On Tuesday, 15 of September, Torgeir Higraff and his team who are preparing the KonTiki2 expedition visit the Marine Technology Centre to test models of their new rafts. 

Since it is not known exactly how the original rafts where shaped, and since the raft used by Thor Heyerdahl on his famous Kontiki expedition didn’t perform too well as a sailing craft, Higraff and his team want to test various design options, together with Assistant Professor Håvard Holm and Prof. Sverre Steen at the department of marine technology.

Photo (Sverre Steen/NTNU): Test of a KonTiki2 raft at the Marine Technology Centre. (15 September 2015)

NTNU is also cooperating with KonTiki2 to equip the rafts with the latest in sensor technology and navigational instrumentation, and also to use the opportunity during the voyage to collect large amounts of oceanographic data.

Excerpt from the test report:
Three different raft models had been constructed by Einar and Ola Borgfjord at Kystens Arv in Rissa. Our initial hypothesis that a sharpening of the front end of the balsa logs leads to reduced resistance was quickly confirmed. After some further refinement of the designs, the final optimized design had half of the resistance of the basic design with square-cut log ends.