![]()
One of the feature attractions at next weekend's Field Days at Mystery Creek near Hamilton, will be the world's fastest bio-fuelled powerboat.
Earthrace and her skipper Pete Bethune have returned home for the first time since smashing the world record for circumnavigating the globe in a powerboat.
The voyage around the world has not left her unscathed and the waters of the Waikato River have not made it any easier for her especially through a section known as "the narrows".
According to Mr Bethune, the rapid-like waters of the narrows provided a real test for Earthrace. She scraped her bow on the banks of the river and had to be dragged off by the coastguard.
"It's pretty battle-scarred now," he says. "When I look around the boat I see, 'Oh yeah, that was Guatemala, that was Panama, that was a log off Borneo.' There's lots of scars on this boat."
However Raglan coastguard Dameon Govind believes the return voyage back down the river could be even riskier.
"If we tow from the bow, we are looking at possibly having to tow at a faster rate than the river, which could very easily lose control," he says. "So we're thinking we might actually put the vessel at the stern of Earthrace as a brake."
Mr Bethune says that Earthrace has been a positive influence in the promotion of bio-fuels overseas, but New Zealand is lagging way behind.
"I can’t do any more, we need the Government to come in and provide some leadership here and they are providing none," he says. "They are just spineless at the moment. They just rolled over to the oil industry and got rid of the bio-fuels bill."
And Earthrace's voyages may still be far from over. Mr Bethune says he is considering joining a Sea Shepherds group in the fight against Japanese whalers in the Antarctic.
"If we do piece it together, I'm not going down there to throw stink bombs. I'm gonna go down there and really disrupt their operations," he says.
Mr Bethune admits Earthrace is not spick and span at the moment, but what else would you expect from a ship that has been around the world in record time.
The vessel will be open to the public at the Field Days this weekend, which leaves little time for cleaning up.
3 News
source: newshub archive
