again raced 2 boats and won easily. 8 boats were left in the running and rounds consisted of match racing (best 2 out of 3) . GSSC was matched against SUBMARINER from Kew High.

BLITZ won the first race easily but the second was disastrous. BLITZ literally went to the bottom of the pool with the starting gate. The race was restarted but the damage was done with water in the motor. BLITZ lost to SUBMARINER. We were now one race each. Charlene quickly dried the motor between races as the boat was carried to the starting end of the pool. Fingers crossed they started the third match race. BLITZ performed outstandingly and won easily. They were now one of four boats in the Semi finals.

BLITZ was to race 4000 REVS from Kangaroo Flat Secondary College again in a best two out of three race situation. A fantastic effort for our two Bendigo Schools, unfortunately only one could progress to the Grand Final., BLITZ won both races and the team were ecstatic at the thought of reaching the Grand Final. They were not confident at being able to beat LIGHT 'n' POWER from University High as it had proven itself to be a very fast boat.  The races for 3rd and 4th took place with 4000 REVS from KFSC beating BILLANOOK 1 from Billanook High.

After being called up for the final BLITZ was sitting on the water ready to go. LIGHT 'n' POWER was nowhere to be seen. Finally LIGHT 'n POWER emerged from behind the crowd with cool packs still on the solar cells. The sun was out for the first time for the day. Race one proved a popular win with a fair percentage of the crowd and with the BLITZ team who did just that BLITZED THEM. Race two was to take place immediately after race one but again with BLITZ in the water LIGHT 'N' POWER was nowhere to be seen. Some in the crowd expressed their displeasure at the bending of the rules (Not from the BLITZ team). Steve Donaldson from KFSC was not very happy with the antics of the opposition. The sun was still out for race two and the result was the same. BLITZ won convincingly. The team had won and were now the Victorian Champions. They now have an invitation to compete at the International and Australian Model Vehicle Solar Challenge in Sydney on November 23rd and 24th.

The BLITZ team captained by Charlene Mackenzie with crew Rebecca Taylor and Kristy Freeland

Credit goes to Steve Donaldson from Kangaroo Flat Secondary School for his support of the Primary and Secondary Schools program. Craig Mackenzie also deserves praise for his invaluable support.