Sail-World.com : Support for Earthrace but more needed
Support for Earthrace but more needed
'Earthrace prop shattered, there are spares but 3' s/s drive shaft blank needed'
Earthrace Media
Almost 2,800 nautical miles ahead of the 1998 Round the World record until she suffered severe drive train damage leaving Palau east of the Philippines, Earthrace the 78 foot bio-diesel fuelled New Zealand built trimaran, crippled and limping on one engine continues to progress toward Singapore and could make landfall Friday.
Amazingly the one Cummins 540hp allowed Earthrace to power 406 nauticall miles yesterday at an average of 15.9 knots and she is still 2,830 nautical miles ahead of the word record, 15,410 miles from her starting point on Day 36 of her round the world speed attempt.
The latest news from Scott Fratcher.
The Earthrace ground team has arrived in Singapore racing to begin the repair preparations. Amazingly within six hours of landing the ground team has a working plan that may have Earthrace continuing on her journey around the world in as little as four days.
The three stumbling blocks for the team are locating are a haul out yard, finding a new 3' propeller shaft and paying for the services.
Locating a place to haul Earthrace is a challenge as all Singapore boat yards are reported to be filled to capacity. Without an extra wide travel lift available Earthrace may resort to using two cranes to place her on any available waterfront space.
To find a new propeller shaft the team has been searching every machine shop, yacht service yard, and lead in an attempt to find a new or used three inch shaft that can be cut down to fit the desperate Earthrace.
The third obstacle for the team is funding this unexpected fast paced repair project. Skipper Pete Bethune reported on his blog today the team has next to no finances left in this record attempt. Earthrace has put out a plea to the businesses and people of Singapore to come to their aid for a speedy continuation on the biodiesel powered record attempt.
Support to help with repairs to the biodiesel boat has been appearing from many directions. Alpha Synovate Bio Diesel has stepped forward along with the highly trained Cummins technicians from Brunswick Asia Pacific.
PPG paint systems have offered to supply more of their patented PSX700 a High engineered Siloxane Coating that has gained the high speed Earthrace an extra knot of boat velocity if needed to cover areas of possible hull damage.
The far-flung team of marine engineers that have worked diligently to helped the under funded Earthrace continue on her journey are again working on a series of plans to help minimize the crafts downtime.
Meanwhile Andre at Craig Loomes Design Group Ltd of New Zealand has stepped forward with 'out of the box' ideas on how to make temporary repairs to the P bracket that may allow Earthrace to continue with the race.
The P bracket is the final support for the extra large HyTorq propellers and the weak link in the drive system. If the P bracket support structure has been damaged Andre at Craig Loomes Design Group has offered a series of emergency options including building a temporary support from steel, or fabricating a support in place. This is tricky as Earthrace is a built of carbon fibber and sandwich core construction. The team will not be able to make a final determination until after the inspection.
For now, in order for Earthrace to capture the round the world speedboat record two things have to happen. The ground team has to find a 'creative' method to allow Earthrace to regain her lost drive train and Skipper Pete Bethune must bring the disabled Earthrace safely to the Singapore docks.
In his latest sat phone report, (you can listen to it below) skipper Pete Bethune explains just how much debris there is in the ocean as Earthrace heads down the coast towards Singapore. A nerve racking time for all concerned.
by Scott Fratcher www.yachtwork.com
7:45 AM Wed 4 Jun 2008 GMT
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