Earthrace's Singapore Miracle

by Scott Fratcher www.yachtwork.com on 9 Jun 2008 When the 78 foot bio-diesel fuelled trimaran Earthrace reached Singapore on Friday morning local time, she was two thirds of the way round the world and an amazing 2,900 nautical miles ahead of the pace needed to set a new Round the World powerboat record, but she was almost mortally wounded.

Soon after she left Palau in Micronesia, Earthrace hit a submerged object snapping blades off her port propeller and cracking her port drive shaft. As repairs were not possible in that remote location, New Zealand skipper Bethune decided to head 2.200 miles to the next stop-over point Singapore for repairs, on just one engine.

There the crew has to repair or replace the damaged drive shaft and make any needed composite repairs to the hull and the P bracket that attaches the shaft to the hull.

Every sport is made up of an offence and a defense. In Team Earthrace the boat crew are the offence and the ground crew are the defense.

The ground team arrived in Singapore ahead of Earthrace with no money and a broken boat due to arrive in just a few days. With startling speed the team gained sponsorship from Posh Semco who hauled Earthrace immediately upon arrival. The shaft was made while the team arranged repairs to the cutlass bearing and P bracket.

In less than 24 hours of round the clock work Earthrace is ready to launch.

She has 35 days to get back to Sagunto, north of Valencia in Spain to beat the 1998 Cable & Wireless World record of 74 days, 23 hours 53 minutes.

Operations Manager Adrian Erangy said today 'The entire team have pulled together a miracle in Singapore. Friday afternoon the Posh Semco staff helped pull Earthrace from the water by a single 150 ton crane. Earthrace was not empty of fuel during the lift and was weighing in at 19 tons including fuel and spares etc. It was frightening at times as she has never been lifted this heavy before or by single crane. We have completed our repairs and now hope to have 14 days left at sea to get the record.'

The ground team is ahead of their predicted repair time by over 12 hours. This extra time will allow Earthrace to shave another 250 miles from the record. Earthrace expects to test the engines directly after launch in the morning. If the sea trials prove successful Earthrace will fuel and depart for Cochin India, the next stop in this round the world extravaganza.