Round the world record attempt to be based in Limassol
Project Full Circle (PFC) the multi-million euro bid to break the UIM round the world powerboat record to be based in Limassol, Cyprus.
The announcement was made on Friday 24th May 2024 by Vassilios Demetriades, the project’s Global Ambassador and Nikiforos Pampakas, the General Manager of the Limassol marina during the Limassol Boat Show.
The deal will mean the marina will become the official homebase for the project’s 80ft (24 meter) superboat and act as the starting and finishing point for the record attempt, which will be launched next year.
Nikiforos Pampakas, commented: “Limassol Marina is proud to announce its support for the Project Full Circle challenge, as host marina and project partner. Collaboration with an exciting world-record challenge such as the Project Full Circle, Advanced Fuel Development circumnavigation, aligns with the Marina’s sustainability strategy, and offers the opportunity for a fantastic programme of educational activity for the community in Cyprus.”
Vassilios Demetriades, added: “I am delighted to bring our exciting project to Limassol. Not only do we have the record attempt itself, but we will be demonstrating a new hybrid fuel, that has the potential to revolutionise how the commercial maritime sector is powered. The hybrid fuel, utilises state of the art technology to produce a fuel that dramatically cuts pollution and would allow the sector to reach the IMO’s 2030 goals today and move rapidly toward the 2050 goals.”
The vessel is a completely new design from Professor Bob Cripps, former Technical Director of VT Halmatic. Made out of marine-grade aluminium it encompasses an exceptionally efficient hull, to make the superboat incredibly stable and reduce fuel consumption by up to 30 per cent.
In addition to the vessel’s innovative design, Project Full Circle has joined forces with Advanced Fuel Development to showcase a revolutionary hybrid fuel - a mixture of MGO, 35 per cent water and an emulsifying agent, which then uses patented technology to inject hydrogen into the mixture. This creates a fuel that dramatically cuts harmful emissions and meets the IMO’s 2030 standards, without any loss of power. Importantly this technology can be used on almost any diesel engine, with only minor modifications, potentially delivering a game changing moment in the marine industry’s quest to cut pollution.
Finally, the whole project’s carbon footprint will be offset by planting seagrass. Seagrass captures carbon up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, accounting for 10-18 per cent of total ocean carbon storage despite covering less than 0.1 per cent of the seafloor. Seagrass can also help protect coastlines from damaging storms and erosion through dampening the force of waves and is very effective at removing pollutants from our waters.
Importantly, the vessel will be equipped with an array of monitors and sensors, which will provide real time data on the performance of the engines and emissions beamed back via satellite to its HQ in Limassol thanks to the PFC’s communications partner, YachtProjects International. This data, along with a micro-plastic testing programme will form part of PFC’s comprehensive education programme, that is designed to provide young people a better understanding of mankind’s impact on the world’s oceans.
The micro-plastic testing programme will see the ship’s crew take sea waters samples at regular intervals and analysed for both the plastic content and other pollutants using the onboard laboratory. All the results will then be published to form a unique 360-degree map of ocean pollution.
This data will be made available open source, while the water samples will be sent back to the University of Portsmouth’s world leading marine research department for further study.
To break the world record, currently 60 days, 23 hours and 49 minutes, the team must pass through the Suez and Panama Canals and start and finish in the same place. This will see the vessel cover a distance of 24,130 nautical miles (44,689 km).
ENDS