CLIMATE CHANGERS - Guinness World Records recognize water speed records for vehicles powered only by solar panels. The cross-channel attempt will go down in the history books if it is successful and beats the current record.

The World Unlimited water speed record is the officially recognised fastest speed achieved by a water-borne vehicle. In the outright category, jets rule supreme. On this page we are concerned with electric and solar powered boats.

The records on this page are to do with cutting edge renewable energy projects involving first battery electric boats and more recently, solar powered boats, that like the cars in the World Solar Challenge race across Australia, could become commercially successful at some point in the future, such as to make a stand against climate change, otherwise known as global warming.

BATTERY ELECTRIC

SOLAR CIRCUMNAVIGATION SPEED RECORD - The above table illustrates one of the most likely ocean awareness expedition routes showing the time elapsed in days for 7 knots average cruising speed, including times for 5 and 6 knot averages - allowing for 10% downtime and 36 days in ports.

Unlike most water speed record attempts, this is more concerned with endurance over long distances with relatively slow velocities. Apart from nuclear power, the only way to power a vessel over 24,000 nautical miles and more is using renewable energy sources. Hence, although the objective is to reduce the current solar powered circumnavigation water speed record from 584 days and 3mph average, the event in not an outright non-stop yacht competition in the offshore racing sense. It remains to be seen how accurate such a prediction might be.