On the last weekend in June, the University of Kassel presented itself at the 17th Concrete Canoe Regatta in Heilbronn and competed with two self-built canoes made of high-strength concrete with a wall thickness of only one centimeter against universities and educational institutions from all over Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

A potpourri of interdisciplinary cooperation had made it possible to produce the canoes according to entirely individual ideas and plans. After arriving on Thursday, the representatives of the various universities got to know each other and sounded out in lively discussions which university would be able to win prizes in which category. On Friday, in blazing sunshine and with cold drinks, the canoes McFly and DocBrown were presented to the public by us, the 13 Kassel concrete canoe experts who had come along, at the presentation stand with display board on the banks of the Neckar. Besides many spectacular canoes from other universities, we received a lot of praise for our ideas and designs. Considerable competition could not keep our three rowing teams from further practicing their concrete canoeing skills and familiarizing themselves with the race procedure. In the evening, the first competition began, where the task was to present their team jerseys on stage as creatively as possible, be it in the form of singing, dancing or other talents. After the team cohesion had "hardened more than the concrete", the race started early on Saturday morning and the Neckar filled with canoes of various types. Each team that competed was cheered loudly and with appropriate slogans. Unfortunately, the students from Kassel did not win a prize in one of the various categories, but the competition was still a lot of fun and a good opportunity for the participants to put the theory they had learned into practice and to exchange ideas with fellow sufferers from other universities. We hope that many experts will stay with our team and we are looking forward to welcoming new faces to our team for the next regatta.

Last but not least, we would like to express our sincere thanks to our sponsors Holcim and F.C. Nüdling as well as for the support of Poraver and Schwenk, without whose help our participation in this multifaceted event would not have been possible.