Earthrace straight lines ahead of World record

by Scott Fratcher & Bob Maxwell on 31 May 2008 The 78 foot (24 metre) biodiesel fuelled trimaran Earthrace is speeding across the western Pacific towards Palau. In the last 24 hours, she has powered another 465 nautical miles at an average of 23.5 knots and she is now 2666 miles ahead of the 1998 Cable & Wireless World record pace.

There is more than one race in this epic record quest. Over the last month the Earthrace ground crew has been battling to stay ahead of the fast moving Earthrace. Yesterday the ground team were on Guam during their 17 hrs of constant travel to arrive in Palau. Palau is a long way off the standard air routes making it the most difficult pit stop to access along the complete race route.

This causes problems because the ground team has arrived less than 24 hrs ahead of Earthrace. The many reefs, rocks and hazards to navigation surrounding Palau make it one of the worlds top dive destinations, but it is also poses a serious risk for Earthrace. For the ground team this means locating a pilot to guide the futuristic Earthrace safely to the docks.

The ground team also needed time to arrange dock space and have the container of bio-diesel moved within range of the hungry Earthrace fuel tanks. Customs, immigration and the Port Captain all need to be waiting in order for Earthrace to have another record breaking turn around. With less than 24 hours preparation time, the ground team is racing as hard as Earthrace herself.

Over the last few days a tropical depression formed north of the Marshall Island- Palau rhumbline and yesterday an 800 mile wide band of heavy convection lies between Earthrace and Palau.

New Zealand weather guru Bob McDavitt and team weather router was suggesting Earthrace might need to swing south to miss the majority of the localised stormy conditions.

These small squalls are not normally considered a threat because the seas or wind are localised and at the speed Earthrace travels she is through the mini-front before the seas build.

Strangel,y the real threat may come from the lightning contained within these storm cells. The now famous University of Florida lightning study found carbon fibre boats were prone to catastrophic failure damage due to lightening strikes.

The high tech, highly conductive, carbon fibre boat in a lightning storm can actually attract the lightening strikes. When the strike occurs there is a possibility the lightning will travel through the hull and exit at the waterline cutting the hull long ways like a submarine sandwich. The report claims such a strike has sunk a series of carbon fibre in recent years.

Yesterday Bethune however straight lined it in his quest to 'smash' the round the world speedboat record.

Last night they were north of Papua New Guinea when they went through the worst of the weather. Pete Bethune reported 'We were thundering through the Pacific amidst massive cracks of lightning, each one turning the sky completely white for a split second and then pitch black again. Rain pelted down for hours, and all we had to guide us was the large blob on the radar letting us know we were still in the middle of the storm.

However this morning conditions have eased, the sky is still overcast but the sea has flattened and Earthrace is thundering west towards Koror, the port in Palau, now just 200 miles away.

On her arrival, expected around 2230 local time, she will be 60% of her way around the world. Her next stop is Singapore 2200 nautical miles west south west.

'We're looking forward to a swift refuelling in Koror either at Royal Belau Yacht Club, Malakal Harbor or at the freight wharves and then we're off on our ninth leg to Singapore,' said Bethune.

You can hear the latest report from Earthrace below.

There will be another report after tonights stop over from Scott Fratcher who headed up the Ground Crew on the first attempt and who has written two books on that attempt. Go to www.yachtwork.com to discover more.