KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's $3 million high-tech trimaran Earthrace has been crippled on the first leg of its global record bid by state-of-the-art propellers which are disintegrating.
The carbon propellers - designed by a German company for submarines - were fitted to Earthrace shortly before its departure from the Barbados.
Their failure may mean the bid for a new round-the-world powerboat record may have to be abandonned.
More than 12 hours after the boat was supposed to have arrived in Colon to start its journey through the Panama Canal, the boat was still limping towards Panama, with the 91cm diameter blades disintegrating.
The propellers - intended to offer reduced vibration and better efficiency compared with conventional propellers - started to fail just 16 hours into the record bid.
They started causing vibration and after an hour Earthrace skipper Pete Bethune inspected them with a dive light.
"We were staggered by the damage," he said. "All the blades have sections where the carbon is peeling away, and the entire leading edge of one blade is coming to bits."
The team said it appeared to be primarily cavitation damage, where bubbles form along the edges and tips of the propellers, gradually eating into the fibre, "although why it has happened so quickly on Earthrace remains a mystery".
Earthrace left Barbados at 1.06am on Sunday (NZT) to travel just 1250 nautical miles - about 2250km - to Panama, but at 7pm yesterday tracking software on a sponsor's website showed it still labouring past the border of Venezuela and Colombia.
"The boat has been forced to almost abandon the attempt," Earthrace organisers said.
Boat speed had dropped from the planned 25 knots to 12 knots and the crew were nursing the vessel towards Panama.
"Right now, the priority is to just get safely into port, and we are concerned these blades will come to bits before we make it," said Bethune. "We're devastated."
Earthrace organisers are considering a number of options, and will decide in a day or two whether the record attempt will continue, and if so, with what propeller technology.
The boat is being fuelled by biodiesel for the "race", which is an attempt to beat the record set by British boat Cable & Wireless in 1998, when that diesel-powered craft covered the 24,382 nautical miles in just under 75 days.
The Earthrace crew aim to complete the voyage in less than 65 days. It would be the first time an official UIM Powerboat record will be held by a vessel using renewable fuel.
- NZPA
