Ken Warby’s ‘backyard boat’ set world water speed record 40 years ago
FORTY years ago a crowd gathered on the shores of a dam near Tumut to see if a boat built in a suburban back yard could set the world water speed record.
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FORTY years ago today a crowd gathered at Blowering Dam to witness sporting history. Ken Warby, a 39-year-old former salesman and lifetime boat enthusiast, in his jet-powered vessel Spirit of Australia, was about to attempt to break the world’s water speed record, a record he had set the previous year.
Although confident his boat could accomplish the task, it was by no means a certainty. Any number of factors could have interfered — unfavourable winds, engine problems or some hidden flaw in the boat. Even his hero Donald Campbell had died in 1967 attempting a record when his boat unexpectedly lifted off the water and flipped.
That ever-present danger never seemed to faze Warby, but others found it hard to watch. His mother Evelyn told reporters she stayed in her car with her back to the action “too worried to watch”.
Fortunately, her worst fears were never realised. On October 8, 1978, Warby made his two-way run, reaching a speed of 317.60m/h (511km/h) and setting a new record. It has never been broken.
His Spirit of Australia was later retired and now resides in the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. But his son Dave Warby has continued his legacy and in his boat, Spirit of Australia II, is planning an attempt on his father’s record next year.
Ken Warby was born in Newcastle in 1939. Ken says his “farm boy” father wasn’t into either speed or boats. “The fastest thing he ever rode was a motorbike when he was young.”
But Warby has been a fan of boats for as long as he can remember. He grew up on stories of the exploits of men such as Malcolm Campbell, who in 1939 set the water speed record in his Bluebird K4 and then after the war experimented with jet engines. Warby also became a fan of Campbell’s son Donald, who picked up where his father left off in the late 1940s.
Even when young, Warby dreamt of breaking records on water. “All my life I wanted to do it.”
He made his own model jet boats based on plans of Campbell’s Bluebird and skimmed them across a pond at his dad’s farm.
By 13 he had made his first racing boat. He raced it at Lake Macquarie and although it was no world beater, it whet his appetite for more.
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“I used to go to the boat races on Lake Macquarie every weekend,” Warby says.
He improved his boat-building techniques and later made the state championships, then the national championships, making bigger and more powerful boats, aiming to be the fastest man on water.
It was his passion but, he says, “I never did it professionally.”
Sponsorship paid for some expenses but he also took jobs, as a BHP engineer and a salesman, to keep his dream alive.
In 1970 he designed a new boat, which he began building in 1972 in his backyard at Concord. It was the boat that became Spirit of Australia.
Dave remembers watching it evolve. “He only had three power tools — a circular saw, a drill and a belt sander.”
At an RAAF surplus auction Warby bought three jet engines from an old J-34 anti-submarine aircraft. To raise money for his world record bid he gave up his job and toured with his machine.
By 1977 and after rigorous testing, including in wind tunnels, Warby was ready for his first world record run, aiming to beat 285.22m/h (459.02km/h) set by American Lee Taylor at Lake Guntersville in Alabama in 1967.
Blowering Dam near Tumut was one of the best places in the world for his attempt. A nice, long straight stretch of water allows boats to get up speed and a row of mountains on either side funnels the winds along that path. With the wind at the nose of the boat, or on its tail, the boat hits the waves at a right angle, which is important to keep it stable and sticking to the water.
On November 20, 1977, Warby set a record of 288.60m/h (464.46km/h). After that success he and his team made refinements to the engine to make it “a bit quicker” for the second run.
“When I broke the record the first time there was hardly anybody there,” Warby recalls. The next year, on October 8, 1978, there was a lot of media. One person who missed out was his son Dave. “I was a bit reluctant to let him watch because it’s so damn dangerous,” Warby explains.
Warby emerged unscathed but he smashed his own record by nearly 50km/h. So “there was no sense in doing it a third time (the following year).” Instead he turned to racing jet drag cars and trucks.
It was only natural his son follow in his footsteps, although Dave says “he actually told me not to get into boat racing”.
Having grown up around it Dave says: “It’s a passion. It’s about problem solving and building something with your own hands. It’s not about thrillseeking. It’s really about more than just driving the boat.”