Water speed record should not be confused with Underwater speed record.
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 511.11km/h, achieved by Australian Ken Warby in the Spirit of Australia in 1978.
The record is one of the sporting world's most hazardous competitions. Seven of the thirteen people who have attempted the record since June 1930 have died. Two official attempts to beat Ken Warby's 1978 record resulted in the pilot's death: Lee Taylor (1980) and Craig Arfons (1989). Despite this, there are several teams currently working to make further attempts.
The record is ratified by the Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM).
Until 1911, steam-powered, propeller-driven vehicles held world water speed records.[1]
In 1911, a 40abbr=onNaNabbr=on 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 57mph on The Solent.[3]
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 70.86mi/h was set on Bras d'Or Lake at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
In 1920, Garfield Wood set a new water speed record of 71.43mph on the Detroit River, using a new boat called Miss America.[4] 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 149.4km/h on the Detroit River.[5] The next year, Gar Wood took the same boat up a waterway Indian Creek, Miami Beach and reached 149.86km/h.[6]
Like the land speed record, the water record was destined to become a scrap 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,[7] 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.[8]
On 13 June 1930, Segrave piloted Miss England II to a new record of 158.94km/h 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.[9]
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 164.41km/h. A month later on Lake Garda, Don got the record back with 177.387km/h. In February 1932, Wood responded, nudging the mark to 179.779km/h.
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 188.985km/h, then to 192.816km/h 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 12m (39feet) long, powered by four supercharged Packard aeroplane engines.[10] [11] On 20 September 1932 Wood broke the 200km/h barrier, driving his new boat to 200.943km/h. 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.
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 203.31km/h 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. 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 18km/h, to 228.11km/h.
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'. The jet-powered experiment was unsuccessful, and Campbell retired from record attempts. He died in 1948.
On 26 June 1950, Slo-Mo-Shun IV improved on Campbell's record by 29km/h. Powered by an Allison V-1710 aircraft engine, the boat was built by Seattle Chrysler dealer Stanley Sayres and was able to run 160abbr=onNaNabbr=on 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 287.25km/h, a 29km/h 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 170mph on Coniston Water.
At this time, yet another land-speed driver entered the fray. Englishman John Cobb was hoping to reach 200mph 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 210abbr=on0abbr=on, Crusaders 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 306km/h, 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 3500abbr=onNaNabbr=on thrust. K7 was of all-metal construction and proved to have extremely high rigidity.
Campbell and K7 set a new record of 325.6km/h 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 (Coniston Water), finally increasing it to 444.71km/h 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 [12] at 322.54km/h. Roy Duby set this record at Guntersville, Alabama, in 1962 and stood for 38 years.
Donald Campbell's Bluebird K7 had been re-engined with a Bristol Siddeley Orpheus jet rated at 4500lbf of thrust. On 4 January 1967, he tried again. His first run averaged 475.2km/h, and a new record seemed in sight. Campbell applied K7s water brake to slow the craft down from her peak speed of 315mi/h clear of the measured kilometre to a speed around 220mph. 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 512km/h, 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 100mi/h. 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 2NaN short. He tried again the same day and set a new record of 459km/h.
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 464.461NaN1[13] 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 300sigfig=3NaNsigfig=3 and 500sigfig=3NaNsigfig=3 barriers with an average speed of 511.11km/h. As he exited the course, his peak speed as measured on a radar gun was approximately 555km/h.[14] [15]
Warby's record still stands. There have only been two official attempts to break it, both resulting in the driver's death.[16]
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 400NaN0 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 (270 mph) 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 350mph.[17] 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.[18]
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:
The British Quicksilver[19] 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.[20]
Ken Warby was working with his son David 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.[21] [22] [23] [24] Earlier in 2003, Ken Warby had built another boat, Aussie Spirit, for a record attempt.[21] After Ken Warby's death in February 2023, the project continued under David's leadership, with test runs made in May[25] and September at Blowering Dam, with further runs planned in November that year.[26]
The K777 Team combines engineers, boat racers, boat builders, gas turbine specialists, and Windermere Boat Racing Club members.[27] They built a controversial visual copy of Donald Campbell's Bluebird K7. However, during its sole public appearance on Coniston Water in 2011, it failed to plane, partially sank, and ultimately collapsed its air intake trunking. A test on Loch Ken, in southwest Scotland, in October 2014 was also unsuccessful; although the boat did not sink, it was again unable to plane.[28]
Daniel Dehaemers was the Belgian challenger for the absolute water speed record.[29] 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. [30] [31]
Alençon Jos restarted the project in 2019 with an expected engine test in 2020.[32] [33]
A British team, with a serving British military pilot at the helm, are working together to build and run Longbow,[34] a jet hydroplane, on lakes and lochs within the UK, for a British attempt at the water speed record.
Richard Noble, engineer behind the Thrust series of land speed record cars Thrust2 which he drove, and ThrustSSC, the supersonic Land Speed Record holder since 1997, announced on a YouTube video 27 May 2022 that his group intends to construct a water speed record boat, named ThrustWSH (Water Speed Hydroplane), conforming to the naming custom of ThrustSSC (Supersonic Car). Web site: Thrust is back . . 20 October 2022 . 20 October 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221020134452/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u0vTEtkFs4&gl=US&hl=en . live . .
| Speed | Craft | Captain(s) | Location | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 317.596mph | Spirit of Australia |  Ken Warby | Blowering Reservoir | 8 October 1978 | |
| 288.6mph | 20 November 1977 | ||||
| 285.22mph | Hustler | 30 June 1967 | |||
| 276.33mph | Bluebird K7 |  Donald Campbell | 31 December 1964 | ||
| 260.35mph | Bluebird K7 | Donald Campbell | Coniston Water | 14 May 1959 | |
| 248.62mph | Bluebird K7 | Donald Campbell | Coniston Water | 10 November 1958 | |
| 239.07mph | Bluebird K7 | Donald Campbell | Coniston Water | 7 November 1957 | |
| 225.63mph | Bluebird K7 | Donald Campbell | Coniston Water | 19 September 1956 | |
| 216.2mph | Bluebird K7 | Donald Campbell | 16 November 1955 | ||
| 202.32mph | 23 July 1955 | ||||
| 178.497mph | Slo-Mo-Shun IV |  Stanley Sayres, Elmer Leninschmidt | Lake Washington | 7 July 1952 | |
| 160.323mph | Slo-Mo-Shun IV | Stanley Sayres, Ted O. Jones | 26 June 1950 | ||
| 141.74mph | Malcolm Campbell | 19 August 1939 | |||
| 130.91mph | Blue Bird K3 | Malcolm Campbell | 17 September 1938 | ||
| 129.5mph | Blue Bird K3 | Malcolm Campbell | Lake Maggiore | 2 September 1937 | |
| 126.32mph | 1 September 1937 | ||||
| 124.86mph | Miss America X | Gar Wood | 20 September 1932 | ||
| 119.81mph | Miss England III | Kaye Don | Loch Lomond | 18 July 1932 | |
| 117mph | Miss England III | Kaye Don | 18 July 1932 | ||
| 111.712mph | Miss America IX | Gar Wood | Indian Creek | 5 February 1932 | |
| 110.223mph | Miss England II | Kaye Don | 31 July 1931 | ||
| 103.49mph | Miss England II | 15 April 1931 | |||
| 102.256mph | Miss America IX | Gar Wood | Indian Creek | 20 March 1931 | |
| 98.76mph | Miss England II | 13 June 1930 | |||
| 93.123mph | Miss America VII | Gar Wood | Indian Creek | 23 March 1929 | |
| 92.838mph | Miss America VII | George Wood | Detroit River | 4 September 1928 | |
| 87.392mph | Farman Hydroglider | 10 November 1924 | |||
| 80.567mph | Miss America II | Gar Wood | Detroit River | 6 September 1921 | |
| 71.43mph | Miss America | 15 September 1920 | |||
| 70.86mph | 19 September 1919 | ||||
| 57mph | The Maple Leaf III | March 1911 |