On the morning of March 26th, on the ‘dry’ Lake Ivanpah, The Ecotricity Greenbird driven by British engineer, Richard Jenkins smashed the world land speed record for wind powered vehicles. The Greenbird clocked 126.1 mph (202.9 km/h) , eclipsing the old, American held, record of 116 mph , set by Bob Schumacher in the Iron Duck in March 1999 at the same location.

See Jenkins break the record and his comments afterwards 

The Greenbird is two vehicles: a land craft and an ice craft, powered only by the wind. The project’s aim is to break both the land and ice world speed records.

On the same day, the Macquarie Innovation team, led by Simon Mckeon claimed (subject to ratification by the WRSSC) that it had become the first sailing vessel to break a 50 knot average over the official 500m course.

Macquarie Innovation is said to have reached an average speed of 50.43 knots over the 500m course during which time she hit a maximum speed of 54.23 knots.

Once tidal variations have been taken into account her record speed is expected to be reduced to 50.08 knots, leaving her just short of the current outright world speed record set by kiteboard sailor Alexandre Caizergues. FRA who clocked 50.57knots over the 500m course on 4 October 2008.

Macquarie Innovation’s latest record follows hot on the heels of a new record it set for the C class on 19 December 2008 when she recorded 48.14 knots on the same course at Sandy Point AUS.