Still up for speed record

The leader of an attempt to break the world water speed record is refusing to give up despite numerous setbacks — including declaring himself bankrupt.

The Quicksilver project, led by Mr Nigel Macknight, of Foston, has been hit by technical problems and the recession.

The £4m project aims to bring the record back to Britain for the first time in 46 years.

“It has been a long, difficult, drawn out, arduous process,” he told the Advertiser.

The attempt to break the water speed record of 317.6mph set by Australian Ken Warby in 1978 was originally due to take place in 2004. It has been put back several times since.

It involves a network of volunteers who are all specialists in their fields.

“There is no question that we have struggled on with it, but the positive side is that we have never given up,” said Mr Macknight.

“We don’t want to let people down. We think we can do it and we won’t be throwing in the towel.”

The team is designing and building individual components for the boat they hope will one day reach 350mph.

They hope a full-power engine test will be achieved in the coming months at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, Leicestershire.

Testing on water is expected to follow by the end of next year.

Mr Macknight said full-power testing would be a landmark in the project as the 51/2 tonnes of thrust and 10,000-horsepower generated by the Rolls-Royce Spey engine will allow them to judge the performance of other parts of the boat.

Mr Macknight said 20 of the 340 members of the Quicksilver Corporate Club, the official supporters group for the project, were Newark-based.

Members who paid a one-off donation of £395, include Waitrose Newark, Saks Hair and Beauty, NSK and Duncan and Toplis.

A full-size mock-up of the boat was shown at the Aura Commerce and Technology Centre on Manners Road, Newark, three years ago.

Mr Macknight accepted that people may have been disillusioned by how long the project was taking.

“I do understand people thinking it has gone on so long it is never going to happen, but people are supportive,” he said.

The project’s revenue in the past three years was a quarter of what it was in the previous three.

Mr Macknight declared himself bankrupt last year.

He said he had put so much time into the project and so little time into his work as an author, and could not follow-up on personal guarantees he had made to the bank.

He said he had been solvent for a year.

He said: “You can look at it from a cup half-empty point of view, that the project has dragged on too long and if it was going to happen it would have happened by now.

“Or the cup is half-full, and despite the number of setbacks — technical problems, in-house politicking and financial difficulties — we now see the project is tremendously strong to continue.”