The ConcreteCanoeRace 2025 took place in Eindhoven in the Netherlands on the weekend of May 1 to 4, 2025. Our team consisted of 17 people. On Friday, the boats were presented to the jury and weighed. The official weighing is always a particularly important moment for us: our boat weighed just 28.2 kg (6.15 kg/m) and, unlike the boats of the other teams, could be carried into the hall by two people and without a crane.

We only had one boat this year. A particular challenge this year was to build a boat that was stable enough to get us through the ten race categories and light enough to defend our title as lightweight champion.

The design for our boat is inspired by the Carola Bridge, the collapse of which was very formative for us as a university group of mostly Civil Engineering students. As a pop-cultural allusion to the absurd proposal to create a roller coaster from the collapsed bridge, we named our boat "Carola-Coaster". The name features and our concrete boat logo were created using a graffiti technique to match.

Despite the boat being robust by our standards, we were able to beat the other teams' boats by far with a weight of 28.2 kg and win the prize for the lightest boat.

Race day: We registered in advance for all ten race categories of the regatta: 50 m, 100 m and 200 m, for men, women and mixed respectively, as well as a "surprise event". For the first time in a long time, our team was awarded the prize for the "Unluckiest Team": In two of our races, we were unfortunately unable to take part in the final or semi-final due to organizational difficulties on the part of the organizers.
However, there were no other complications: Our lightly constructed racing canoe got us through the various disciplines reliably and without any major damage.

Although athletic performance is not our core competence, our team was able to achieve a place on the winners' podium in the women's 50 m race and also performed well in the other races.

All in all, we can look back with pride on an exciting and successful weekend. We would like to thank all the other teams who came along for sharing their experiences and time together!