Brits race for land sailing record

Windjet has broken the British record with 183 kilomtres per hour

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British team is attempting to break one of sailing's more unusual records -- with a land yacht.

Windjet, which does not go near water and cannot float, is vital to a British project aimed at breaking the world land, ice and water speed sailing record.

Project leader and pilot Richard Jenkins has already smashed the British record, in Windjet, officially clocking 183 kilometres per hour just 5kph short of the world record held by American land yacht Iron Duck.

Iron Duck had a much longer run-up on a dry lake in Nevada. Windjet has just three kilometres of runway to get up speed. Nevertheless, the team say their craft has beaten the world record, unofficially. A GPS system is used to monitor the speed.

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The team will continue racing until they officially get the world record.

Britain's Royal Air Force helps the Windjet Team, offering its runway in Lincolnshire for the record attempts. Whenever strong winds are forecast, the team travel up from their base on the south coast of England and put together the space-age looking craft.

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Jenkins, who has a background in sailing and engineering, describes Windjet as the "Formula One" of land yachts.

"It's like driving a car with all the power of a Ferrari but with none of the subtleties and with someone else pressing the accelerator," he said.

"Obviously it's wind powered and we are traveling at six times the wind speed. You get a gust and you accelerate fiercely. We accelerate from zero to 100 in about two-thirds of a mile, which is one a par with more high-performance sports cars."

At the front of the yacht is a Formula One tyre, providing steering and braking,

"Instead of a flexible sail on a yacht, we have a solid wing just like a wing on an aeroplane and that generates a ton of side force at top speed," said Jenkins.

"The actual controls are very simple. You have three main controls – you have a steering wheel to steer with, a sheet to control the angle of the main sail and downforce [controls]."

The next project is a watercraft, but Jenkins is keeping the design secret until later this year.

"The watercraft is very, very radical indeed. It's actually a fundamental leap in sailcraft design. All details are totally secret until we actually finish the build, which should be some time this summer."