KEY POINTS:
The ill-starred Earthrace trimaran, the New Zealand boat seeking to set a round-the-world record, arrived in Cochin, India, early yesterday to discover the project is desperately short of cash.
A project engineer, Scott Fratcher, said on the Earthrace website that the project's voyage manager, New Zealander John Allen, had told him the $3 million project was "falling apart".
Mr Fratcher said there was less than $1300 cash left to fly crew to meet the boat at refuelling stops in the bid for the record.
It has to reach San Diego by June 21 to beat the 74-day mark.
"We have the fuel, but don't have the final few dollars to fly the ground crew to the next few points of the race," said Mr Fratcher.
"If the ground crew cannot arrange customs, immigration and fuel before Earthrace arrives she will have long pit stops and never make the record".
He planned to appeal for donations on the website, or try to sell ride-along "crew" positions on the boat in a bid to raise about $21,000.
Mr Fratcher said the boat's captain, Aucklander Pete Bethune, had described the 3704km voyage from Singapore as "rough and miserable".
- NZPA