Circumnavigating: power vs sail

The time is getting close for the start of the Earthrace's attempt to beat the world record for racing around the world under power. According to this story they need to break the current time of 74 days 23 hours and 53 minutes set by Cable and Wireless Adventurer in 1998.

I've previously posted that the eco-benefits of biofuels are to say the least dubious, but at least it seemed they would be the fastest round. Now that is in doubt - as it could well be that sail remains faster than power.

For Ellen's time of around 71 days is quicker than C&W Adventurers's, and her record is currently being smashed by Francis Joyon on IDEC.

Look at his latest position from their web site:


Joyon is thousands of miles ahead of Ellen - nearly a week ahead. And his trip is truly the eco-friendly voyage, using not just wind for power but also solar panels for power.

This is sensational sailing - and he is alone, not able to go off watch like the crew of Earthrace.

Multi-hulls maybe out of the Olympics but there are showing their worth down in the southern oceans.

Holy Eco-boat Batman!

I took the river bus again home, which was fun, like this (only more fun, this was a slow bit):



Up by Chelsea Harbour saw what looked like Batman's speed boat:

This was Earthrace - in London for the Thames Festival (which very very unfortunately I will miss due to a business trip). As you can read here, she is a biofuel powered boat designed to race around the world.

While this sounds very eco friendly, I am very skeptical about current biofuels. They rely too much on primary crops such as grain or palm which dramatically increases humanity's need for land, leading to huge habit loss and likelihood of wide scale extinction (as described here).

If you want an eco-friendly race around the world there is really only one answer - use a sail!