BLOWERING Dam looked way different on the weekend than it usually does when Dave Warby tests Spirit of Australia II, but he still got plenty out of his visit.
Blowering is currently at 31 per cent capacity, exposing new islands, making it potentially dangerous to run a jet-powered boat, but Warby picked his run spots carefully.
He reached a top of 351km/h on Sunday, which is well below what he hit last year (447km/h), but he and the team achieved their aims for the visit.
“We didn’t go as fast as before; it was really low and there were a few islands all over the place,” he said.
“We did try out some minor improvements; adjustments on the boat, and they went really good, so we still made use of it. We needed to be careful not to beach the boat. It takes a while to slow down at 300ks. We were booked in for the weekend and we wanted to meet with people. We still made progress; it was still worth coming down.”
Other than the shallowness of the dam, the conditions were generally good.
“On one run it was a bit choppy but other than that it was okay,” he said. “It was hot inside the cockpit.”
He thanked those who helped with the run, including Snowy Valleys Council, Waterways, Tumut Rotary, Truenorth Helicopters, Talbingo Caravan Park and National Cranes.
Warby, who is aiming to break the world water speed record of 511.11km/h set by his father Ken on Blowering in 1978, said he and the team would be back at the end of July.
“I’ll be keeping and eye on the dam,” he said.
He said he was likely to attempt the record sometime in the “next few runs”.
“I need a good clean run over 300 miles an hour,” he said.
