The technology, design, and skillful handling required for high-speed boating is among the most amazing feats you’ll ever have the chance to witness.
In the last thirty or so years, boating has been taken to places that older generations would never have dreamed of, with world records in hundreds of miles per hour.
World’s Fastest Boat Ride
Even with the resistance of water, the top speed boat record was set at 317.596 mph by Spirit of Australia! — Click to Tweet.
The driver who performed this incredible feat was built by Ken Warby in the 1970’s. He set the world record on October 8th, 1978 — and it has remained unchallenged since then, even though people have died trying to match it.
What’s even more impressive is that Ken Warby built the boat in his own backyard in Sydney, Australia — and he used an engine he’d found in a military salvage yard for only $69. He installed the Westinghouse J34 jet engine in his wooden custom-built frame, and let her rip. The engine, developed for jet fighters in 1940’s, served the job well, and carried Ken Warby’s name into the history books.
The boat is now a permanent feature of the Australian National Maritime Museum.
Another Record Setter?
In 2003, Ken Warby announced that he was finished on a boat intended to beat his own record. Nearly thirty years after setting his original standing record, he decided it was time to try to knock it down again.
The frame for the new boat named Aussie Spirit was made out of wood like the original. But this new boat had a 9,000 horsepower engine installed, which was nearly 50% more powerful than the original Spirit of Australia.
Shortly afterward, though, he announced his retirement from speed boat racing.
World’s Fastest Sailboat
You might not think speed boating and sail boating could ever go together, but with cutting-edge new designs, the results can be incredible.
The Hydroptere, for example, has a huge hydrofoil that raises the boat out of the water as it picks up speed, reducing drag and enabling world-record speeds. The top speed of this boat is recorded at 47 nautical miles per hour, which is about 60 standard inland miles per hour.
Such a speed might not seem jaw-dropping, but the boat we’re talking about is over 30 feet wide and just as long, and it’s hitting the speed of top windsurfers, who deal with much less drag. For a boat powered entirely by wind, such a top speed is incredible, to say the least.
Fastest Yacht
The World Is Not Enough is as classy as you’d expect from a James-Bond-sounding title, and it’s also as fast as you’d expect. This record-holding yacht is over 42.4 meters long, and reaches an astounding 70 nautical miles per hour.
The boat pulls this off with an incredible 20,600 horsepower, all of which are supplied four combined engines.
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