FASTEST Speed Boats in the World

Ever since the first boats were designed, people have been trying to find ways to make them travel across the water faster. The introduction of engines obviously took that to a whole new level, but there's more to it than simply adding extra power. Boats need to be able to absorb the impacts of the water caused by being lifted up by the waves, and transfer as much of their power into forward momentum as possible. And in many ways, it's far more difficult to do than building a fast car or aircraft. There are, though, some companies that have been able to overcome these challenges, and for them, they've created some incredible machines that look like nothing you've seen before. Join me for today's video, we're going to count down the top 15 fastest speedboats ever made. 15. Miss Geico Miss Geico is an incredible speedboat that's reached the pinnacle of the world of offshore powerboat racing. With its distinctive blue and yellow livery, this high-performance vessel has become an icon in the sport, known for its incredible speed and dominance in the water. Built by the famous Marine Technology Incorporated company, Miss Geico is powered by twin-turbine engines that deliver an astounding amount of power. These engines generate enough thrust to propel the boat to a top speed in excess of 200 miles an hour, or about 320 kph, with very few other boats in the competitive series able to even think about competing with that. The engineering marvels behind Miss Geico is nothing short of remarkable. Its lightweight yet durable construction ensures the optimal speed and agility, allowing this boat to navigate through rough waters with ease. The hull design is carefully engineered to reduce drag and increase stability, providing an efficient and exhilarating ride. It's been so successful that Miss Geico has earned numerous accolades and championships, and whether it's competing in the Superboat International Offshore Racing Series or the Offshore Powerboat Association World Championships, Miss Geico consistently proves to be a formidable competitor. Not everything has worked to the team's favor, though. The drive to make things faster led to the design of a boat under the name in 2012 that was based on a 50-foot Mystic platform with twin Lycoming T53 turbine engines. This iteration of Miss Geico managed to reach a speed of 210 miles per hour, or 340 kph, but following testing, it got set on fire and burned so much that it was unsalvageable. 14. Skater 46 Pleasure Described by manufacturer Skater as the Rolls Royce of powerboats, the Skater 46 Pleasure may well be promoted as the ideal way to take a relaxing trip on the water, but it has the power behind it to make it one of the fastest available too. Equipped with twin Teague custom engines that each produce 1,500 horsepower for a total of 3,000, it also has dual fuel tanks that have a maximum capacity of 1,000 gallons, something that, when combined, means the boat is able to maintain speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, or 160 kph, for several hours upon end. This isn't the full capability of the boat, though, as it's possible to push things right to the limit and reach brief speeds of up to 175 miles per hour, or 280 kph, a frightening pace as you're racing across the waves. Beyond pure speed, this vessel can, of course, be fully customized depending on customer requirements, from the color scheme to the inclusion of sound systems and other entertainment options. The boat's available in either a six- or eight-seater configuration and has aircon for those warm days when you've stopped to catch your breath. 13. South Bay 925CR Pontoon boats are great for leisure cruising, but because of their wide and stable hulls, they aren't often thought of as being fast. There's one exception, though, the South Bay 925CR, which currently holds the record as being fastest pontoon boat ever built, and it's up there with the fastest of them all. Built by Forest River Marine, a company based in Indiana, it's just 27 feet or about 8 meters long and 8 feet or about 2.5 meters across, and as standard, comes with a manual sport arch, a four-speaker Bluetooth stereo, and interior-exterior LED lights. It's also extremely tough and sturdy, with triple 25-inch diameter tubes, lifting strakes, an underbelly splash shield, and plenty of other features that allow it to skim across the water's surface. The versions that sold has the world record for the single-engine pontoon speed at 60 miles or 97 kilometers per hour, and the record, too, for a factory-setting double-engine pontoon at 88 miles or 140 kilometers an hour. One owner, though, has pushed this even further than was thought to be possible, and with a few tweaks to the engines and hull shape, Brad Rowland, a boating enthusiast, claims to have been able to get his to a top speed of 114 miles an hour, or 183 kph, a pace that no pontoon boat should be able to get anywhere close to. 12. Fountain 47 Lightning Fountain, a powerboat manufacturer from North Carolina, prides itself on its high-performance designs, so when the new model is called the Lightning, you know it's going to be super fast. A spokesman said that they aim to bring the possibility of high-speed boating to a much wider market by making models cheaper and more affordable than ever before, and it seems they're already managing to do this. First released in 2014, it's just over 47 feet or 15 meters long, with a beam measuring 9 feet or just under 3 meters, and it comes with all the features you'd expect for an afternoon on the water, such as a powerful audio system, a galley, plenty of seating for six passengers, and lighting, but it's the performance that takes things to the next level. With the top-spec package including twin-staggered 1550 dry-sump engines and a best-in-class control system that features a carbon-fiber dash with multi-function touchscreen display, LED push-button switches, this vessel is able to reach a top speed in bursts of 115 miles or 185 kilometers an hour, but it does so in such style and comfort that you'll hardly notice you're traveling so quickly. It's so versatile that it's known as the cruiser boat that can go pretty much anywhere at any time, and with a fuel tank capacity of 340 gallons, and even with a fuel vapor detection system, you'll be able to trust that you have plenty of capacity for your trip, and you'll know you're always in safe hands even while pushing things to the limit. 11. Cigarette Racing Team 50 AMG GTS With a name inspired by the boats used to smuggle alcohol during Prohibition, the Cigarette Racing Team has been involved in high-speed nautical events since 1969. They've been at the forefront of the sport ever since, but in 2016 they revealed a truly impressive new design. To celebrate the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix of that year, an event that itself is seen by many as the pinnacle of motorsport, and in collaboration with one of the leading Formula One teams, Mercedes-AMG, they exhibited the Cigarette 50 Marauder AMG Monaco. Built using a newly developed lay-up process that the company says was specially developed for racing and reduces weight, as well as improving handling under heavy loads, the 50-foot or 15-meter boat took the car team's colors, and it's powered by twin Mercury Racing 1550 V8 engines. With more than 3,000 horsepower and an incredibly light structure thanks to a hull made of carbon fiber, the boat is able to reach a crazy top speed of 140 miles or 225 kph with racing fuel, which makes it by far one of the fastest boats that are actually available for the general public to buy. It's not close to the speed and performance of the Formula One cars that race around the Monaco circuit, but as far as thrills go on water, this is about as exciting as you can possibly get without joining a speedboat racing team. 10. Lamborghini Aventador Lamborghini is, of course, a name that's known around the world for making high-performance supercars, and when it was announced that they were involved in the design of a boat, there was a mixture of excitement and skepticism. The result, though, was something truly special, and lived up to everything everyone had hoped. The Lamborghini Aventador boat was custom-designed as a companion to the 2016 Aventador for a particular customer, with both taking over two years to complete. At 52 feet or almost 16 meters long, its carbon fiber hull and deck were designed to match the car's bodywork with custom LED lighting and accents, and even the buttons in the dials on the six-person cockpit were inspired by those used in the car. Incredibly, the stereo in this boat alone is worth more than an average family car, and at the flick of a button, the vessel can switch between a leisure or race mode. Fitted with a 1350 brake horsepower engine, which becomes 1550 with race fuel, the boat can unleash huge amounts of power that, in a straight line across calm waters, translates to an astonishing top speed of 180 miles or 290 kilometers an hour. With such impressive stats, it's a shame that this was a one-off creation, but with a price of several million bucks and the same as a small yacht, only a handful of people would have been able to consider it anyway. 9. Nortec 5200 Roadster Produced by Nortec between 2013 and 2020, the 5200 Roadster is an incredibly fun and fast boat that can carry as many as 10 people at once. Although, if you really plan on pushing it to its limits, it'd probably be only comfortable for four. Measuring 49 feet or 14.9 meters long and 12 feet or 3.6 meters across the beam, various upgrade options are available. I can see it fitted with up to four engines, something that virtually guarantees the 6.7-ton boat will be the fastest of any on the lake or coast that you're visiting. In ideal conditions, this allows this thing to reach speeds in excess of 80 miles an hour or 129 kph, and the luxurious seating means that even if the boat's crashing through the passengers on board will be comfortable. There's also an interior cabin with a double berth and bench seating in it, and a padded sun lounge to allow you to enjoy your surroundings wherever you're traveled to. Of all the high-speed powerboats available, this is the one that's pitched as the best blend of comfort and performance, and it's arguably the most suited to private ownership. 8. SEI 29E First revealed to the world and offered for sale in 2020, the SEI 29E is a record-breaking production speedboat with the difference. It's fully electric-powered. Built by SEI Yachts, the design team has focused on two elements to make this possible, the first being to increase the power that's provided by the batteries and motors, and the second is to reduce the boat's weight in comparison to previous models. Amazingly, it's made from carbon fiber. The hull of the SEI 29E weighs less than 900 pounds or 400 kilograms, and the battery technology is provided by a company called Kriesel Electric. During tests on this prototype in 2008, the SEI 29E broke the previous record by logging a speed of 50 knots, which is about 58 miles an hour or 93 kph, and the company insists that under the right conditions, it's capable of improving on that too. While it may not be the overall fastest electric boat of all, it's one of the fastest that's available to buy, although with a list price of 196,000 euros or $206,000, for the base model, for the moment, it's likely well outside the price range of the average person. With vehicle designs and other industries also looking to move away from fuel-powered engines in favor of electric motors, it's expected that a large number of electric boats like this one will be headed to the marinas soon. And if they're able to replicate the fast acceleration and performance that's seen in road cars, this record will almost certainly be smashed soon. 7. The World Is Not Enough We all might dream of one day owning our very own private yacht, but usually the design of these vessels focuses on luxury over everything else. They aren't really known for being the fastest of boats, but one company has designed a yacht that not only allows you to travel in comfort, but also at quite a surprising speed. Called The World Is Not Enough, the 140-foot or 43-meter long boat has a lightweight aluminum superstructure and gets its power from two 18-cylinder diesel engines which produce a combined horsepower of 10,870. That's almost doubled by the addition of twin turbines. It's been designed around a deadrise V-hull, which allows it to cut through the water, no matter the conditions, and means that the yacht can reach top speeds of 70 knots, which is just over 80 miles or 129 kilometers an hour. To put this into perspective, most luxury yachts only travel at about a third of that speed, and The World Is Not Enough has a few other tricks up its sleeve too. It's got a maximum range of 3,800 miles or 6,100 kilometers, which is enough to cover virtually any expanse of ocean. It manages to carve through the water with no more noise than any other yacht, and hardly any vibration at all. This means that even at top speeds, you'll be able to sit back in absolute comfort, leaving everyone else in your wake. 6. The Spirit of Qatar An annual speedboat competition that's held at the Ozarks Lake in Missouri brings the fastest teams from around the world to show off their latest designs and their speeds. It's a great opportunity to not only be the fastest of the event, but to push the boundaries of what's possible, and in 2014, the Spirit of Qatar team went a step further than most. They brought their new turbine-powered boat, which was called the Al-Adaam 96, to attempt to break the course record of 224 miles or 360 kilometers per hour that had been set during the previous year's event. The 50-foot or 15-meter catamaran was fitted with twin engines that could produce up to 3,000 horsepower and was driven by the team's owner, Sheikh Hassan, along with the throttle man. On the first attempt, there was a malfunction with the safety chutes that caused them to be deployed too early, and this left all hopes with the second run. This time, everything went to plan and the boat reached a top speed of 244 miles an hour or 393 kph, a record that's yet to be broken. The Spirit of Qatar team has since been disbanded, but after the assets were sold to others, it's hoped that the boat may one day be upgraded and able to surpass its own top speed and potentially break the 250-mile or 402-kilometer-per-hour mark. If possible, this would herald a new beginning in the design of superfast speedboats and could potentially form the launchpad to a design that could challenge the water speed record in the future. 5. Outer Limits SV-52 Outer Limits is a company that's become renowned for building high-performance powerboats, with models like the SV-50, SL-44, and the SL-52. But it's the SV-52 that's leagues ahead of the rest. Specifically designed to operate at high speeds while ensuring a steady ride and soft landing in choppy waters, the quad-diesel engines fill the compartment with four 560-horsepower Fiat powertrains to give a combined maximum output of 2,240 horsepower. Also featuring a five-step hull, the canopied 52-foot or almost 16-meter vessel has a top speed of over 112 miles an hour or about 180 kph, making it ideal for long-distance endurance racing. Surprisingly, it's also relatively efficient, able to get to 1.2 miles per gallon at 100 miles or 161 kilometers per hour, which means that with a fuel capacity of 500 gallons, it's able to travel at 600 miles at that speed. For ease of use, the cockpit has dual helm controls, and of course it's fitted with a GPS chart plotter, as well as half a cabin that can be used to store equipment or provide protection from the sun or sea air as required on long trips. If you want more pleasure than raw power, they're available in open or swim platform versions too, so you're likely to see one hovering around a sandy beach as you're able to see one speeding off into the distance. 4. Mystic Powerboats C5000 Turbine Mystic Powerboats, they're a manufacturer that's known for creating some seriously impressive designs, but with the C5000 Turbine that was sold in 2011, they really took things up a notch. It's a phenomenal catamaran that would make you feel like a secret agent as you shoot across the water, and its impressive specs means that the can outperform almost any other production vessel, something you would expect for that price. Measuring 50 feet or 15.2 meters long, 12 feet or 3.7 meters wide, the hull is made from a specially designed composite material, and it's fitted with twin T53-703 turbine engines that can each produce 1,850 horsepower. This total of 3,700 horses means that the C5000 Turbine with mercury propellers boasts a cruising speed of 95 knots, which is the equivalent to 109 mph or 175 kph, and an incredible top speed of 160 mph or 257 kph. While it can only maintain this in short bursts and in the right conditions, it's an incredible achievement that the company's been able to create a catamaran that can do this. Beyond its sheer speed, the boat is designed for comfort and entertaining too, with an air-conditioned cockpit, an onboard oxygen system, and a Tiger communication system paired with the JL Audio sound system, meaning that anyone who owns one of these things will be able to show up and start the party wherever and whenever they want. 3. Problem Child The aptly named Problem Child is a world-record holding top-fuel hydroplane, which is a type of boat that's specifically built for taking part in drag races across the water. Amazingly, they feature similar engines to those used in drag cars, and the team behind Problem Child had close connections with the Calita Motorsports team, which has given them an edge in understanding the technology and how to best deploy the power that's available to them. The boat, which is owned by Eddie Knox, has a 500-cubic-inch supercharged nitro-burning Hemi engine that's able to produce a whopping 8,000 horsepower, and has set the 15 quickest 1,000-foot or 305-meter times ever recorded, reaching speeds across the water in excess of 260 miles an hour, or 418 kph, and completing the distance in just 3.36 seconds. These are numbers that you'd be impressed with if they'd been set on land, let alone water. Achieving this takes a huge amount of research, testing, and development, both for the raw power from the engine being translated into speed and the aquadynamic design of the boat, and beating Problem Child's records isn't as simple as attaching a more powerful engine. One day, someone will manage to build a boat that's faster than a standing start along a 1,000-foot course, but it could be years or even decades before anyone has the time and investment needed to do so. 2. BLUEBIRD K7 First taken to the water in January of 1955, the Bluebird K7 was built during the heyday of water speed record attempts, and would set a new bar that would remain unbroken for almost two decades. The jet-engined hydroplane was designed by Ken and Lou Norris and built by Samlesbury Engineering with a steel frame, an aluminum body, and three points of contact with the water. It was powered by a Metropolitan Vickers barrel axial-flow turbojet engine and was able to produce 3,500-pound force of thrust, and was way ahead of its time with its design. After continually improving attempts, the Bluebird K7 set its fastest speed in December of 1964 at a lake in Australia, when it set a record speed of 276.33 miles or 441.71 kilometers per hour. The pilot of the boat, Donald Campbell, felt, however, that there was more potential to get out of the design and so went on to target 300 miles an hour by replacing the engine with a lighter and more powerful one that was loaned by the Ministry of Defense. Unfortunately, during the speed attempt with the new design in 1967, the boat lifted into the air and crashed back down into the water, which immediately killed Campbell upon impact and destroyed the boat too. The wreck was eventually recovered, but Campbell's body was never found, showing just how dangerous the world of speed records truly is. In honor of the Bluebird K7, attempts are currently underway to build a new version of the boat with modern technology, and it might be possible that the name will soon take to the water again to try to reclaim its own crown as the fastest boat on 1. The Spirit of Australia You might have thought that, with modern technology, the speed record for the fastest boat ever was something that could be continually broken, and that the latest record would have been set recently. Amazingly, though, it's a record that was set in October of 1978, and no one's come close to it ever since. What's even more impressive is that the Spirit of Australia wasn't constructed with modern composite lightweight materials and was instead built in a backyard from wood. Ken Warby has been inspired by the speed attempts of the Bluebird team in the 1960s as he was growing up, and he came to the conclusion that when traveling at fast speeds, it'd be better to have a heavier and more stable boat that wouldn't risk launching into the air, and that's why he made the Spirit of Australia in this way and looked to overcome the weight disadvantage by simply adding far more thrust to it. Using just wood and fiberglass for the hull and relying on a tarpaulin cover when it rained, he happened to be friends with two airmen from a nearby Australian Air Force base, and was able to purchase three surplus Westinghouse jet engines from auction. At the time, they weren't working, but the three of them managed to refurbish them and attach them to the boat, with their plan being a resounding success. In October of 1978, the Spirit of Australia was clocked at a speed of 317.6 miles or 511.1 kilometers per hour, a record that still stands to this day, and Ken Warby, who drove it, is the only person to have ever traveled faster than 300 miles per hour across the water and survived. I'll see you all next time.