Students from The Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding who belong to the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers held their 14th SNAME Boat Design Competition Race Day earlier this month at Newport News Park.

The student club hosts the competition to expose high school students and prospective shipbuilders to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) as it relates to shipbuilding.

This year’s competition scenario was themed to Pokémon and challenged teams across Virginia to design a passenger vessel. Boats were designed by the students during their fall semester, judged in January, and four finalists were fabricated by X32 apprentices in spring. This year’s winner was The Mighty Pirates from Alexandria City High School.

“Even though I was unable to attend race day in person this year, I am so proud of everyone who contributed to another successful competition year,” said Jarrod Griffith, competition adviser.  “This year was our first opportunity to resume the competition after our 2020 race day was cancelled due to COVID-19. It is so satisfying to be back in normal rotation and to be able to provide this competition to the high school curriculum.”

For more information about the competition, visit https://communities.sname.org/designcompetition.