1:37 AM Sat 24 Oct 2009 GMT
The 78 foot biodiesel powered wave piercing trimaran Earthrace holds the round the world powerboat speed record of a little over 60 days. Now she is headed off for a new adventure.
At a fundraising event in Los Angeles last week the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society unveiled their newest 'ocean defense' vessel: the Ady Gil. It is that same Earthrace, now renamed to honor the US benefactor who helped the anti-whaling group acquire the ship.
The transformation of the Earthrace/Gil from a world-record holding speedboat to an anti-whaling vessel has been significant.
The Ady Gil is 24-metres overall (78') with an 8.0-metre (24') beam. Her construction began back in February, 2005, from a design by the Craig Loomes Design Group with Auckland-based Calibre Boats undertaking the build.
She carries 12,000 litres (3000 gals) fuel, has a dry weight of 14 tonnes and a fully loaded weight of 26 tonnes. The boat is built from carbon and Kevlar sandwich composites, now reinforced at waterline level to prevent iceberg floater damage.
Power for 'Earthrace/Gil' comes from a pair of turbocharged and inter-cooled. Cummins MerCruiser Diesel engines, each developing 540hp.Gearboxes are 305A single speed units from ZF, with forward, neutral and reverse.
Four-bladed bronze propellers by Hy-Torque, give 'Earthrace' a top speed in the region of 40 knots at 3000rpm. Throttle back to a 25 knot cruise speed and the engines run at an easy 1950rpm.
With the new radar blocking black paint job and a few additional high-tech goodies now installed, it looks like the ship is ready to join the Irwin for Operation Waltzing Matilda this December.
'We're very excited that the Ady Gil will be joining the Steve Irwin in Antarctica this campaign,' Captain Paul Watson said. 'With these two ships, we will mount the most ambitious and aggressive effort to date to obstruct the slaughter of the whales in the Southern Ocean.'
As expected, Watson made it clear that he intends to place the Gil in harms way - particularly as an 'intercept and blocking' weapon against the Japanese fleet. Sounds like a risky game of 'chicken' - but Ady Gil Captain New Zealander Pete Bethune is ready for the challenge.' If they ever hit us with an explosive harpoon it'll be massive damage,' 'But certainly we'll do our best to get in their way. If they hit us it will always be their guy that pulled the trigger - but hopefully things won't come to that.'
by Powerboat-world and Seashepherd
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Macquarie Island, TAS
