Earthrace joins the America’s Cup fleet

by Rob Kothe on 2 Jun 2007 What to do when your round the world record attempt cracks up in Spain? It’s a no brainer if you are New Zealander. You patch up the cracks in the hull of your 78 foot biodiesel powered trimaran and head off to support the boys, just 250 nautical miles up the road in Valencia.

Next week the radical wave piercing trimaran Earthrace will certainly be the most unusual spectator boat to have ever graced a Louis Vuitton/America’s Cup series.

Auckland Peter Bethune and his Earthrace crew began their record attempt on April 7 from San Diego, California and had to finish in San Diego on or before 21 June to break the record of 75 days – set by the British boat Cable & Wireless in 1998.

Earthrace suffered structural damage during her crossing of the Mediterranean Sea in a vicious storm on route from Port Said, Egypt to Malaga, Spain. When water began to seep into the bilge, the crew found a two metre crack in the forward section of the main hull.

This was the third severe weather system that Earthrace had endured in three weeks, the other two being a monsoon off the southern coast of India and 50 knot head winds encountered travelling up the Red Sea. It appears these severe conditions, collectively, have taken their toll on the Earthrace boat.

In Malaga the crew made a rapid repair, and it was thought to be sufficient to finish the race.

Earthrace left the Spanish port city just a day behind the Cable and Wireless record pace, tracking towards the Straits of Gibraltar heading for the Canary Islands, ahead of an Atlantic crossing.

As the weather turned against them and the hull flexed in short seas, the hull crack opened up again and the decision was made to return to Malaga to undergo more substantial repairs.

Given the time that it will take to properly repair the hull Earthrace will no longer be able to break the record, and so the decision has been made to abandon the attempt.

Earthrace skipper Pete Bethune said, 'The whole team is pretty devastated right now. We have all put so much time, money and effort into this record attempt; it is pretty upsetting to have to abandon the race. We can all feel proud of what we have achieved with the limited resources we had, and we do take some heart from that.'

Bethune went on to say... 'We gave it our best shot. The Earthrace project was created to promote the awareness and use of alternative fuels such as biodiesel. And whilst it is disappointing to miss out on the world record, we have certainly succeeded in our overall aim of promoting biodiesel and we will continue to build on this success during our upcoming European promotional tour.'

Bethune continued, 'Our focus right now is to repair the boat. We will take the boat up to Valencia to offer our support to the New Zealand America's Cup campaign before embarking on our European promotional tour.'

Already members of the Earthrace crew are talking about March 2008 presenting as the preferred starting time for another crack at the World record, but right now they are waiting for the resin to set before powering towards Valencia to support Dean Barker and the Emirates Team New Zealand crew.