Earthrace strikes trouble on World Record attempt

by Rob Kothe www.PowerBoat-world.com on 1 Jun 2008 When the 24 metre bio-diesel fuelled Earthrace arrived in Kolor, Palau in the Micronesian island chain 800 nautical miles east of the Philippines last night on Day 34 of her Round the World speed attempt, she was 2,700 miles ahead of the World record pace, set by the British Cable & Wireless team in 1998.

As Earthrace skipper, New Zealander Pete Bethune remarked, 'the Pacific crossing from San Deigo had been blessed by great weather.' The burst fuel line problem which had caused Earthrace to de-power most of the way from Hawaii to the Marshall Islands was a fading memory and morale was high amongst race and ground crew.

Earthace made a swift 3 hours 15 minutes refuelling stop in Palau and then headed south on a moonless night at 22 knots, heading for Singapore.

However disaster struck within minutes. Travelling at speed she hit some sea debris which has damaged the port propeller. The boat limped back to port where the prop was removed and the drive shaft tested. The shaft has been bent and will require major repair in Singapore.

Earthrace left Palau, for the second time at 0400 local time this morning and will journey the 2,200 nautical miles to Singapore on one engine.

Her reduced speed of 14-16 knots will still maintain her lead on the current record, and will also help reduce the chances of any further damage from possible sea debris, which is a known problem in this stretch of water.

Ground Crew including Cummins engineer Tino de Freitas will arrive in Singapore on Monday 2nd June as planned, and will prepare for the repairs. Routing meteorologist Bob McDavitt from New Zealand advises the weather forecast is good and the revised ETA for Earthrace in Singapore is Friday 6th June.

Even with this delay, if Earthrace was able to maintain a speed of 22 knots, she could still reduce the World record from the current 75 days down to 60 days, but her greatest challenges are yet to be conquered.

Back in March Earthrace’s departure from Spain was delayed because EU customs paperwork delays had slowed the shipment of fuel to the remote stop-over locations around the globe. As a result the monsoon season has kicked in and heavy weather conditions have swept the Western Pacific and Indian oceans.

Burma’s Cyclone Nargis has ripped large numbers of trees from the delta foreshores so now the safe negotiation of the Indian ocean is no doubt going to slow the Earthrace Team’s World record quest.