Ken Warby was born in Newcastle, Australia on May 9th, 1939 to Neville and Eveline Warby. He is the middle of three boys and has an older sister. He attended his hometown Manual Arts School as a teenager, then went to Newcastle Prep for training as an tech apprentice.

While still a kid he heard about Donald Campbell setting a series of 200 MPH plus World Water Speed Records and was so impressed he announced to his mother he would someday do the same. He found drawings of Campbell's boats, the Bluebird, and made a model, which he powered with the small jet cylinders that were available to kids in those days. “I frightened a lot of frogs down at the park,” he says.

Warby built his first boat at age 14. It was powered by a 1934 Ford four-cylinder engine. “It was poorly made... wrong wood, wrong glue, and the wrong engine.” The boat’s top speed was 20 MPH. In 1957 at the age of 17 he acquired a second hand boat with a side-valve Ford motor and continued to mess with it until he was drafted into the Australian National Service. There he was assigned to the Royal Australian Engineers. Upon release went into training in the steel industry as a mechanical engineer.

Rekindling his interest in boats, Warby and a friend acquired a Rebel Skiff, which they raced for four or five years. These were mainly club races, which provided a good boating and racing education, but he needed a better boat. In his early 20’s he acquired a black hydroplane Raider. Equipped with a 272 Ford V8 it was capable of 80 MPH. He won a number of races with this boat, but drove it into the ground. He also raced for other boat owners, sinking a couple of them in the process, and spent his extra time as a boat race referee.

In 1965, with his friend Mike Crawley, Warby purchased a boat named “Monte Cristo.” This fine handling rig with its powerful Ford V-8 engine became the terror of the club racing circuit. It ended up winning just about every important race in Australia. Finally he won the APBA 266 Cubic Inch Australian Championship. Warby kept the boat for three years, which was so unbeatable that he claims, “If the engine fired, I won the race.” Warby continued to work in the steel industry, got married and had three children.

In 1968 Lee Taylor Jr. broke Campbell’s world record setting a mark of 285 MPH. Shortly after that Warby he drew up the first sketches for what eventually became his world champion jet hydroplane, the “Spirit of Australia.” For power he went to a military surplus sale and bought two jet engines, Westinghouse J-34s, which had once powered Lockeed Neptune antisubmarine airplanes. He paid 100 dollars for each of them. His bid may not have been the highest rendered but the surplus dealers were impressed he wanted them for a boat, so they worked a deal

In 1970 Warby moved to Sydney to take a job as a sales manager for a company dealing power tools and industrial gear. That year he began putting down the Spirit’s keel. He had so little money for the project that when he traveled for his company he would sleep in his car and pocket the hotel money so he could buy materials. Altogether Warby invested only $10,000 in the boat.

When it came time to address the engine, he realized he knew very little about them. So he called Australia’s Richmond Air Force Base to ask if anyone could show him around a jet. Two volunteers came forward, Peter Cox and Rex Crandel. With their help his boat became jet powered. He also sought the help of professor Tom Fink of New South Wales University who had some involvement with Campbell’s Bluebird craft. Fink helped Warby wind tunnel test a model of the Spirit. When it tested even better than the Bluebird, he asked, “Who designed this." “I did,” Warby replied. At first Fink thought his leg was being pulled, as he was dumbfounded that a “novice” could have come up with such a design achievement.

The Bluebird's design flaws caused the craft to lift off the water when reaching speeds over 250 MPH. Once airborne it is all over but the funeral, which is how Campbell lost his life in 1967. Fink’s design advice resulted in a new metal cowl over the engine and the placement of a tail from a Cessnea 172 airplane. Warby's good basic design combined with these improvements produced a boat capable of staying on the water at speeds over 300 MPH.

By 1974 the “Spirit of Australia” was completed and a number of high-speed runs were made. Very quickly Warby broke the Australian Water Speed record with a run of 162 MPH, soon followed by another at 166 MPH. But there were mishaps. After striking something in the water and sinking, the first of the $100 engines was ruined. Having no sponsor Warby was still financing this project on his own, so this was a considerable loss. Fortunately he still had the other $100 engine. Shell Oil eventually helped him a little by providing free fuel but no one else wanted to become involved.

In October of 1977, at Australia’s Blowering Dam the second engine carried the boat to a new national record of 245 MPH. At that point Warby decided he needed a windshield installed.

More misfortune... a misplaced screwdriver ruined the second $100 engine just days before Warby was to make new record-breaking run at Blowering Dam. Back home, sitting in the mud in the back yard, he had a spare engine he’d purchased for 65 dollars. After transporting this engine to Blowering, the team worked night and day cleaning, installing and getting it operational. The next day Warby raised his national record to 265 MPH. Fink noticed a certain amount of drag on the rudder so two-and-one-half inches were removed. This resulted in the “Spirit of Australia” setting the world record of 288.60 MPH, November 20th, 1977. Warby has always found it remarkable that he set the record with a sixty-five dollar engine.

Now gaining some attention, a sponsor came forth. Soon “Fosseys,” the name of an Australian linen store, was painted on each side of the boat. In truth, the 7,000 dollars they contributed did little more than pay for feeding the Warby team.

Warby’s world record resulted in him being named “Australian Sportsman of the Year.” Noting this fame, Royal Australian Group Captain Bob Bartram contacted Warby, asking him to come to visit his base where the Air Force refurbished jet engines. While visiting he met Lt. Wing Commander David Appleby who today as retired Major Appleby is in charge of Warby’s boat crew. One thing led to anther and soon Appleby and his apprentices was looking at the $65 engine in the Spirit. The examination found it was 30% rusted an corroded, so it was not operating at full power. The official story is that Bartram’s operation rebuilt that motor, but it is more likely that they swapped it for a newly rebuilt unit then, so government auditors would not raise an eyebrow, switched the I.D. plate. Warby says, “I’ll never tell.” Whatever, the “Spirit of Australia” was now at full power. October 8th, 1978, at Blowering Dam, Warby and his craft raised the World Record to 317.596. The record has remained there ever since.

Now the endorsements came. Bill McRae, Chairman of Speedo, an international bathing suit company, invited Warby to a board meeting where he handed him a 50,000. dollar check. Shortly thereafter Australian leader, Malcolm Fraser, made arrangements for Warby and his boat to tour America. Before departing he took the boat through a run of over 400 MPH, but because it was a one-way trip, it did not count as a new record. To achieve any such record a run must be made each direction, producing an averaged speed.

In 1980, while Warby was in the U.S., American, Lee Taylor, attempted to break the record in a rocket-powered boat on Lake Tahoe. He died when at nearly 300 MPH the craft went airborne, broke in half and disintegrated. In 1991 Craig Afrons, a good friend of Warby’s but who had little experience on water, met the same fate at Sebring, Florida. He also went airborne. “That's the big problem,” says Warby, “These are boats, not airplanes... they do not fly very well.”