by John Allen

The Earthrace one hundred percent biodiesel boat project is the brainchild of New Zealander Pete Bethune, a former oil exploration engineer. After leaving the oil industry, while completing an MBA in Australia, Pete wrote an essay on renewable fuels. The more he got into the subject, the more he believed that renewable fuels should comprise more of our transport mix.
Around the same time, he saw a video clip of an old mono-hull landing craft with a unique design that allowed the boat to pierce through waves, rather than ride over them. He also stumbled across a website that governs world powerboat records (www.uimpowerboating.com), where he learned that the record for circumnavigation of the globe by a powerboat is 75 days.
By tying these three somewhat unrelated ideas together, Pete began exploring the possibility of breaking the world record by building his wave-piercing boat. It would be the first time that an official powerboat record would be attempted by a boat running entirely on a renewable fuel. (Biodiesel is made from cooking grease, animals fats and vegetable oils.)
The cost of building such a boat from scratch was significant and prohibitive, and Pete, not a wealthy man, started looking for sponsorship. After knocking on many doors, an Australian company eventually offered funding for the entire project of $2.2 million. However the company’s proviso was that that the boat had to run on normal petro fuel. After much soul searching, Pete turned down the offer, as the whole point of the exercise was to promote the use of renewable fuels; the attempt to break the record was secondary. After all Pete’s efforts, it was a disappointing and difficult time.
By now however, Pete had already spent approx $72,000 of his own and didn’t want to keep throwing money into a seemingly bottomless pit. Then, just as it appeared the project was going no further, he got a call from a diesel engine manufacturer. The company had heard about the project and decided to sponsor the cost of the two engines for the boat. Word then got around about the project and Pete ultimately managed to borrow enough money – approximately $1.1 million – from friends and banks, and also obtained sufficient sponsorship of products and services to complete the boat in February of 2006.
Earthrace is a spectacular wave-piercing trimaran and there is nothing like her in the world. In June, she completed a two-month promotional tour around New Zealand, visiting 20 ports. The tour also served as an extended sea trial and the boat performed brilliantly.
From August 1-3, Earthrace will be docked at Granville Island in Vancouver, as part of a six-month promotional tour of the US and Canada which includes 30 cities. After leaving Vancouver, the boat will head south, through the Panama Canal and up the east coast of the US. After that, it will travel through the St. Lawrence Seaway and into the Great Lakes, before motoring down the Mississippi to New Orleans.
The purpose of the promotional tour is to raise awareness of renewable fuels, and also to allow the Canadian and US public an opportunity to view and become involved with a remarkable boat and project. Organizers are also looking at raising money through donations to help pay off some or all of the loans and to help fund the world record attempt.
Lastly, it is also the group’s intention to meet lots of wonderful people and have a good time. The Earthrace crew is made up entirely of volunteers by necessity. They are an enthusiastic and dedicated bunch who genuinely care about the environment and who fully intend to see this project succeed.
Following the US/Canada tour, in March of 2007 Earthrace will have a crack at the round-the-world record. After it smashes that record, it will undertake similar promotional tours in Europe and Asia, before returning to New Zealand in 2008. Earthrace will be donated to the New Zealand Maritime Museum, where she can be suitably displayed and enjoyed by the public as the unique story of maritime history that she will undoubtedly become.
John Allen is the voluntary operations manager for Earthrace. john@earthrace.net www.earthrace.net (Editor’s note: Biodiesel is much cleaner than its fossil fuel equivalent. Diesel engines produce cancer-causing particulates but bio-diesels produce about half those of a regular petro-diesel engine. Both land-based and marine biodiesel technology await a breakthrough in catalytic converters which can remove particulates.)