Earthrace's World Record in doubt after collision
The 78 foot bio-diesel powered trimaran was on track to take 15 days offt the current round the world record on Saturday night, until disaster struck. 
'Pete Bethune - photographer Caroline Gautron1'
Earthrace
Media
The Earthrace team had reported another quick turn around in Palau, 800 miles east of Manilla on Saturday in the dark of night and completing the swift refuelling under lights. Shortly after the Earthrace departure from the docks at Sam's Tours and Dive Resort she reported hitting something in the water. The port drive train suffered major damage forcing Earthrace to return to port for inspection.
Pete Bethune commented 'We were guided out by locals because they warned us the charts are inaccurate for Palau. We were also between channel markers so certainly within the marked channel. I don't know what we hit other than it was a decent size. There were some splinters of wood in the rudder. Whatever it was, it is obviously very disappointing. We need to move on from here which is challenging, but not impossible. '
This is a major setback for the Earthrace team, who were significantly ahead of the current world record of 74 days, 23 hours and 53 minutes. Earthrace returned to the Sam's Tours docks where Skipper Pete Bethune and Ground crew Adrian Erangey dove to remove the damaged HyTorq propeller. The propeller shaft was measured and found to be significantly distorted, but possible to repair in Singapore.
The difficult decision was made to continue with the record attempt by transiting the next debris-strewn section of ocean on one engine. This is a big risk. If the limping Earthrace has any engine problems or strikes another floating obstacle they could find themselves adrift with limited options.
To further complicate the coming Earthrace passage the crew will be transiting a notoriously pirate strewn waters. During the last attempt Earthrace showed two blue lights and ran at full speed through the areas of highest pirate incidents attempting to appear like a military vessel thus hoping to bluff their way along. Without her swift speed Earthrace and crew may become more of a target for opportunistic predatory assaults.
The ground team is exhausted after the late arrival in Palau due to the long multi stop flights and then diving throughout the night in an effort to repair the stricken Earthrace. The ground team now must rush ahead of Earthrace to arrive in Singapore where they will investigate possible repair options.
In the 2007 race attempt the team successfully pulled the shaft and made repairs in less than 24 hours. It is possible with the right combination of skill, line handling and luck to pull the heavy 3 inch shaft and have repairs made in a short amount of time using the spare set of HyTorq props.
The real test will come after a full hull and engine inspection to see if any other damage occurred to the biodiesel powered Earthrace.
Specifically the team will be looking at the amount of bend in the shaft and if the many machine shops in Singapore can straighten the bow. The team will be inspecting for other damage. For example the P bracket on Earthrace is exposed and susceptible to damage along with the complete bottom of the hull.
Earthrace can travel at roughly 15-16 knots on a single engine. With her current lead Earthrace could continue along the race route on one engine still beat the Cable and Wireless record, but its a tall order.
by Scott Fratcher www.yachtwork.com 
Laverton, WA
