Following a biodiesel flood during the Atlantic crossing, the Earthrace biodiesel-powered boat continued on its second attempt to circumnavigate using nothing but the biofuel as power. The troubled ship is still having its share of problems (like losing an engine near the Marshall Islands - PDF), but, as Domestic Fuel puts it, is still limping towards the world record. It won't be easy.

After leaving Palau, the ship hit some sea debris, the captain writes on his blog (can't link to individual entries, so scroll down to the entry from June 3rd), and "just a few hundred metres from the safety of open water. Then completely out of the blue, Earthrace suddenly lurches as we hit something, and in a split second, I go from being on top of the world, to the bottom of it." The hit ended up damaging the port propeller and (likely) the drive shaft. The ship is scheduled to be repaired in Singapore this week, but the record - while still possible - is getting less and less likely.


[Source: Earthrace blog via Domestic Fuel]

At the end of April, the biodiesel-powered Earthrace boat left Spain on its second attempt to set a record for round-the-world sailing using biofuel. The Atlantic crossing did present a few difficulties, with a toilet backing up, a small pool of biodiesel flooding the sleeping quarters and high waves making for slow going. Still, the boat should now be in Puerto Rico, according to the New Zealand Herald and had traveled 6651 km as of noon Monday. It's speed heading into San Juan was 43 km/hour and the average so far was 37 km/hour. Once the boat takes on more biodiesel in Puerto Rico, the next leg of the journey is 1857 km to Panama and then through the Panama Canal and on to the Pacific. So far, the team's target record is still very achievable.


[Source: New Zealand Herald]

If at first you don't succeed, why not try again with a bit of your own fat in the engine? The biodiesel-powered Earthrace boat is ready to set off on its second around-the-world attempt today, according to Motor Boats Monthly. The badass trimaran departs from Spain's Sagunto at 1 pm today (local time) and will try to circle the globe in record time. The current record is 75 days and was set by the British boat Cable & Wireless in 1998, Stuff.co.nz reports.

In addition, Stuff.co.nz says that skipper Pete Bethune said he is fully aware of the recent spate of bad news regarding biofuels and said, "We spend almost as much time highlighting the negative aspects of biofuels." The team's first crack at sailing around the world on biodiesel ended in defeat almost exactly a year ago (April 30) following a number of setbacks and one deadly accident. Here's hoping the new attempt sees better luck.

[Source: Motor Boats Monthly, Stuff.co.nz]