Global tech company celebrates partnership with record-breaking endurance powerboat team

ZF Services UK will once again support endurance power boat team 54Knots as they attempt another record-breaking effort, this time to circumnavigate the British Isles with its purpose-built prototype racer, Thunder Child II.

The Jersey-based Thunder Child II and its eight-strong 54Knots crew, headed up by team principal Nick Ogden, scooped five world records in June this year after covering 4,000 nautical miles over 17 days, at times experiencing very rough seas. 

With £15,000 fundraised so far, the 54Knots team are now looking to raise even more money for Blood Cancer UK and Leukaemia Research with their next challenge, helped along the way by four ZF 325 twin-speed gearboxes.

Kevin Whalley, marine business manager at ZF Services UK, said: “ZF is proud to support 54Knots once again as it takes Thunder Child II around the UK and Ireland, with ZF equipment underpinning the tremendous technical effort and human endurance required to complete their latest adventure.

“The world records that the team has achieved with Thunder Child II so far are a true testament to perseverance and engineering progress, and the amount of money being raised for charity is the icing on the cake.”

Thunder Child II is not only a vehicle for breaking records and raising crucial charity funds but also as a testbed for future technology. The 54Knots team, named after Thunder Child II’s top speed, use their record attempts to collect vital data for work on developing seawater-based fuel cell systems. Sea water forced through a fuel cell delivers electricity, meaning that the oceans could be a carbon-zero source of marine fuel.

As part of the team’s advanced marine propulsion system (AMPS) project, a carbon-zero source of marine fuel has been identified, and further developed by over 7,000 nautical miles of research.

Thunder Child II has achieved five long-distance world records accredited by the Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM) in 2023 with the first coming in June when 54Knots took the endurance power boat from the famous Yacht Club de Monaco, around Corsica and Sardinia, before returning to the finish at the Monegasque harbour on June 10th, completing the race in 21 hours and 42 minutes.

On June 12th, 54Knots embarked on its second record attempt and left Monte Carlo for Malta, sailing between Corsica and Sardinia, arriving at the finish on June 13th in a time of 18 hours and 52 minutes. Thunder Child II’s third and fourth races were situated in and around Malta, with further records broken with Malta island toured in 55 minutes, and Malta’s Gozo, Comino and Malta islands in one hour, 16 minutes. 

The fifth record was broken when Thunder Child II reached Gibraltar from Malta as part of a series of three races taking the 54Knots team from Malta to London via Sardinia and Gibraltar, not stopping except for fuel. The crew reached Gibraltar in 38 hours and 39 minutes and were on course to break a sixth and seventh race record en route to London, until a mechanical failure stopped the team in France’s Bay of Biscay.

Undeterred, Thunder Child II is set to continue its record-breaking run by completing a route around the entirety of the British Isles.

For more information on 54Knots and Thunder Child II, visit the website.