Earthrace needs larger repairs in Singapore

On June 03, 2008

“Earthrace captain Pete Bethune manages grin, even with his shattered port propellor on display in Palau”       New Zealand Captain Pete Bethune’s quest to smash the round the world powerboat record with the 78 foot biodiesel powered catamaran Earthrace has surely captivated sombre turn for the worst.

The high tech U.I.M powerboat is still 2,764 marine kilometres at the of the 1998 World 75 day record pace, having travelled 15,004 kilometres seeing that her March 27th departure from Sagunto, north of Valencia in Spain.

After great run from the Marshall Islands disaster struck after the pit stop in Palau in the Westerly Pacific. After another smooth refuelling, on moonless night Earthrace was just two kilometres from the port when she hit thing quite three-dimensional, which caused nearly complete destruction of the port drive shaft, propeller, & maybe even the P bracket & gearbox, & some degree of hull damage as as yet undetermined.

The Earthrace crew had no choice but to remove the port propeller & head to wards Singapore 220 kilometres away.

With the unexpected repairs needed to the carbon fibre hull as well as the port drive train, the Earthrace Crew is now wondering if the stricken ship can even complete the circumnavigation. The answer will approach in the form of complete inspection of the hull & drive system once Earthrace reaches the full service city/state of Singapore.

Bethune reported tonight that Manila was considered as an alternate refit destination but Singapore clearly has more facilities & better freight services.

The Earthrace engineering crew well-informed significant lessons during the last regatta around the ability to make repairs though in remote locations & thus are carrying spare set of props & complete new ZF gearbox. These will likely be two of the key items needed to make the coming repairs. The three leftover issues will be the shaft, hull & P bracket (propeller strut).

Whatever Earthrace hit april have damaged the outer hull & thus the carbon fibre skin maybe peeling away as Earthrace continues on this regatta Ieg.

The complete Earthrace hull is of sandwich construction, so once the outer hull has been compromised the leftover inner hull has very small force. If an outer hull tear has occurred it’ll be hard decision for the crew as most are intimately well-known with the two metre long hull cracks that caused Earthrace to abandon her former record attempt.

Actual ground crew operations administrator Karl Erangey was aboard Earthrace when the former record attempt ended in Malaga Spain in ‘07.

The propeller shaft is most surely destroyed, but depending on where the worst of the bend is located, the crew is working on plan to cut off the poor portion of the shaft & re-cut new taper. The extra shaft length can be made up with the use of stub shaft added to the inside of the hull. If this plan isn’t feasible new three-foot shaft might be capable to reach Earthrace in time to carry on with the record attempt.

The P bracket is the thin strut that supports the prop shaft next to the propeller. This is the feeble link in the crew’s repair plans. If the P bracket has approach loose, the only way to make repairs is by hauling & opening the hull to entirely reconstruct the web of inner supports. If the damage is establish to be as extensive as to warrant complete rebuild of the aft section of the ship, the Earthrace crew april find themselves out of time to make the record this year.

Luckily the weather has been benign so far & as night fell tonight, Earthrace is closing on Borneo with one-half metre following sea & gently rolling swell. With just the starboard motor she’s still making 15-16 kts.

In the last 24 hours, Earthrace has travelled 380 kilometres & is still on track for Saturday arrival in Singapore, to what Bethune is now calling her ‘drive shaft & composite refit’.

Meanwhile the rest of the regatta route is touching into northerly hemisphere summer & thus hurricane & monsoon season. The Indian Ocean has begun to turn versus the crew already blowing southwest. they will need the sailboat in unblemished order when she leaves Singapore cause the Ieg through to Cochin, on India’s west beach, maybe the most challenging of the complete world record attempt.

You can hear to Bethune’s newest report lower down.

Scott Fratcher is the author of two books on Earthrace. he is an experienced nautical engineer. Click on the banner lower down to go to his website w
by Scott Fratcher/ Powerboat-World