Leggi l’articolo in italiano
If things will work out, Team Britannia will set off on October 10. The aim is to conquer the globe-circumnavigation-record with a motorboat. The main characters will be: the 10 crew members, Team Britannia, a 80-foot-boat and , in the background, the 60 days, 23 hours and 49 minutes of Earthrace, the current record holder (who’d have thought that sailing and motor record are very similar: 57 days in the first case, 60 in the second one). Earthrace is that strange 78-foot-trimaran, bio-diesel powered, whose bows go through waves, which won the record in 2008 with 14 days in advance.
We said “if things will work out” because some financial troubles have delayed the project of a year. Now, they seem to have been solved thanks to the contribution of the Royal Foundation’s Endeavour Fund, a royal British foundation which supports former wounded soldiers ( 4 former soldiers will be onboard, on rotation).
The team is led by the veteran Alan Priddy who had its first try in 2002, with Spirit of Carfiff, and later in 2012 ( the shipyard where the first Team Britannia was being built was destroyed by a fire) but unsuccessfully.
The globe circumnavigation includes seven pit-stops for refuelling; at each stop the boat will be provided with 30,000 litres of fuel in only three minutes, during the which the engine will be on in order to save time. The fuel which will power the two Fiat 500 hp FPT C13 engines will be a blend of patrol and water. Water might seem a strange element, but, according to some studies conducted by the team in collaboration with SulNOx, water, or better oxygen and hydrogen, are powerful fuel if treated properly. Moreover, the mixture is eco-friendly since it burns off less carbon dioxide and nitric oxide than conventional fuel. So, Britannia will burn off 180 l/h at an average speed of 22 knots.
The boat, or better the superboat, will be a 80-foot-motorboat built in Great Britain and designed by Bob Cripps. The aim, in addition to conquering the record, is to contribute to make boat more “saving” in terms of fuel consumption. Moreover, Team Britannia is made of recycled aluminium (80%).
As regards the course, Uim (the international motorboating union) ha established some points for the record: the boat must pass through Suez, Panana, the Tropic of Cancer, Equator and it must set off and arrive at the same point anywhere in the world. Tean Britannia has decided to set off from Gibraltar.
