Shanty I, Miss Wahoo, and Miss Spokane Question

By Fred Farley - Unlimited Hydroplane Historian

QUESTION:

SHANTY I, MISS WAHOO, and MISS SPOKANE were identical sisterships. Would you give a brief history of each boat and would you speculate as to what MISS WAHOO and MISS SPOKANE may have accomplished had they run a full schedule each year instead of primarily the western races. - Curt Pike

ANSWER:

All three were designed by Ted Jones and built during the winter of 1955-56 by Les Staudacher. SHANTY I (U-29) was owned by Texas oil millionaire Bill Waggoner; MISS WAHOO (U-77) was owned by Seattle aircraft executive Bill Boeing, Jr. The hull that became MISS SPOKANE (U-25) was originally owned jointly by Waggoner and Boeing and kept in reserve as a back-up boat. They sold the U-25 to a syndicate from Spokane, Washington, in 1957.

SHANTY I was named after Waggoner's wife Mary Beth whose nickname was Shanty. MISS WAHOO was named after Mrs. Boeing's hometown of Wahoo, Nebraska.

SHANTY I and MISS WAHOO debuted on the Unlimited circuit in 1956; MISS SPOKANE didn't make it into the water until 1958.

Two of the three ended their careers at the bottom of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. SHANTY I was destroyed during a test run in 1957. MISS WAHOO, renamed MISS BUDWEISER, was involved in a double fatality during the Final Heat of the 1966 President's Cup, which took the lives of MISS BUDWEISER driver Don Wilson and NOTRE DAME pilot Rex Manchester.

SHANTY I was designer Jones's personal favorite boat. She was National High Point Champion in 1956 and won her first three races in a row with USAF Lieutenant Colonel Russ Schleeh at the wheel: the Lake Tahoe Mapes Trophy, the Seattle Seafair Regatta, and the Harmsworth International Trophy. Powered by a supercharged Allison engine,

SHANTY I established a world record for a 3.75-mile competition lap at 115.979 miles per hour on Seattle's Lake Washington. Subsequent to the 1956 racing season, SHANTY I and the "Flying Colonel" made an attempt on Lake Washington to break the world mile straightaway record of 178.497, set by SLO-MO-SHUN IV in 1952, but came up short with a clocking of 173.910.

SHANTY I had difficulty handling rough water in 1956 and, in order to correct the problem, was rebuilt for the 1957 season. This proved to be SHANTY I's undoing. The balance was wrong. From then on, the boat was a shell of its former self.

SHANTY I was no match for the likes of Jack Regas in HAWAII KAI III, Bill Muncey in MISS THRIFTWAY, or Mira Slovak in MISS WAHOO. At the 1957 Seattle Gold Cup, driver Schleeh reported he had power that he couldn't use because the boat was so erratic. A month later, SHANTY I crashed at Washington and Russ Schleeh almost drowned.

MISS WAHOO showed potential in 1956 with Czechoslovakian freedom flyer Slovak in the cockpit. As the 5th-place finisher at the Seafair Regatta, Mira not only DROVE in his first race, he also SAW his first race! Slovak piloted WAHOO to victory in the 1957 Mapes Trophy, the 1959 President's Cup, and the 1959 Lake Mead Cup. The boat posted some of the fastest speeds on the Unlimited tour when the team converted from Allison to Rolls-Royce Merlin power in 1959. This included a 3-mile competition lap of 113.924 at the 1959 Gold Cup in Seattle.

The President's Cup victory had special significance to Slovak. A commercial pilot by profession, Mira needed a radio operator's license to fly a plane in the United States but was unable to obtain one on account of not being a U.S. citizen. This problem was solved when President Dwight Eisenhower signed an executive order, which allowed Slovak to be issued a license. In those days, the nation's Chief Executive traditionally awarded the President's Cup to the winner. After winning the 1959 race, Mira was able to thank Eisenhower in person.

Following an injury accident to Slovak at the 1960 Seattle Seafair Regatta, Bill Boeing announced his retirement from racing. The boat rested in drydock until recalled to active duty in 1963 as Milo and Glen Stoen's MISS EXIDE.

As one of the first boats to use a Nitrous Oxide injection system, the "new" MISS EXIDE was one of the fastest Unlimiteds of her day. With Bill Brow driving, she became the first boat to qualify for the Gold Cup at over 120 miles per hour with a 3-lap/9-mile average of 120.312 at Seattle in 1965. With Brow at the wheel, MISS EXIDE won the President's Cup and the Indiana Governor's Cup in 1963 and the Coeur d'Alene Diamond Cup in 1964 and 1965, before becoming Bernie Little's MISS BUDWEISER in 1966.

From Day One, MISS SPOKANE suffered an economic handicap. Her two sisterships were bankrolled by multi-millionaires, but the U-25 had to make do on a shoestring budget. The boat was supposedly "community-sponsored" in the tradition of MISS MADISON. But in the words of driver Rex Manchester, "The crew supports the boat and the wives support the crew." Nevertheless, MISS SPOKANE managed some respectable finishes. She placed third in both the Lake Chelan Apple Cup and the Diamond Cup in 1958 with Dallas Sartz driving.

With Manchester at the wheel, MISS SPOKANE was leading Muncey in MISS THRIFTWAY and was seconds away from victory in the 1960 Seafair Regatta when an accident to another boat necessitated a stoppage and a re-run of the Final Heat. Muncey made a better start in the re-run than Manchester and went on to take the victory with MISS SPOKANE finishing second.

The U-25 made its final appearance as MISS SPOKANE at the 1961 Reno Gold Cup where Manchester flipped her upside down while leading in Heat 2-B. The boat appeared as MISS EAGLE ELECTRIC in 1963 and 1964, sponsored by future PAY 'n PAK owner Dave Heerensperger, and managed a third in the 1963 Harrah's Tahoe Regatta with Manchester driving.

Renamed MISS LAPEER (U-9) by Detroiter Jim Herrington, the craft scored her one and only race victory at the 1966 Sacramento Cup on Lake Folsom with Warner Gardner at the wheel. Even then, the boat suffered from a dollar standpoint. At many of the races under Herrington's ownership, the crew consisted only of the driver and the driver's son. For the record, MISS LAPEER's Sacramento Cup win marked the final victory in the Unlimited Class by a Ted Jones-designed boat. (The first was the 1950 APBA Gold Cup by SLO-MO-SHUN IV.)

As to what MISS WAHOO and MISS SPOKANE may have accomplished had they run a full schedule, my speculation is that the WAHOO would have been pretty tough to beat. Although built in 1956, she was still competitive ten years later and gave NOTRE DAME everything she could handle at the 1966 President's Cup. SHANTY I may have "matured" quicker as a competitor than MISS WAHOO during their first season. But it's my opinion that WAHOO was the superior boat.

Taking into account the speed differential between the 3-mile and the 3.75-mile race courses, MISS WAHOO was faster--even before Nitrous Oxide became available for extra bursts of speed. As for MISS SPOKANE, we'll never know how she might have performed with a Waggoner or a Boeing writing the checks. Whether as MISS SPOKANE, MISS EAGLE ELECTRIC, or MISS LAPEER, she was seldom much more than an average boat.