The remarkable first race for wind-powered vehicles

Over 2000 years ago, the Frisians who first settled the Netherlands began to build the first dykes to hold back the water in the Netherlands. Having battled adversity from the elements since AD/CE (Anno Domini/Common Era) year numbering began has created the type of proactive mindset required for survival on a planet with finite resources and some large scale challenges. It has enabled the Netherlands to embrace sustainable technologies and business practices far more readily than other countries. In recent times the Dutch have conducted the first Hydrogen Fuel Cell Racing event, the first solar boat race and a fortnight ago the Dutch town of Den Helder held the “Aeolus Race”, the first for wind-powered vehicles. The winning Ventomobile from Stuttgart University was the clear winner, running at an amazing 64% of wind speed directly into the wind.

The Netherlands lies partially below sealevel. The country would be flooded regularly if not protected by seawalls and sand dunes which defend the hinterland. The dunes form a natural barrier which is constantly moving both seaward and landward under the influence of the North Sea and the reigning winds. Inhabitants of Dutch coastal regions have crusaded against the water for centuries thus creating a landscape shaped by men.

The first race for wind-powered vehicles?

Of course it wasn’t the first race for wind-powered vehicles – land yachts have been around for millennia and the first race for wind-powered vehicles almost certainly took place in Ancient Egypt – the Egyptians were the first to effectively harness the forces of nature to power a wheeled vehicle. Given the vagaries of recorded history in ancient times, perhaps there were even earlier functional land yachts - sailing on water has been around much longer, and such is the ingenuity of man that there were doubtless prior attempts to put that other fundamental enabling technology (the wheel) together with sail power to create a powered vehicle.

So, with boys being boys, and man’s natural competitive spirit, we suspect the first race for wind-powered vehicles probably took place the first time two land yachts were in the same place and that was most likely in Europe two thousand years ago - so much for the first race for automobiles which took place little more than one hundred years ago.

The Chinese also had "wind-driven carriages" in the 6th century AD, during the Liang Dynasty, and eventually mounted masts and sails on large wheelbarrows.

The Chinese use of wind power is well documented.

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