[Jeff Higgins]

I've watched a bit of Top Fuel Hydro racing. It occurred to me as well just how close they come to the absolute water speed record. I would think in this day and age, with all of the advances in boat design since 1978, that this would be a "soft" record. Much safer as well, with the driver capsule kind of technologies in drag boats, unlimited hydros, and offshore boats. Seems it wouldn't be nearly as risky and daunting to give it a try these days.

I don't mind a little speed. I've gone quite fast in a car and on a motorcycle. Boats, however, terrify me. I've broke 100 mph in two of them over the years (actually many years ago) and will never get aboard one that is capable of that ever again. The first was an offshore boat powered by two 500 inch Merc outdrive setups. We went up Puget Sound and made a lap of our San Juan Islands. The second was a flat bottom drag boat motivated by a blown 454 Chev big block, on Lake Washington. In both cases I was sure we would hit an unseen deadhead and die. In the latter case, I was equally sure it was just going to kite up, flip, and we would die. Never again.

Anyway, one would think any modern unlimited hydro hull could break this record if it were allowed to be truly "unlimited" with regards to its turbine power. This class is anything but truly "unlimited" anymore, what with restricted inlet size and all of that. Lift those restrictions and I bet one could do it.