List of water speed records
The world unlimited water speed record is the officially recognised fastest speed achieved by a water-borne vehicle, irrespective of propulsion method. The current unlimited record is, achieved by Australian Ken Warby in the Spirit of Australia on 8 October 1978. Warby's record was still standing more than 47 years later.
The record is one of the sporting world's most hazardous competitions; seven of the thirteen people who have attempted it since June 1930 have died trying. Two official attempts to beat Ken Warby's 1978 record resulted in the pilot's death, with Lee Taylor in 1980 and Craig Arfons in 1989.
The record is ratified by the Union Internationale Motonautique.
Before 1910
Until 1911, steam-powered, propeller-driven vehicles held world water speed records.- 1885, Nathanael Herreshoff's Stiletto:
- 1893, William B. Cogswell's Feiseen:
- 1897, Charles Algernon Parsons' Turbinia:
- 1903, Charles R. Flint's Arrow:
1910s
In 1911, a stepped planing hull, Dixie IV, designed by Clinton Crane, became the first gasoline-powered vessel to break the water speed record.In March 1911, the Maple Leaf III, which was powered by two twelve-cylinder motors producing 350 hp each, set a new water speed record of on The Solent.
Beginning in 1908, Alexander Graham Bell and engineer Frederick W. "Casey" Baldwin began experimenting with powered watercraft. In 1919, with Baldwin piloting their HD-4 hydrofoil, a new world water speed record of was set on Bras d'Or Lake at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
1920s
In 1920, Garfield Wood set a new water speed record of on the Detroit River, using a new boat called Miss America. In the following twelve years, Wood built nine more Miss Americas and broke the record five times. Increased public interest generated by the speeds achieved by Wood and others led to an official speed record being ratified in 1928. The first person to try a record attempt was Wood's brother, George. On 4 September 1928, he drove Miss America VII to on the Detroit River. The next year, Gar Wood took the same boat up a waterway Indian Creek, Miami Beach and reached.1930s
In the 1930s, the water speed record, like the land speed record, became a contest for national honour between the United Kingdom and the United States. American success in setting records spurred Castrol Oil chairman Lord Wakefield to sponsor a project to bring the water record to Britain. Famed land speed racer and racing driver Sir Henry Segrave was hired to pilot a new boat, Miss England. Although the boat was not capable of beating Wood's Miss America, the British team did gain experience, which was put into an improved boat. Miss England II was powered by two Rolls-Royce aircraft engines and seemed capable of beating Wood's record.On 13 June 1930, Segrave piloted Miss England II to a new record of average speed during two runs on Windermere, in Britain's Lake District. Having set the record, Segrave set off on a third run to try to improve the record further. Unfortunately, the boat flipped during the run, with both Segrave and his co-driver receiving fatal injuries.
Following Segrave's death, Miss England II was salvaged and repaired. Kaye Don was chosen as the new driver for 1931. However, during this time, Gar Wood recaptured the record for the U.S. at. A month later on Lake Garda, Don got the record back with. In February 1932, Wood responded, nudging the mark to.
In response to the continued American challenge, the British team built a new boat, Miss England III. The design was an evolution of the predecessor, with a squared-off stern and twin propellers being the main improvements. Don took the new boat to Loch Lomond, Scotland, on 18 July 1932, improved the record first to, then to on a second run.
Determined to have the last word over his great rival, Gar Wood built another new Miss America. Miss America X was long, powered by four supercharged Packard aeroplane engines. On 20 September 1932 Wood broke the barrier, driving his new boat to. It would prove the end of an era. Don declined to attempt any further records. Wood also opted to scale down his involvement in racing and returned to running his businesses. Somewhat ironically, both record-breakers lived into their 90s. Wood died in 1971, and Don in 1985.
Boat design changes
Wood's last record would be one of the final records for a conventional, single-keel boat. In June 1937 Malcolm Campbell, the world-famous land speed record breaker, drove Blue Bird K3 to a new record of at Lake Maggiore. Compared to the massive Miss America X, K3 was a much more compact craft. It was 5 metres shorter and had one engine to X's four.Despite his success, Campbell was unsatisfied with the relatively small increase in speed. He commissioned a new Blue Bird to be built. Blue Bird K4 was a 'three pointer' hydroplane powered by a Rolls Royce 'R' engine. Unlike conventional powerboats, which have a single keel, with an indent, or 'step', cut from the bottom to reduce drag, a hydroplane has a concave base with two sponsons fitted to the front and a third point at the rear of the hull. When the boat increases in speed, most of the hull lifts out of the water and runs on the three contact points. The positive effect is reduced drag; the downside is that the three-pointer is much less stable than the single-keel boat. If the hydroplane's angle of attack is upset at speed, the craft can somersault into the air or nose-dive into the water.
Campbell's new boat was a success. In 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, he took it to Coniston Water and increased his record by, to.
1940s
The return of peace in 1945 brought a new form of power for the record breaker – the jet engine. Campbell immediately renovated Blue Bird K4 with a De Havilland Goblin jet engine. The result was a curious-looking craft whose shoe-like profile led to it being nicknamed 'The Coniston Slipper'. It was unsuccessful because Vosper, who had built the boat, failed to grasp that the thrust line from a jet was much higher up then from a propeller, making the craft unstable at speed. Campbell retired from record attempts and died in 1948.1950s
On 26 June 1950, Slo-Mo-Shun IV improved on Campbell's record by. Powered by an Allison V-1710 aircraft engine, the boat was built by Seattle Chrysler dealer Stanley Sayres and was able to run because her hull was designed to lift the top of the propeller out of water when running at high speed. This phenomenon, called 'prop riding', further reduced drag.In 1952, Sayres drove Slo-Mo-Shun to, a increase on his previous record.
The renewed American success persuaded Malcolm Campbell's son, Donald, who had already driven Blue Bird K4 within sight of his father's record, to further push for the record. However, Blue Bird K4 was then 12 years old, with a 20-year-old engine, and Campbell struggled to reach the speeds of the Seattle-built boat. In late 1951, it was written off after suffering a structural failure at on Coniston Water.
At this time, yet another land-speed driver entered the fray. Englishman John Cobb was hoping to reach in his jet-powered Crusader. A radical design, the Crusader reversed the 'three-pointer' design, placing the sponsons at the rear of the hull. On 29 September 1952, Cobb tried to beat the world record on Loch Ness but, while travelling at an estimated, Crusader's front plane collapsed and the craft instantly disintegrated. Cobb was retrieved from the water but had already died.
Two years later, on 8 October 1954, another man would die trying for the record. Italian textile magnates Mario Verga and Francesco Vitetta, responding to a prize offer of 5 million lire from the Italian Motorboat Federation to any Italian who broke the world record, built a sleek piston-engined hydroplane to claim the record. Named Laura III, after Verga's daughter, the boat was fast but unstable. Travelling across Lake Iseo, in Northern Italy, at close to, Verga lost control of Laura III and was thrown out into the water when the boat somersaulted. Like Cobb, he died.
Following Cobb's death, Donald Campbell started working on a new Bluebird, K7, a jet-powered hydroplane. Learning the many lessons from Cobb's ill-starred Crusader, K7 was designed as a classic 3-pointer with sponsons forward alongside the cockpit. She was designed by Ken and Lewis Norris in 1953-54 and was completed in early 1955. She was powered by a Metropolitan-Vickers Beryl turbojet of thrust. K7 was of all-metal construction and proved to have extremely high rigidity.
Campbell and K7 set a new record of on Ullswater in July 1955. Campbell and K7 went on to break the record a further six times over the next nine years in the US and England, finally increasing it to at Lake Dumbleyung in Western Australia in 1964. Campbell thus became the most prolific water speed record breaker of all time.
At the time Campbell set the absolute record, the piston-powered propeller-driven record was held by the George Simons' Miss U.S. I at. Roy Duby set this record at Guntersville, Alabama, in 1962 and stood for 38 years.
1967
Donald Campbell's Bluebird K7 had been re-engined with a Bristol Siddeley Orpheus jet rated at of thrust. On 4 January 1967, he tried again. His first run averaged, and a new record seemed in sight. Campbell applied K7's water brake to slow the craft down from her peak speed of clear of the measured kilometre to a speed around. Rather than waiting for the lake to settle again before starting the mandatory return leg, Campbell immediately turned around at the end of the lake and began his return run. At around, just as she entered the measured kilometre, Bluebird began to lose stability, and 400 m before the end of the kilometre, Bluebird′s nose lifted beyond its critical pitch angle and she started to rise out of the water at a 45-degree angle. The boat took off, somersaulted, and then plunged nose-first into the lake, breaking up as she cartwheeled across the surface. Campbell was killed instantly. Over the next two weeks, prolonged searches discovered the wreck, but it was not until May 2001 that Campbell's body was finally located and recovered. Campbell was buried in the churchyard at Coniston on 12 September 2001. The 1988 television drama Across the Lake recreates the attempt.Lee Taylor, a Californian boat racer in Hustler during a test run on Lake Havasu on 14 April 1964, was unable to shut down the jet and crashed into the lakeside at over. Hustler was wrecked, and Taylor was severely injured. He spent the following years recuperating and rebuilding his boat. On 30 June 1967, on Lake Guntersville, Taylor and Hustler tried for the record. Still, the wake of some spectators' boats disturbed the water, forcing Taylor to slow down his second run, and he came up short. He tried again the same day and set a new record of.
1977 and 1978
Until 20 November 1977, every official water speed record had been set by an American, Canadian, Irishman, or Briton. That day Ken Warby became the first Australian holder when he piloted his Spirit of Australia to to beat Lee Taylor's record. Warby, who had built the craft in his backyard, used the publicity to find sponsorship to pay for improvements to the Spirit. On 8 October 1978 Warby travelled to Blowering Dam, Australia, and broke both the and barriers with an average speed of. As he exited the course, his peak speed as measured on a radar gun was approximately.Warby's record still stands. There have only been two official attempts to break it, both resulting in the driver's death.
1980s
Lee Taylor tried to get the record back in 1980. Inspired by the land speed record cars Blue Flame and Budweiser Rocket, he built a rocket-powered boat, Discovery II. The long craft was a reverse three-point design, similar to John Cobb's Crusader, but of much greater length.Originally, Taylor tested the boat on Walker Lake in Nevada, but his backers demanded a more accessible location, so he switched to Lake Tahoe. An attempt was set for 13 November 1980, but when conditions on the lake proved unfavourable, he decided against trying for the record. Not wanting to disappoint the assembled spectators and media, he did a test run instead. At 432 km/h Discovery II started to become unstable. It has been speculated that it may have hit a swell.. Its unstable lateral oscillations caused the left sponson to collapse, sending the boat plunging into the water. The cockpit section with Taylor's body was recovered three days later. The cockpit had not floated as intended, and Taylor drowned.
On 9 July 1989 Craig Arfons, son of Walt Arfons, builder of the world's first jet car, and nephew of record breaker Art Arfons, tried for the record in his all-composite fiberglass and Kevlar Rain X Challenger. At 7:07am, less than 15 seconds into his run, the hydroplane somersaulted at more than.
The cockpit remained intact underwater with Arfons remaining inside upside down. Two divers from a rescue team reached the wreckage and extracted him within three minutes of the initial incident. While he still had a pulse after cardiopulmonary resuscitation was administered, he did not respond to the medical personnel. He was taken to the Highlands Regional Medical Center but was pronounced dead at 8:30am, 1 hour and 23 minutes after the initial incident.
Current projects
Despite the high fatality rate, the record is still coveted by boat enthusiasts and racers. Ongoing projects aimed at breaking the record include the following:''Quicksilver''
The British Quicksilver project is managed by Nigel Macknight.The design was initially based on concepts for a rear-sponsoned configuration by Ken Norris, who had worked with the Campbells on their 'Bluebird' designs. The design is of modular construction with the main body consisting of a front section with a steel spaceframe incorporating the engine, a Rolls-Royce Spey Mk.101, and the rear section a monocoque extending to the tail. The front sponsons are also modules, one of which contains the driver.
''Spirit of Australia II''
Ken Warby, now working with his son David, began build on a new boat powered by a jet engine from a Fiat G.91 to break the record. The team conducting a series of trials had, as of 31 August 2019, increased the speed to 407 km/h. Earlier in 2003, Ken Warby had built another boat, Aussie Spirit, for a record attempt.Ken Warby died in February 2023, with the project, now solely led by David Warby, conducting test runs that May and September at Blowering Dam, with further runs planned in November that year. Test runs are continuing as of October 2024, according to David Warby. Latest trials in November 2025 have seen the boat reach a speed of 450kmph.
Dartagnan SP600
Daniel Dehaemers was the Belgian challenger for the absolute water speed record. The SP600 is of full carbon composite construction. It is powered by a Rolls-Royce Adour 104 turbojet engine. The boat was planned to be tested in 2016. However, after finishing building the boat, he died of cancer in 2018 before he managed to trial the craft.Alençon Jos restarted the project in 2019 with an expected engine test in 2020.