Whale Warrior
“Pete is a man of action, and after the Ady Gil was sunk, he felt he had to do something, so he took what he felt was the appropriate action and boarded the other vessel in an attempt to peacefully present the captain of the Shonan Maru #2 with a letter of complaint about the incident
“It’s subsequently become clear that Pete made the right choice. There can’t have been many occasions where a vessel hits and sinks another vessel in the full glare of the media spotlight where one of the captains is arrested, held prisoner and left facing a potential 15 year sentence in jail, whilst the other has yet to be officially questioned about his actions.“
The Shonan Maru #2 was certainly the bigger boat, but Pete is the bigger man. It never seemed right that Pete was in jail and I congratulate the Japanese court for making the correct decision and sending him home. Keeping a man like Pete in jail would have been a crime against humanity in itself. As to whether there will ever be another ‘Ady Gil’, we’ll have to wait and see.”
Ady Gil II Design Spec
Max speed: 35 knots
Cruise speed 30 knots
Range: 5000nm at 12 knots
build price <US$10m
Helipad
Crew: 20
Accommodation: 2 x luxury double cabins, 1 x captains cabin, 2 x 8 berth crew cabins
Dive locker
Workshop
Wet lab
Editing suite
50 person theatre for open days / sponsor functions
large upper deck for sponsor functions
20,000 watt stereo
9m 50 knot RIB on deck – drive on / drive off
2 x 260 hp jet skis on gantry
Low draught for rivers / coastal work (< 1.5m)
Protected props or waterjets
Toughened hull
Military specification on construction materials
Gotta look badass
Stealth panel construction for low radar signature
3 x toilets / showers.
Laundry
Dive compressor with nitro capability
Large freezer / fridge / dry store
Suited to ocean passages
5 metre dive platform for doing bombs
Ady Gil II gona be the baddest!
By Pete Bethune
Anti-whaling activist Pete Bethune is developing a new multi-million dollar high-speed trimaran to replace the Ady Gil, which could be patrolling the world's waters chasing down poachers.
Mr Bethune, who spent four months in Japanese prison this year after taking part in a bitter anti-whaling protests in the Southern Ocean, which saw the Ady Gil sunk after colliding with a Japanese whaler, said he spent time in prison thinking about requirements for a vessel to work solely on marine conservation.
Mr Bethune built the biodiesel-powered Ady Gil, formerly known as Earthrace, and set a world record for a circumnavigation of the world in a power boat in 2008.
However, it was not ideal for conservation work and the new design would see a much bigger Ady Gil II - 40 to 45m long - carrying up to 20 crew and able to carry a 9m inflatable speedboat.
It could cost up to $US10 million, more than three times the original Earthrace.
It would have "a fair bit of Earthrace character in it" in that it would be a tri-hull, but with the central accommodation area going out over the hulls, he said.
Mr Bethune has posted an image of the new boat on his Facebook page, although it would probably change in development.
He said it would "effectively be built as per the military pursuit boats", a much tougher vessel and be able to chase down poachers.
Mr Bethune had given his concept to Auckland naval architecture and yacht design firm Lomocean Design, the same designers who worked on Earthrace.
The new boat, which would probably be biodiesel-powered, could take six months to design and two years to build, which could see it launched in 2013.
Mr Bethune said such a boat, with the backing of local authorities, could make a real dent in poaching operations around the world, such as yellow fin tuna poachers around Fiji.
"There are many countries around the globe who know that their waters are being raped all the time and they are powerless to do anything."
Mr Bethune said the boat would not operate under the Sea Shepherd banner -- which ran the Southern Ocean protests and who he later fell out with -- but he was looking for backers.
"At this stage I am just putting out the feelers to see, can I get a boat to meet these specs, what's it going to cost us to build and once I get those I'll look to see how we go funding it."
Mr Bethune, who since returning from prison in Japan, has finished his book Whale Warrior, said the new boat would not break the rules of his suspended sentence in Japan.
However, he did admit to breaking one of the conditions of his sentence on Friday during worldwide anti whaling protests.
"I took two steps into the Japanese Embassy in Wellington at the protest and I am banned from Japanese soil for five years.
He said he had permission to deliver a petition and admitted he knew he was stepping on to Japanese soil.
"I did go breaking the thing but I don't think they were too fussed by it. They never mentioned it and I wasn't arrested."