This Friday at 14:24 CET when crossing the finishing line in Sagunto, Spain New Zealand’s Eco-Diesel boat “Earthrace” set a new world record for circumnavigation with powerboats.
With the new record time of 60 days, 23h:49min skipper Pete Bethune and his crew have shaved off almost 14 days from the previous record set by the British “Cable & Wireless” in 1998. After the failed first attempt to break the record last year when they had to abandon the run due to structural damages to the boat’s hull, this year’s attempt was not plagued with similar issues.
Congratulations Pete for your endurance and persistence on achieving this target. We were all “crossing fingers” that you will have more luck this year. After having spent five days in heavy weather on Earthrace last year, we know what it means to be at sea for more than sixty days on that boat.
Good luck with your tour and run home to NZ.
The cause for the race - and that’s also how it was marketed - was to raise awareness on ecological friendly and renewable fuels and to showcasing other environmentally friendly technologies for boats. Nevertheless, the circumnavigation record for sail boats (zero emissions of CO2) set by Orange II in 2005 currently stands at 50 days, 16h:20min.
While we can’t rely on sailing boats alone there are some interesting attempts underway for circumnavigations with engine driven boat creating their energy with photo-voltaics and other zero emission approaches - one of the strongest contenders from Neuchatel, Switzerland planning to be ready for the record attempt in 2009/2010.
More information:
Official Earthrace web site
Information on the World Solar Navigation challenge
Our posts on spending 5 days on Earthrace
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