MA'ALAEA, Maui — Used cooking oil from Maui restaurants is helping fuel an attempt to break the around-the-world speed record for powerboats.
Pacific Biodiesel Inc. in Kahului processes the oil into biodiesel, and yesterday a tankerful of the stuff was pumped into the 78-foot trimaran Earthrace during its pit stop at Ma'alaea Harbor.
The sleek vessel motored into Maui at 5 p.m. after a five-day journey from San Diego. Skipper Pete Bethune said the 2,600-mile leg was "beautiful" and the Earthrace was able to hit speeds of up to 24 knots.
"The first day we had 3-foot seas but after that it was a following sea the whole way," said Bethune, a 41-year-old New Zealander.
The only glitch came Wednesday afternoon, about 500 miles from Hawai'i, when the boat became entangled in discarded fishing lines and ropes that looked as if they had been afloat in the ocean for years. "It shook the whole boat. There was a trail of nets and ropes clustered around the propeller shaft," he said.
The crew jumped into the water to cut away the mass, losing 15 minutes of travel time.
It was a relatively minor delay in a voyage that already is well off schedule because of a series of catastrophes that have befallen Earthrace since it departed Barbados on March 10 in an attempt to break the 75-day world circumnavigation record set by the British Cable and Wireless in 1988.
Propeller damage at its first stop in Panama cost the team two days, but it would get worse. On the second leg from Panama to Acapulco, Earthrace collided with a small, unlit fishing skiff just after midnight March 17, killing a fisherman and injuring another. Bethune was detained by Guatemalan authorities for 11 days until a court ruled the Earthrace was not liable for the accident.
The collision caused severe damage to the trimaran, which lost another six days in San Diego for major repairs before heading for Maui, the second-longest leg in its around-the-world itinerary. While at Ma'alaea, further maintenance was conducted to fix a vibration that has hampered the boat for some time.
After a four- to six-hour stop, the vessel was to leave for Majuro in the Marshall Islands. The delays have forced the team to reorganize fuel stops and logistical support.
Bethune said it's going to be tough to break the record now, but he isn't giving up so early in the race against time.
"You wouldn't be doing this if you weren't an optimist," he said.
The speed record isn't as important as the nonprofit organization's effort to promote renewable fuels such as biodiesel for transport uses and the need to conserve global resources, Bethune said. He is a former oil exploration engineer who co-founded the high-tech firm CamSensor Technologies Ltd., which makes automated cameras for performing robot control and automated quality control.
The unique vessel uses 100 percent biodiesel and was designed with a wave-piercing hull that allows it to submarine through waves and perform at high speeds in the world's toughest ocean conditions. The wave-piercing technology was originally formulated for passenger ferries and more recently has been applied to military craft.
Under race rules, the boat must pass through both the Suez and Panama canals and refueling can be done only in ports, not at sea. Because of the requirement to pass through the two canals, the fastest route lies near the equator for much of the journey.
The route continues from Hawai'i to Majuro and Koror in Micronesia; Singapore; the Maldives, southwest of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean; Port Aden in Yemen; Port Said, Egypt; Malaga, Spain; the Canary Islands and back to Barbados.
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