Team NZ’s land speed world record bid goes on hold

Team New Zealand have been forced to put their wind powered land speed world record attempt on temporary hold.

Unseasonal water levels on Lake Gairdner in South Australia continue to flood the area of the salt surface the America’s Cup champions have targetted for this ambitious project.

Team New Zealand have built a 14m land yacht named Horonuku that needs to better the 202.9kph record set by Britain’s Rickard Jenkins in 2009.

Pilot Glenn Ashby’s latest reconnaissance mission to the lake ended in frustration as he stood calf-deep in the zone that is usually dry at this time of year.

‘‘Although Lake Gairdner is mostly dry, it unfortunately has roughly 200mm of residual water on the specific race track area we need to use in the very southern part of the lake,’’ Ashby explained.

If there were no further significant rain events and evaporation continued, he was hopeful for a dry surface in mid-to-late September.

‘‘With this current information collated, supported and reviewed, the decision has been made to put the land speed program on a temporary hold for the next few weeks at least,’’ Ashby said.

He had been bemused to find the race zone in this state. Water levels had actually risen since his last visit four weeks ago.

Adding to the puzzle was there had been very little rainfall over the past four to five weeks.

Team New Zealand believe strong northerly winds had pushed residue water over a hump in the middle of the lake and flooded their southern race zone.

Ashby says they would be ready to proceed ‘‘in an instant’’ when conditions allowed.

Australian customs and biosecurity officials cleared the team’s two containers last week, and they are in storage in Adelaide, ready to be trucked to the lake.

‘‘Ultimately, it seems that patience is required. We are in a position to mobilise quite quickly when the time is right. Being nimble and having an ability to react has always been a strength of the team.

‘‘Whilst this information is not what we would ideally like to hear and is hard personally, as a group and a project we are still in excellent shape.

‘‘We have a craft that is ready to go, a team that is ready to go, and we are not wasting resource on being on site with the inability to sail.’’

Ashby noted that the United States option they had considered at the famous Bonneville salt flats in Utah, was experiencing its own problems.

‘‘This week the Bonneville speed week was cancelled due to rain as well, so we aren’t the only speed seekers being affected by water.’’