Dave Warby has confirmed that he will be back on Blowering Dam on the weekend of 22 & 23 March. It’s for trials only. There will be no record attempt on the weekend.
THE world water speed record has stood since October 1978 when Australia’s Ken Warby set the speed on Tumut’s Blowering Dam of 511.11 km/h (317.59 mph) in his Spirit of Australia jet powered boat.
His son David Warby is attempting to break that record, and when he returns to Blowering Dam on March 22 and 23 he could go one step closer to realising that dream. He won’t attempt the record in March, but he has ambitions to push his boat, Spirit of Australia II beyond its previous fastest speed.
“We've run over 270 miles an hour, I'd like to get it close to the 500ks,” said Dave.
“The boat accelerates pretty easy. I don't think it'll take much to get there, but the problems we've had before is once we do get up to around 450k's, we have had the boat moving around. So there's no point continuing on, putting your foot down if the boat's starting to get out of shape.”
“We want to ensure we do this safely and not just go down there and just floor a boat and have a disaster. It's not what we're trying to do.”
Dave said they have adjusted the rudder and the steering geometry on the boat. “The steering was extremely sensitive at high speed, so we've slowed that down and that's made the boat easier to drive.”
“The boat is handling much better, it's just been able to identify the problem in the short amount of time we've had on the water.”
The team would prefer to have longer testing sessions, saying on any good weekend they only have a day and half of testing. But they are extremely optimistic they now have fine-tuned the boat for its best potential.
In mid-February Blowering Dam was at 39% water level, not ideal from a jet boat perspective. Dave is hoping the water level will rise by his arrival in later March. Purely just for the course length. Less water equals shorter course which could limit his potential top speed.
During the interview he explains all the nuances of driving the boat at speed. He refers to Ken, saying his father was 6.5 seconds per kilometre over the eight-kilometre course.
Dave explained when you sit at The Pines and look at the water it might be smooth, but conditions can change constantly along the 8km route. “You can have it white capping in Yellowin Bay, and cross wind in the centre of the course.”
“Going that fast, obviously get down the other end of the dam quickly, but you can see the changes in the water quickly because you're moving at such a pace. We get a slight crosswind at the centre of the course, and the boat will veer off course. But you can't really fight the steering on it too much, because if you put too much rudder in on it, it can disrupt the boat. You kind of got to let it go where it wants to go in some circumstances.”
“And being thrust power, the boat goes where the thrust is pointing.”
“I reckon the boat's in really good shape, best it's ever been. And now we're in a position where we just need good water and wind. And I think we'll get where we want to be.”
“Once we do go for a record, we'll probably spend a week down there and just wait for the right conditions.”
Transport for NSW Navigation Restriction
Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 March, 2025.
Transport for NSW has issued a Navigation Restriction notice to allow Dave to conduct the trials between 8.00am and 4.00pm each day. They will declare an exclusion zone for Blowering Dam which will prevent the movement of other vessels while the exclusion zone operates.
Dave again asks for the public’s co-operation to assist with the smooth operation of the trials.
