Australian Ken Warby, the world water speed record holder, recently died at his home in the United States.
Few people can say they’ve held a world record for 45 years. Far fewer still can say they’ve managed to do it in a vessel they built by hand.
But that was Ken Warby, who passed away peacefully on Feb. 20 from Alzheimer’s disease.
Warby held the world record for the fastest speed achieved on water, a result he first achieved in 1977 when he raced across Blowering Dam in southern New South Wales (NSW) in a hand-built boat.
On Nov. 20 1977, he clocked a speed of 464 km/h. A year later, he beat his own record when he registered a speed of 511 km/h….