At St Katherine’s Dock, London on 10 October, a strange sleek beast was creating a bit of a stir. Resembling a miniature Klingon attack ship with a wing mounted vertically on top, the Windjet record ‘car’ dominated the cobblestones in front of the Dickens Inn.

It forms the first of a three-part assault on the wind-powered land, ice and water speed records, and also heralds a potentially ground-breaking design for the waterborne craft.

The land version is expected to beat the current record of around 115mph towards the end of October, and the water record could be attempted as soon as spring 2002. The designers claim they can easily top 50 knots over the water, and are working on developing a craft that can operate in choppy water with no loss of speed. Full details in On The Wind in the December issue ofYachting World.