Ady Gil
 The Ady Gil in December 2009
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The Ady Gil , formerly Earthrace , was a 23.7 meter long trimaran that ran on biodiesel . The boat was built from January 2005 to February 2006 by Caliber Boats in New Zealand on behalf of skipper Pete Bethune for a motor-driven attempt to circumnavigate the world record . The construction comes from the Craig Loomis Design Group.
The boat sank in January 2010.
construction
The shell of the boat was made of plastic reinforced with carbon and aramid fibers . The hull was "wave-piercing", so shaped that it could pierce waves instead of cutting them like a conventional bow. In rough seas , the boat could therefore dive at full speed through waves up to seven meters high without the usual ascent and descent .
The boat was propelled by two 400 kW Cummins diesels to the right and left of the companionway, which could accelerate it to a maximum speed of 45 knots (83.3 km / h). In order to reduce the weight, the interior was spartan. With a maximum of 10,000 liters of fuel on board, the ship had a range of 3000 nautical miles .
The ship was converted for use with Sea Shepherd . The shell has been reinforced with four to eight layers of aramid for use in the Antarctic. A black, radar-absorbing paint should make it easier to get closer to the whaling fleet.
history
development
During the development process, a 6.7 meter long ship with an outboard engine was built. Driving tests were carried out with the model in order to examine and further develop the concept. Earthrace's manufacturing cost was $ 2.5 million, half of which was financed by skipper and owner Bethune. Bethune previously worked in the oil business as an engineer. After completion, the Earthrace went on a world tour in 2006, during which it was accessible to the public in different ports.
World circumnavigation record
The first record attempt in 2007 was broken off after material damage and a collision of the Earthrace with an unlit fishing boat off the Guatemalan coast in March 2007, in which a fisherman drowned. The crew of the speedboat was acquitted of guilt for the accident.
In the second record attempt in 2008, the crew managed to circumnavigate the world in 60 days, 23 hours and 49 minutes and thus undercut the existing record for motor-driven ships by 14 days. She covered a distance of 24,000 nautical miles - approximately 44,500 km - at an average speed of 31.5 km / h and drove through both the Panama and Suez Canal . The 115,000 liters of biodiesel fuel required were financed by a Portuguese sponsor and previously brought to the ports of the twelve stopovers. The world circumnavigation record for sailing ships according to the rules of the Jules Verne Trophy is around 45.5 days.
Use at Sea Shepherd
Since October 2009 the boat has been supporting the animal welfare organization Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in the fight against whaling by Japanese fishermen in the Antarctic . The ship was owned by industrialist Ady Gil, a Hollywood lighting contractor, for $ 1 million. Pete Bethune remained as captain on the ship, which was renamed Ady Gil after the new owner .
In use, the escort ship Shonan Maru 2 of the Japanese whaling fleet collided on January 6, 2010 with the Ady Gil near the Commonwealth Bay at 64 ° 1 ′ 49.5 ″ S , 143 ° 5 ′ 22.6 ″ E 2,300 kilometers south of Tasmania. The Shonan Maru 2 overran the Ady Gil - deliberately according to Sea Shepherd's interpretation - and cut off a 4.50 meter long section of the bow . The six crew members, one Australian, one Dutch and four New Zealanders, could be picked up by the Bob Barker , another Sea Shepherd ship.
The Bob Barker tried to tow the Ady Gil to the French research station Dumont d'Urville, 36 to 48 hours away . The boat was abandoned after 37 kilometers and sank at 3:30 a.m. on January 8th. Peter Bethune testified in October 2010 that Paul Watson ordered the sinking of the still functional Ady Gil to get the public on his side.
One crew member suffered a broken rib in the collision. Sea Shepherd and the Japanese whalers blame each other for the incident, which has been investigated by New Zealand and Australian authorities. Australian Senator Bob Brown sent a $ 2 million bill to the Japanese embassy. On February 15, 2010, the captain of the Ady Gil , Pete Bethune, boarded the ship of the Japanese whaling fleet, the Shonan Maru 2 , from a jet ski , in order to deliver the captain a bill for three million dollars for the loss of the Ady Gil . Bethune was arrested on the ship and transferred to Tokyo . There he was on remand and charged with piracy . He was sentenced to two years probation and expelled from the country.
The Ady Gil was accompanied in the campaigns against whaling as part of the documentary Whale Wars ( Animal Planet ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Popular Mechanics: Earthrace! , June 2007 (English).
- ↑ a b Anti-whalers Sea Shepherd buy record-holding powerboat ( Memento from February 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
- ↑ Video documentation about the Earthrace (English)
- ↑ Eric Lacitis: Strange watercraft visits Seattle ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) , The Seattle Times, August 5, 2006 (English)
- ↑ Sandra-Valeska Bruhns: Around the world in record time with the eco-speedboat , Welt Online, July 6, 2008
- ^ The French sail around the world in record time , Spiegel Online, January 7, 2012
- ↑ a b Whalers destroy high-tech ship of environmental activists , Spiegel Online, January 6, 2010
- ↑ Peter Millar: Ady Gil downed by Japanese whalers In: The Sunday Times , January 10, 2010 (English).
- ↑ 'Whale Wars' Star - I Didn't Sink That Boat , TMZ Online, January 16, 2013
- ↑ a b Tim Schwabedissen: Maritime Emergencies Archive January 2010 , European Sailing Information System, January 2010
- ^ "Ady Gil" sunk in Antarctica ( Memento from January 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Tagesschau.de, January 8, 2010, accessed on August 14, 2012.
- ↑ Bethune quits Sea Shepherd over lies. In: Newshub. MediaWorks, October 6, 2010, accessed July 6, 2018 .
- ↑ Ady Gil sinks after whaling skirmish , ABC News, January 8, 2010 (English)
- ↑ Ben Packham, Alison Rehn: Ady Gil promises to rebuild Sea Shepherd's boat , news.com.au, January 9, 2010 (English)
- ↑ Bernd Musch-Borowska: New Zealand now for commercial whaling after all ( Memento from April 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) . In: tagesschau.de, April 3, 2010
- ^ The Irish Times: Activists who exposed sale of whale meat convicted , Sept. 7, 2010