Earthrace is coming to 1770 on Sat 13, Sun 14 Dec

by The Observer - Gladstone on 11 Dec 2008 The world-record breaking enviro-vessel Earthrace, begins its Australian environmental awareness tour right here in the small Queensland coastal town of 1770 this week.

Built from recycled materials and running on bio-diesel, the award-winning Earthrace has just completed a world record circumnavigation of the globe (for a powerboat) in 60 days, knocking two whole weeks off the old mark.

And it was without any damage to the environment as the carbon neutral vessel cruised to the record.

Looking more like a space vehicle than an ocean-going powerboat, the 24m wave-piercing trimaran Earthrace was the dream of skipper and owner Pete Bethune to not only break records but to raise awareness of the problems facing our environment and possible solutions.

Earthrace is now travelling and promoting environmental awareness, having travelled from Europe via the Panama Canal to the Galapagos Islands, French Polynesia, Fiji and is currently on the way from Vanuatu to the Town of 1770, where it will begin the Australian leg of the tour before heading to New Zealand next year.

Eco-tourism operators 1770 Reef Explorers and 1770 SeaQuest are proud hosts of Earthrace in 1770, with many other local businesses and operators proud supporters.

1770 local Tony Atkinson, who owns the 1770 Reef Explorers boat, along with tour operator Jada Cavanaugh, first read of Earthrace's amazing quest when researching more fuel-efficient engines for their boat.

Mr Atkinson struck up a long distance friendship and admiration for Earthrace and its crew and eventually talked them into making 1770 their first port of call in Australia.

'Earthrace was originally coming into Cairns and then maybe Mackay, but when we started telling them all about the pristine beauty of the area and sending them photographs of the southern end of the reef they became interested and then excited about coming here,' Mr Atkinson said.

The hosts said the aim of these tours was to connect with people and encourage debate and understanding about biofuels, carbon footprints, and the many other aspects that affect our environmental footprint.

Using vegetable materials and recycled ice-cream containers, Earthrace took 14 months and 1800 hours to build and uses 100 per cent renewable biodiesel fuel and has a net zero carbon footprint.

The record-breaking voyage around the world (over 24,000 nautical miles) took 60 days, 23 hours and 49 minutes not just breaking the old record but smashing it by an amazing 14 days.

Earthrace will be open to the public at the 1770 Marina on Saturday and Sunday.

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