'Earthrace 200 miles from Singapore' TracPlus

On April 27th, 38 days ago, the 78 foot bio-diesel fuelled trimaran Earthrace left Sagunto, north of Valencia in Spain, aiming to break the 1998 Round the World record of 75 days, set by the British Cable & Wireless team.

Tonight she is just 200 nautical miles from Singapore, two third of the way round the globe.

It's been a tough week for the Earthrace crew. Soon after she left Palau, 800 miles east of the Philippines last weekend, Earthrace hit a submerged object snapping blades off her port propeller and bending her port drive shaft.

As repairs were not possible on that remote Micronesian Island, New Zealand skipper Bethune decided to head 2,200 miles to the next stop-over point, Singapore, for repairs, on just one engine.

Over the last few days, the speed of Earthrace has been gradually increasing as she burns fuel.

In the last 24 hours she had travelled 418 miles at an average of 17.4 knots. By the time she slides into the busy port city, she will be an amazing 3,000 nautical miles ahead of the pace needed to set a new Round the World powerboat record.

However all is not rosy. until the boat reaches Singapore the degree of shaft and hull damage she has suffered is unknown.

Speaking from New Zealand in the last hour Scott Fratcher, who played a key part of the 2007 Earthrace attempt, said 'there are big challenges ahead.'

'If the Earthrace team can remove the bent port drive shaft while the boat remains in the water, as we did in San Diego during the 2007 record attempt, that will save a lot of time.'

This will be a difficult task as the critical bracket P that the drive shaft has to be pass through suffered some degree of impact damage during the collision in Palau.

'The long end of the shaft must not hang on the P bracket at all or it is likely to lever it free from the hull. If this happens then a major hull repair will be needed and this could cost Earthrace valuable days.

'While in the water, the heavy drive shaft has to slide through the cutlass bearing in perfect line (or it will wedge).

'If the shaft wedges a diver in the water has to call the direction for the lines to be tightened or slackened to get the shaft back in line. If they call it wrong the load will pass to the P bracket, maybe breaking it.'

Perhaps the shaft can be straightened, otherwise an entirely new shaft will have to be machined and refitted. No matter what it is looking like a challenging and expensive stopover. With the Earthrace team now in 'unfunded' territory, the latest problem has prompted an appeal from Bethune for assistance in paying for these major repairs.

Earthrace is now just hours from Singapore, approaching from the northwest and she should arrive around 2200-2300GMT Thursday, or Friday 5-6am local time.

The crew will then prepare for a long day dockside as they assess the damage and decide on a course of action.

Updates will be provided as the day unfolds.

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