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A ship carrying multi-million pound race cars, including one owned by Lewis Hamilton, has been seen in Cornwall.
The St Helena, an ex-Royal Mail ship, has been spotted in Falmouth, where it is currently docked.
It used to act as the lifeline to the island of St Helena, a remote volcanic outpost in the South Atlantic ocean.
It has been the ‘floating centrepiece’ of Extreme E, a new FIA backed off-road racing series that solely uses electric SUVs, for the past two years.
The races take part in remote places all over the world, and the ship recently left Liverpool for the first race weekend in Saudi Arabia on April 3 and 4. Other destinations will include the Arctic, deserts, and coastal areas.
Each location is chosen to raise awareness of aspects of climate change, and will host the cars which are kinder to the planet but still blisteringly fast.
Alejandro Agag, founder and CEO of Extreme E, said: “Today I feel extremely proud.
“The departure of the St. Helena marks the start of her new voyage. Extreme E’s first season is now officially underway.”
Extreme E is in its inaugural season but it already has backing from major racers including Jenson Button, who owns JBXE, and six time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton, who owns X44.
Speaking previously, Lewis said: “Extreme E is an exciting new sustainability initiative, and this is a great opportunity to be involved from the outset as a team founder.
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“Of course, my ambitions and commitments with Mercedes in Formula One mean that I won’t be operationally involved in X44, but I’m excited to play a different role in this new series, one that brings my vision for a more sustainable and equal world to life.
“Extreme E really appealed to me because of its environmental focus.
“Every single one of us has the power to make a difference, and it means so much to me that I can use my love of racing, together with my love for our planet, to have a positive impact.
“Not only will we visit remote locations facing the front line of the climate crisis, we will also work closely with these locations and leading climate experts to share our knowledge and leave behind a positive legacy in each location which goes far beyond the race track.
“As Founder of X44, I am looking forward to building my team around important values such as sustainability and equality.
“None of us are perfect and we all have improvements to make, but I am excited to use our platform to highlight the most serious issues facing our planet and the solutions we can all be part of.”
Alejandro continued: “This has been a massive project and she really is unrecognisable from when we purchased her back in 2018.
“She is unmistakably part of Extreme E with the exterior branding, and the internal refit looks incredible.
“One of my favourite features of the ship is the creation of a science laboratory, which replaces the original swimming pool, and I’m delighted that from Saudi Arabia we will have a variety of scientists on-board conducting oceanic research projects.
“I have always had a love for the ocean, which was inspired by documentaries featuring the French biologist, Jacques Cousteau.
“He made me dream because he had a boat, he had the Calypso, and my dream is that the St Helena becomes the new Calypso of the 21st century.”
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