New Zealand and Australian university teams will get a direct route into the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge from 2027, after organisers confirmed a new qualifying leg will run out of Darwin specifically for Asia-Pacific entrants. It's the first time the event has planted anything in this part of the world, and it means Kiwi and Aussie teams, along with the marine tech companies backing them, no longer need to find their own way to Europe to get a shot at the competition. Teams that qualify in Darwin will progress through to the Monaco final itself.
That announcement came out of Monaco this month, where Swiss Solar Boat, fielded by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, took out the 13th edition of the Challenge overall, along with the Design and Eco-Design prizes, after making the podium regularly across the week's events. University of Bologna's Argonauts Team won the Energy Class, Croatia's Adria Autonomous Boat Team took the AI Class, and Italy's Red Wave won SeaLab.
The result organisers are pointing to, though, isn't the win itself. The fleet's permitted power was cut by almost 30 percent this year, and average speeds still rose by 8 percent, a genuine efficiency gain that's the whole reason events like this get run on the water instead of in a lab. In the Championship Race, the top two boats crossed the line just 30 centimetres apart. The Frauscher x Porsche 790 Spectre also set a new event record, recording an average speed of 51.05 knots across its run, according to organisers.
Yacht Club de Monaco director Bernard d'Alessandri said the Challenge continues to draw new partnerships out of the competition: "Projects presented here evolve, and collaborations and strategic partnerships are forged. Yet again, the Challenge demonstrates that innovations destined to transform the maritime sector often gain momentum in Monaco."
For teams on this side of the world, that momentum now has a much shorter flight path. The Darwin qualifier launches as part of the wider MEBC World Series, which opens on Lake Como before rolling out across other continents, but Darwin is the leg built for us. Whether a New Zealand university team puts a boat on the water for it remains to be seen, but the door's open in a way it hasn't been before.
Learn more from the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge.
