With some experience dinghy sailing driving powerboats and navigation Emma’s main contribution is event management.

“There’s eight on board at the moment, while we’re doing open days you need quite a lot more people than usual to help out, there’s only four beds, it’s pretty crowded in there.

“We often get adopted by people when we come to little places like Bermagui,” she said.

Describing the days on board Earthrace Emma said, “you drive for six hours a day in two separate three hour shifts, sleep for eight hours a day, drink cups of tea, chat, solve the world’s problems, read a lot of books.”

Talking about some of their travels Emma said they crossed the Atlantic in beautifully smooth conditions over 14 days from Lisbon to Puerto Rico.

“We also did 14 days from Galapagos to Tahiti through the Pacific, that was 3,700 miles which is the longest journey that the boats actually done,” she said.

Earthrace started her attempt to set a new world speed record for a powerboat to circle the globe from Vulkan Shipyard, Sagunto, Spain on Sunday, April 27, 2008 and crossed the finish line on Friday, June 27, 2008.

The previous record was set by UK boat ‘Cable and Wireless Adventurer’ in 1998 and was accomplished in 74 days 20 hours 58 minutes and 30 seconds.

Earthrace smashed the record by almost 14 days, completing almost 24,000

nautical miles in just 60 days, 23 hours and 49 minutes.

Everything you wanted to know about Earthrace

Earthrace, the world’s fastest eco-boat, has smashed the world speed record for a powerboat to circumnavigate the globe, completing the journey in 60 days, 23 hours 49 minutes, and knocking almost 14 days off the previous record.

Earthrace runs 100 per cent biodiesel, which reduces CO2 emissions by around 78 per cent compared with conventional diesel. The antifoul (underwater paint) is completely non-toxic rather than the iso-cyanate and heavy metal compounds favored by most boat builder’s which means the crew needs to clean the hull more often than conventional boats. It runs a boat crew of four to five people but can race with up to six.

Earthrace is the first boat in the world to use hemp composite, which is visible on the floor of the helm. The hull shape is extremely efficient, reducing fuel consumption and some of the lubricants used are from renewable sources. The bilge water is pumped through special reusable filters to remove any petroleum product before it is pumped overboard.

The top speed of Earthrace is around 40 knots (46 mph). When Earthrace attempted to break the ‘Round the World Speed Record’ however, the goal was to do 20-25 knots (23-29 mph).

Earthrace is a wave-piercing trimaran. It has three hulls, all designed to go through waves rather than over them. It is also referred to as a stabilized mono-hull designed to have up to 7m (24ft) of water on top of the windscreen. The windscreen is 17mm (3/4”) toughened laminate. It is effectively two 8mm (1/3”) panes of toughened glass, sandwiched together with special resin making it extremely strong and resilient

The hull is made from sandwich composites. This involves 40mm of Diab foam core, sandwiched on the inside between three layers of carbon (which allows the boat to be strong and incredibly light), and on the outside between three layers of carbon, one of Kevlar (which gives the hull outstanding impact resistance, and one of e-glass (which is used as very thin fairing layer).

The wave piercing is controlled by pumping up to 2.5 tons of water into a special ballast tank in the bow. The more water in the bow and the faster the boat is traveling, the more it pierces.

In trials around New Zealand, Earthrace was twice tested in 12m (40ft) breaking waves. The first was in the Cook Strait with 80 knot (90 mph) winds, and the second was during a storm off the west coast of New Zealand, which saw the boat tested in extreme conditions with huge seas from various directions.

The boat came through unscathed. But for the crew, it is a bombardment of the senses, with violent motions as the boat buries deep inside waves, noise from the waves as they crash overhead, engines roaring, darkness as the boat enters a wave then light as it comes out the other side. All crew agreed that it was the scariest thing they had ever experienced.

Earthrace was built in New Zealand by Calibre Boats who specialize in high-tech composite boatbuilding.

It was launched on February 24, 2006, and began sea trials in May that year. Construction took 14 months and over 18,000 hours of labour. And there is always more work to do to keep the boat in top performance condition!

The horns enable ventilation of the engine bay. The upper duct takes warm air from around the engines and releases it outside, while the lower duct takes cool fresh air from outside to the base of the engine bay. This works via a convection cycle.

Fuel tanks are located under the floor in the galley, helm and sleeping quarters. No fuel is carried in the sponsons (outriggers). Earthrace carries 11,500 litres (3,000 gallons) of fuel (one quarter in the day tank and three-quarters in the main tank). So you need to call the bank manager before you fill this boat up!

At 25 knots (29 mph), Earthrace will travel 14,000 nautical miles (16,122 miles) before refueling, which is half way around the world.

Earthrace runs two standard Cummins Mercruiser QSC-540 engines. These were chosen because of their low emissions and the high power to weight ration. The QSC-540 uses common rail, a technology that substantially improves fuel-efficiency and performance while reducing emissions. If you ever buy a diesel vehicle, ensure it has common rail!

If the boat ever gets turned over, it’s difficult for the crew to evacuate, due to the hatches being underwater. The evacuation procedure is to use the axe in the forward sleeping quarters to cut a hole in the side of the vessel large enough to fit the life raft through. The boat is not self-righting, but it will take at least 24 hours to sink.

The outriggers (known as ‘sponsons’) have virtually nothing in them. They are a series of sealed compartments that cannot be accessed. The sponsons provide stability that allow the central hull to be very tall giving Earthrace a fantastic fuel capacity.

The LED-based lights throughout Earthrace can be switched between red and white but are generally left on red. When human eyes are exposed to white light the pupils close up, reducing effectiveness at night but when exposed to red light the pupils remain dilated, improving night vision.

Earthrace cost about $3 million to build.

Earthrace has no shower, so after a few days at sea everything starts to smell...and after a week, it stinks! The crew generally doesn’t notice as they live in the environment 24 hours a day, but they do get some noses turned up when they arrive in port after long voyages. Any really reeking crew gets thrown overboard for a wash.

Inia Taylor a fifth generation Maori tattooist designed the boats graphics in New Zealand. The symbol on the horns represents the environment, with positive and negative changes happening because of man’s influence. The bow graphic is a Taiaha (Maori spear), which symbolises strength, power and speed.