The fuel: the addiction to ever higher speeds. (Image sources: xy, Kirill Zdorov, Quality Stock Arts via Adobe Stock)
The Company Vision Marine Technologies has set a new world record in boating.
With a speed of 175 km/h the V32 achieved a new global record for electric watercraft.
But what is really behind this technical excellence?
V32: The fastest electric speedboat in the world?
Before the world record could be broken, the technicians from… Vision Marine spent several months testing the V32. This was preceded by several years of technical collaboration. The key points were the optimization of the electric motor, 700 V batteries, cooling circuit and hardware and software integration. To put it simply, the V32 is an upgraded catamaran with a length of almost 10 meters.
The Lake of the Ozarks reservoir was originally built to generate electricity. (Image source: Melanie via Adobe Stock)
On August 28, 2022, over 100,000 spectators gathered at Lake of the Ozarks in the US state of Missouri. The 44-year-old racing driver was behind the wheel Shaun Torrente. The man began his racing career at the age of 15. He was already able to win world championship titles in 2002 and 2003. So if there is one person who is predestined for motorsport on the water, it is Shaun Torrente.
Shaun Torrent drives for Team Abu Dhabi. (Image source: f1h2o.com)
On that day in August 2002, with Torrente at the wheel, the V32 beat the previous world record of 88.6 mph, which corresponds to approximately 143 km/h. The speed was measured with a radar gun. The stretch of water that the experienced motorsport driver had to cross was approximately 1.2 kilometers long.
The previous record in the electronic watercraft category was set by the electric speedboat Vector V20E from car manufacturers jaguar. That was in June 2018. Now, in August 2022, the V32 with Torrente at the wheel reached a speed of 109 mph, i.e. 175 km/h. This surpassed the previous record holder by more than 30 km/h.
The world record was immortalized on YouTube as a 360-degree video. So, don’t just watch the video, but also “push and drag” with your cursor. So you can look around the Lake of the Ozarks beach while driving at 175 km/h.
Link to YouTube content
The fastest speedboat in the world: the Spirit of Australia
As impressive as the top speed of the electronic V32 is, the Spirit of Australia speedboat was dozens of times faster. On October 8, 1978, Ken Wary set the world record with 511 km/h on the Tumut River in Australia using jets. That’s over 335 km/h faster than the speed record now achieved by Vision Marine and their V32.
Let’s see whether an electric watercraft will one day come close to the speedboat record from the 1970s.
By the way: The fastest ferry in the world has 48,000 horsepower and carries 150 cars across the water
Are you impressed by such speed records on the water, or are you rather cold about this ever-increasing approach? At what maximum speed did you last think: “How did they do that?” And also: What is the highest speed you have ever subjected your own body to? Feel free to write us your opinions and experiences in the comments.
