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The average speedboat tops out at around 70 mph, which already feels fast when you’re skimming waves. But a handful of boats go well beyond that, hitting speeds that don’t sound real unless you’ve experienced the exhilaration of cruising at those speeds on open water.

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Ever since the early twentieth century, a growing number of individuals have shown interest in racing their boats to determine which ones can achieve the greatest speed. In 1931, Garfield Wood’s Miss America became the first to top 100 mph and changed what people thought was possible. This started a thirst for competition, leading to a dramatic rise in water speed records over time.

To push their capabilities on the waves, modern motorboats borrow directly from aerospace tech. These are machines engineered with hull components inspired by offshore racing designs. Turbojet (not to be confused with turbofan) engines and composite materials that wouldn’t be out of place in fighter jets are now standard in a motorboat. This gave them comparable performance to most modern aircraft. 

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To put that into perspective, modern airplanes take off at a speed of around 180 mph, and all the entries in this list leave that figure in the dust. A few of them have held world records, and all of them go much faster than any Coast Guard cutter could dream of chasing. If you’re looking to spend seven figures on something that can go toe-to-toe with a jet on takeoff, this is where your money would go.

The Spirit of Australia is the fastest boat to ever touch water. Designed and built in a backyard by Australian powerboat racer Ken Warby, this jet-powered hydroplane clocked 317.6 mph in 1978 on Blowering Dam in New South Wales. It hasn’t been beaten since.

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Powered by a Westinghouse J34 turbojet engine stripped from a fighter plane, the Spirit of Australia didn’t use propellers. It used jet propulsion to shoot a stream of water backward and create enough thrust to accelerate incredibly fast over short distances. That let Warby hit the kind of speeds that would normally need a runway. The boat is incredibly light for its speed, built from marine wood and fiberglass.

Despite multiple challengers over the years, the Spirit of Australia’s record still stands. Warby’s son even built a follow-up, Spirit of Australia II, in the hopes of breaking their own record, but the original remains untouched.

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Built in the mid-1950s, the Bluebird K7 is a British jet-powered hydroplane with a long streak of dominance on the water. It was driven by Donald Campbell, who used it to set seven water speed records between 1955 and 1964. Its fastest run was 276 mph in 1964.

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Designed by Ken and Lew Norris, Bluebird K7 was ahead of its time in terms of materials and design. Its aluminum body, lightweight frame, and Metropolitan-Vickers Beryl axial-flow turbojet engine made it a lethal combination of speed and balance.

The boat was restored in 2018, and although it’s capable of reaching over 150 mph today, it no longer pushes its limits for safety reasons. Still, no conversation about water speed can skip this boat. It didn’t just break the record once; it made a habit of it. Even modern boats, like Lamborghini’s motor yacht, which tops out at around 60 knots (roughly 70 mph), struggle to come close to its blistering speeds. 

In drag boat racing, Problem Child is king. Powered by an 8,000 horsepower nitro engine, this boat goes from zero to 262 mph in just 3.5 seconds.

Built and raced by Eddie Knox and Larry Bless, Problem Child is a nitro drag boat that’s won multiple world championships. It’s responsible for the 15 fastest 1,000-foot elapsed times in drag boat history. This thing is built for pure, straight-line acceleration.

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What makes it even more wild is that the powerplant is similar to what you’d find in NHRA Top Fuel dragsters. Same size. Same setup. Just mounted to a hull skimming across water instead of tires gripping asphalt. Knox’s team even partnered with Kalitta Motorsports for tech and parts crossover, helping the boat become the reigning champion of the Lucas Oil Drag Boat Series.

Despite the boat crashing at 263 mph in 2013, it was rebuilt and raced again the very next day. That sums up the spirit of the crew behind it: fearless and focused.

Mystic Powerboats has a reputation for making ridiculously fast catamarans, and the C5000-S might be their crown jewel. This 52-foot cat doesn’t just look the part; it’s all business under the surface. Twin 1,850-horsepower turbines deliver a combined 3,700 hp. That’s enough to launch the boat to cruising speeds around 150 mph with ease, but the top end? That’s a blistering 250 mph. 

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Despite the performance, the C5000 isn’t stripped down. It packs a full array of electronics: GPS, speedometers, a plotter, and navigation tech. There’s also air conditioning in the cockpit, speakers, a CD player, and even a radio. You’re not sacrificing comfort for speed. 

And with a 600-gallon fuel tank, the C5000 can cover serious ground between refueling stops, or just rack up engine hours, like the 15-hour endurance run it’s recorded. Mystic also offers smaller variants like the C4400 and C3800, and is also the manufacturer of American Ethanol, another high-speed boat with 10,000 horsepower that has a record of cruising at 221 mph, but none of them match the raw output of the C5000-S. 

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Most people think of Outerlimits as a luxury performance brand, but the SV-50 proves they’re just as serious about speed as they are about style. This 50-foot V-bottom is powered by twin Mercury Racing 1350/1100 engines and hit 145 mph during a cold-weather test in Narragansett Bay.

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In more extreme setups, like the version that ran the 2023 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout with 2,000-hp engines, it topped out at 180.47 mph, making it the world’s fastest production monohull.  Speed like that demands control, which is why the hull features a five-step bottom and staggered engine configuration to keep balance and trim tight at high velocity.

Inside, the SV50 feels like a sports car on water. The cockpit offers high-backed seats that cushion occupants even at triple-digit speeds. It’s the first in the lineup to feature a full interior overhaul with recessed speakers and added storage, all while keeping that signature wraparound windshield for wind protection. Garmin GPS units, digital throttles, and a clean dash layout round out the helm.

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