Go Team Britannia!

Twelve-strong crew’s record bid in 80-footer

Team Britannia is due to set off from Gibraltar on 23 October to try and set a new world record for circumnavigating the globe.

Veteran adventurer Alan Priddy hopes to smash the current 60-day record, set by New Zealander Pete Bethune in Earthrace. The team is using a new semi-wave-slicing 80ft monohull designed by Professor Bob Cripps, the naval architect behind many of the RNLI’S current fleet of lifeboats.

It will be powered by a revolutionary fuel emulsion, a mixture of 90% diesel and 10% desalinated water bonded together by an emulsifying agent. The new fuel has been developed by Clean Fuel Ltd to reduce harmful emissions such as particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, and can be burned in conventional diesel engines.

Team Britannia is using a pair of stock FPT 500hp engines giving it a top speed of 12-33 knots depending on the fuel load in its 40,000-litre tanks. The current record was set at an average speed of just 16.1 knots.

The Aluminium Boatbuilding Company built the 80ft-long boat in Hayling Island, Hampshire. It will be manned by a 12-strong crew made up of experienced powerboat racers and injured veterans. Seven fuel stops are planned on the 23,000-mile voyage.

The design aims to be the fastest and most fuelefficient powerboat to circumnavigate the globe