Currents
The fastest man on water Vale Ken Warby MBE (9 May 1939–20 February 2023)
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PROUDLY ON DISPLAY in the entrance to the museum’s galleries is NMC0000003. That rather unexciting number was given to it when it joined the museum’s collection, but it’s much better known as the record-setting Spirit of Australia. For almost 45 years, this has been the world’s fastest boat. It’s a true Australian boat – a wooden vessel, built in a suburban Sydney backyard. For its first world record, its jet engine was not just air force surplus, but a spare, substituted when an errant screwdriver got sucked in and buggered up the better one. The whole affair was nothing fancy – just like its legendary designer, builder and driver, Ken Warby MBE. Ken said, ‘You don’t drive the boat, you wear it.’ It was all about feel and instinct, born from Ken’s experience and character. This combination was what created the boat in the first place. Ken was not a larrikin who got by with luck on his side; he was a gifted mechanical engineer whose experience from teenage years onwards 76
Signals 143 Winter 2023
helped him to develop an instinct for what was needed and what would be right. Over a period of four years, he methodically and patiently built the boat in stages – testing, refining, taking it to another level and repeating the process. There was always a margin in hand, so that when things didn’t go to plan the issue could be resolved. He tapped into professional help when needed. Professor Tom Fink and Dr Lawrie Doctors from the University of New South Wales wind-tunnel-tested his design, and the result showed Ken that he had the shape right. Later, the Royal Australian Air Force came to his support onsite with their jet engine maintenance team, and on Fink’s advice, and with a bit of his own thrown in for good measure, Ken cut 6.5 centimetres off the base of the rudder with an oxy torch. In 1977, on Blowering Dam in New South Wales, he broke the Unlimited World Water Speed Record. He returned in 1978 and bettered that feat with a new engine, piloting his amazing craft to more than 300 mph (500 km/h). He remains the only person ever to have achieved this.