Strange, I was about to post this feature by Kevin Desmond, from Powerboat & Waterskiing (March 1975) when a thread was posted in the General Boating Discussion section:
http://boatmad.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17196
This was with reference to a film of Donald Campbell's final tilt at the World Water Speed Record... and I ended-up watching it right through. Very good it was too...
Cutting a long (and slightly boring) story short, I was about to post this, as i found it a good read...
Thought it might be more appropriate here in the Historic section.