(fused)

A biodiesel-powered trimaran has just completed the fastest round the world trip in a speedboat, breaking the previous record by an amazing 14 days.

Braving pirates, storms and floating logs, the team made it all the way around the world on recycled cooking fat, arriving back at a Spanish port yesterday. I guess this isn’t really sailing, as I categorized it, but it’s close.

It took the EarthRace team 11 minutes short of 61 days to get around, breaking the previous record set by Cable and Wireless Adventurer a decade ago. The team comprises of two Britons, a New Zealander and a Swede, with Pete Bethune, the New Zealander, as the skipper. It is his second attempt.

The EarthRace left on the 21st of April, and immediately ran into troubled waters, the autopilot broke, meaning the boat had to be steered 24 hours a day, and fresh food supplies were left behind.

The EarthRace boat has a clever design, which means that instead of bouncing over waves and slowing down, it cuts through them, maintaining speed, but making it a very rocky ride, and much more difficult to control. There’s a picture I found on the Guardian website below.

I guess all thats left to be said is a huge well done to the crew, who battled massive problems, and still made it.