Everyone's News Posts - Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum2024-03-19T10:16:18Zhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?xn_auth=noMahogany & Merlot ... Until Next Yeartag:thunderboats.ning.com,2023-10-11:6315479:BlogPost:2482072023-10-11T19:35:36.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12253857667?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" height="251" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12253857667?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="377"></img> <span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Mahogany & Merlot 2023 was an amazing weekend and a wonderful opportunity to make some dreams come true! We want to thank every one of you who attended, participated and volunteered for this event - You are Wonderful!…</strong></span></a></p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12253857667?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12253857667?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center" width="377" height="251"/><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Mahogany & Merlot 2023 was an amazing weekend and a wonderful opportunity to make some dreams come true! We want to thank every one of you who attended, participated and volunteered for this event - You are Wonderful!</strong></span></a></p>
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<p><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW FOR MAHOGANY & MERLOT 2024</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>OCTOBER 4-5-6, 2024</strong></span></p>Get Your 2023 Garden Gala Tickets Here!tag:thunderboats.ning.com,2023-07-26:6315479:BlogPost:2470792023-07-26T00:18:58.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS TO THE HYDROPLANE & RACEBOAT MUSEUM'S 2023 GARDEN GALA & AUCTION</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>BY USING THE FOLLOWING LINK:…</strong></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS TO THE HYDROPLANE & RACEBOAT MUSEUM'S 2023 GARDEN GALA & AUCTION</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>BY USING THE FOLLOWING LINK:</strong></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><a href="http://www.hydromuseumstore.org/museum-event-tickets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BUY GALA TICKETS HERE</a></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12161050676?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12161050676?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="517" height="588"/></a></p>Our Online Auction is OPEN - Lots of great items to be bid on!tag:thunderboats.ning.com,2023-06-21:6315479:BlogPost:2475412023-06-21T20:44:09.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>ONLINE MEMORABILIA AUCTION IS OPEN NOW!</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">THERE ARE TONS OF COLLECTIBLE, ONE OF A KIND OR JUST DOWNRIGHT AMAZING ITEMS AVAILABLE IN OUR CURRENT ONLINE MEMORABILIA AUCTION - HERE'S A PEEK AT A COUPLE OF ITEMS UP FOR BID:…</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>ONLINE MEMORABILIA AUCTION IS OPEN NOW!</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">THERE ARE TONS OF COLLECTIBLE, ONE OF A KIND OR JUST DOWNRIGHT AMAZING ITEMS AVAILABLE IN OUR CURRENT ONLINE MEMORABILIA AUCTION - HERE'S A PEEK AT A COUPLE OF ITEMS UP FOR BID:</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12110171291?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12110171291?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="252" height="161"/></a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>RIDE OF A LIFETIME ON THE WATER FOLLIES RACE COURSE IN TRI CITIES!</strong></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12110201495?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12110201495?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="205" height="274" class="align-center"/>COMPLETE MARINERS PACKAGE WITH TICKETS TO MARINERS VS. DODGERS!</a></strong></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12110242099?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12110242099?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="252" height="189"/></a></strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>TICKETS TO WATCH THE HUSKIES PLAY THE CALIFORNIA BEARS!</strong></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-size: 12pt;">The Auction closes at 7 PM (Pacific Time) on Sunday, June 25 - </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Use the link below to go to the Auction Website and check out all the cool items we are offering and find YOUR treasure today!</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><a href="http://thunderboats.maestroweb.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GO TO AUCTION WEBSITE</a></strong></span></p>Vintage Racing Videostag:thunderboats.ning.com,2023-06-21:6315479:BlogPost:2473412023-06-21T20:25:57.000ZLeannette Holmes (Belgarde)http://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/LeannetteHolmesBelgarde
So… we cleared out the shop and found boxes and boxes of videos and slides. You can see some of them are home videos send some are hydroplane related! Let me know if you’d like to go through them with me! I’ve got the projectors.<br />
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Leannette - Granddaughter of Don Kelson
So… we cleared out the shop and found boxes and boxes of videos and slides. You can see some of them are home videos send some are hydroplane related! Let me know if you’d like to go through them with me! I’ve got the projectors.<br />
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Leannette - Granddaughter of Don KelsonThunderboats Video Launches on YouTube!tag:thunderboats.ning.com,2023-03-16:6315479:BlogPost:2460042023-03-16T22:26:42.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ThunderboatsVideo" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998727458?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ThunderboatsVideo" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998727474?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ThunderboatsVideo" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998727458?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ThunderboatsVideo" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998727474?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>2023 Mahogany & Merlottag:thunderboats.ning.com,2023-03-16:6315479:BlogPost:2460012023-03-16T22:07:07.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998715292?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998715292?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998715292?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998715292?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>1979 Circus Circus Restorationtag:thunderboats.ning.com,2023-03-16:6315479:BlogPost:2457022023-03-16T22:00:00.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.hydromuseumstore.org/2023-donations/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998719498?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="600"></img></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998720685?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998720685?profile=RESIZE_710x"></img></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.hydromuseumstore.org/2023-donations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998719498?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="600" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998720685?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10998720685?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>Miss Thriftway Tootag:thunderboats.ning.com,2021-09-01:6315479:BlogPost:2408242021-09-01T05:55:53.000ZTim Sandoverhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/TimSandover
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515819672?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"></a>\</p>
<p>Thank you for the add, I live in West Australia, so do not have a lot of knowledge of these boats, my main reason for joining is to find more information about “Miss Thriftway Too” I’m about to build a Roger Newton plans (DOUBLE SIZED), as I have already done this to “Miss Smirnoff” some years ago that…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515819672?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>\</p>
<p>Thank you for the add, I live in West Australia, so do not have a lot of knowledge of these boats, my main reason for joining is to find more information about “Miss Thriftway Too” I’m about to build a Roger Newton plans (DOUBLE SIZED), as I have already done this to “Miss Smirnoff” some years ago that built into a 60+inch fiberglass mold, worked out quite well. I am after detailed photos of cockpit/dash area & the under front middle sponson etc</p>
<p>Thank you in advance for your time & interest in my project.</p>
<p>Tim</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515821098?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515825058?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515825058?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515825695?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515825695?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515827867?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515829857?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515829857?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515833658?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515833658?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515834058?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515838066?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515838066?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a><br/><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9515821098?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a></p>James Thompson owner of Miss Supertest III passing May 13 2021tag:thunderboats.ning.com,2021-08-11:6315479:BlogPost:2407092021-08-11T20:35:09.000ZDavid Hailwoodhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidHailwood
<p><a href="http://www.pictongazette.ca/2021/05/17/thompson-of-miss-supertest-fame-passes-away-at-94/">http://www.pictongazette.ca/2021/05/17/thompson-of-miss-supertest-fame-passes-away-at-94/</a></p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9410067663?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9410067663?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.pictongazette.ca/2021/05/17/thompson-of-miss-supertest-fame-passes-away-at-94/">http://www.pictongazette.ca/2021/05/17/thompson-of-miss-supertest-fame-passes-away-at-94/</a></p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9410067663?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9410067663?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>Working for Ron Jonestag:thunderboats.ning.com,2021-02-25:6315479:BlogPost:2334112021-02-25T07:21:54.000ZDaryl Stonehamhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DarylStoneham
<p>Sir</p>
<p> My main reason for contacting your organization is to comment that I am the guy who physically built the two Pride of Pay ‘n Pac’s back in the early 70’s while working for Ron Jones when he had his manufacturing facility on 17th st in Costa Mesa CA. I worked for Ron for about 4yrs as a carpenter and during that time I also built Notre Dame, several 7litres, racing tunnel hulls, a pleasure tunnel hull he was trying to develop as a commercial project with Phil Anthony of…</p>
<p>Sir</p>
<p> My main reason for contacting your organization is to comment that I am the guy who physically built the two Pride of Pay ‘n Pac’s back in the early 70’s while working for Ron Jones when he had his manufacturing facility on 17th st in Costa Mesa CA. I worked for Ron for about 4yrs as a carpenter and during that time I also built Notre Dame, several 7litres, racing tunnel hulls, a pleasure tunnel hull he was trying to develop as a commercial project with Phil Anthony of Anthony Pools and I also physically built the offshore race boat Kudu that revolutionized offshore racing and Betty Cook took to become World Champion. I’m not sure that Ron got the recognition deserved for how he revolutionized tunnel hull racing, of which the Italians adopted, and how Kudu revolutionized offshore racing. I was a carpenter but he had me build Pay n Pac and Kudu out of the honeycomb aluminum that was so ahead of its time, what a brilliant man. I delivered boats all over the country when they were finished, Ogden Utah, Seafair, etc. I left his employment as he was moving his operation back to Seatle and as I had just gotten married I needed to stay in southern cal. After leaving Ron I went back to building and became a contractor and developer here in Orange County. I still say after all these yrs that the greatest and most fun time I’ve ever had working were those few years I spent with Ron. To get to know Ted, who became somewhat of a mentor to me during that time was a great honor and he is probably the finest gentleman I’ve ever met. To this day I still thank Ron for those days as the best and at times talk about them as they were just yesterday. </p>
<p> Anyway just a bit of trivia. Regards Daryl Stoneham. </p>Doug Ford's booktag:thunderboats.ning.com,2020-12-30:6315479:BlogPost:1840282020-12-30T17:16:26.000ZJames Piteohttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/JamesPiteo
<p>I just got done reading Doug Ford's book <br></br>What were they thinking", and thoroughly enjoyed it. </p>
<p>Being from Detroit and having started following the Unlimiteds in 1969, I had some familiarity with many of the boats but this added a lot of information I didn't know. I appreciated how Doug did somewhat of a root cause analysis of each of the boats at the end of each chapter.</p>
<p>I also learned about some boats that were before my time.</p>
<p>I have been in Dave Bartush's…</p>
<p>I just got done reading Doug Ford's book <br/>What were they thinking", and thoroughly enjoyed it. </p>
<p>Being from Detroit and having started following the Unlimiteds in 1969, I had some familiarity with many of the boats but this added a lot of information I didn't know. I appreciated how Doug did somewhat of a root cause analysis of each of the boats at the end of each chapter.</p>
<p>I also learned about some boats that were before my time.</p>
<p>I have been in Dave Bartush's warehouse a few times and saw some of these boats first-hand as they sit gathering dust, so it was cool to see pictures from there.</p>
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<p>James Piteo</p>
<p> Macomb, MI</p>Putting the “Unlimited” into Hydroplanestag:thunderboats.ning.com,2020-01-11:6315479:BlogPost:1167342020-01-11T20:50:22.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Putting the “Unlimited” into Hydroplanes</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">by </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Kirsten N. Johnson </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Gar Wood's great niece…</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>Putting the “Unlimited” into Hydroplanes</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">by </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Kirsten N. Johnson </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Gar Wood's great niece</span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3814690420?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3814690420?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-left"/></a>When the calendar recently turned from 2019 to 2020, it marked the centurial of a truly epic year in speedboat racing history. 1920 was a year of speedboat glory for America, and for two men in particular. Gar Wood and Chris Smith - working out of a small boat shop in Algonac, Michigan - had now built the fastest speedboat in the world. With this boat, they had won the world’s supreme, Unlimited-class speedboat racing championship - the Harmsworth Trophy. The boat was the Miss America – a sleek hydroplane made of Philippine mahogany and driven by two converted 12-cylinder, 500 hp Liberty airplane powerplants.1</p>
<p>The powerplants that characterized “Unlimited” – the term used to describe a class of racing boats that have no restrictions on the displacement size of their piston engines – began a radical reformulation in 1918. Gar Wood, an auto mechanic turned newly-minted millionaire from his invention of the hydraulic hoist, was now indulging the boat-racing passion that he had developed in childhood. Outwardly personable and unassuming, Wood’s underlying fiercely competitive nature compelled his involvement in virtually every aspect of the design and building of his raceboats.</p>
<p>Applying the innovative thinking that had inspired his hoist invention, Wood saw a new potential solution to the problem of weight vs horsepower and speed. Marine engines were much heavier than the airplane engines of the time period. “If we want speed,“ Wood reasoned, “we’ve got to cut weight.”2 Additionally, Gar reasoned that “airplane motors had to be more dependable than boat motors, since there was little margin for engine failure in the air.”3</p>
<p>Wood’s visionary plan had many naysayers. Skeptics believed airplane motors would fail in speedboats smashing through choppy water because they were too fragile, with too many delicate parts. Regardless of the warnings of the engineers, Wood – wielding the power one derives from being the primary financier of a project - held firm.</p>
<p>The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, an American aircraft manufacturer founded in 1916, had contracted with the British government to build powerful, lightweight, 12-cylinder V-type engines. Wood acquired one for his prospective 1918 raceboat. As the aircraft powerplant was being adapted into a marine engine over the 1917-1918 winter, Chris Smith was building a 20-foot hull for the new speedboat. The result was the Miss Detroit III, the lightest craft for her power ever built. She was 400 lbs. lighter than her predecessor, with an increase of propeller revolutions to 2,000 per minute.4 Driven by the converted Curtiss 1650 cubic inch, 400-horsepower aviation engine, the revolutionary hydroplane handily won the 1918 Gold Cup. Her fastest 5-mile lap was recorded as 59.3 mph, an increase of 6 mph over the 1917 record.5 A MoToR BoatinG race account reported “it was apparent that she was a 70-mile boat.” When running full-throttle, “she had no difficulty in passing everything in sight.”6</p>
<p>The Miss Detroit III demonstrated the potentially unlimited speeds that raceboats could attain with aircraft engines, which silenced some initial critics. However, new protests arose against the use of converted airplane motors in established races – from marine engine companies as well as raceboat owners. When calls for disqualification were lodged against Wood’s boat during the next racing season, on the grounds that the rules required “marine” engines, Gar contended, “If an airplane engine runs a boat all right that makes it a marine engine, doesn’t it? Please tell me what a marine engine is. I’m looking for someone who can define it.”7</p>
<p>Wood’s speedboating interests went beyond simply collecting trophies at annual regattas. Gar was genuinely dedicated to discovering what limits there were on greater over-the-water speeds, and then striving to overcome them. He was frustrated by the new American Power Boat Association (APBA) racing rules meant to handicap his engine-adaptation ingenuity. With the European war at an end, he turned his focus to a new possibility overseas. England sponsored a race that promoted visionary thinking - the Unlimited speedboat championship of the world.</p>
<p>From its inception in 1903, the British International Trophy race (aka the Harmsworth) was intended as a test of engineering and design, and to encourage the development of hulls and engines in watercraft. The 1903 Deed of Gift expressly stated that: "The race should serve a most effective means of bringing marine motors and the design of launch hulls to a state of perfection.” There was no limit placed on the horsepower or form of motive power employed, but boats could not exceed 40 feet in length.8</p>
<p>During the 1919-1920 winter in Algonac, Wood and Smith built two hydroplanes to take to England for the 1920 Harmsworth race; packing two powerful, converted Liberty airplane engines in each. Miss Detroit V was 38 feet, heavier, and designed for rough water. Miss America was smaller at 26 feet, faster, and designed for calm water.9</p>
<p>For several years, the residents of tiny, riverside Algonac had delighted in the thrill of many of the fastest boats in America being built in their village. During speed tests, locals lined the waterfront to watch the mahogany missiles thunder over the river. Now, two hydroplanes from Algonac were going to the world championship in England! The town talk was of raceboats, hulls, engines, propellers, speed. How fast would the new creations of Gar Wood’s and Chris Smith’s exceptionalism go?</p>
<p>The builders of the two raceboats were no less unmoved by the magnitude of their endeavor. An accounting of events describes an evening when Miss America lay in her cradle, awaiting shipment to England. Chris Smith – who would soon launch a company called Chris-Craft - was spotted on down on his knees at her stern. He was stroking her bow, and quietly saying, “You’ll do, my girl, you’ll do.”10</p>
<p></p>
<p>About the Author<a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3814707903?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3814707903?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-right"/></a></p>
<p>Kirsten N. Johnson is a life-long travel and boating enthusiast and the great-niece of Gar Wood, the legendary speedboat racer. Growing up in the mountains of western North Carolina, she developed an enduring passion for outdoor activities and sporting events. After receiving degrees in registered nursing and health information technology, for many years Kirsten worked as a travel nurse contractor at multiple healthcare sites throughout the U.S and Alaska. Kirsten has spent several years researching the Wood family, interviewing family members, and collecting family letters and documents. She currently lives in Virginia, where she is writing a biography about Gar Wood and the Wood family.</p>
<p><strong>Notes</strong></p>
<p>1. Barrett, J. Lee, Speedboat Kings, Hardscrabble Books and the Historical Society of Michigan, 1986, p. 44. 2. Ibid., p. 36.</p>
<p>3. “Rearview Mirror Look at Speedboat King,” Detroit News, May 10, 1997</p>
<p>4. Barrett, Speedboat Kings, p. 37.</p>
<p>5. “Miss Detroit III Wins the Gold Cup,” MoToR BoatinG, October 1918, p. 42.</p>
<p>6. Ibid., p. 9.</p>
<p>7. Barrett, Speedboat Kings, p. 41.</p>
<p>8. “Harmsworth Deed of Gift,” The Rudder, May 1903, p. 304.</p>
<p>9. Barrett, Speedboat Kings, p. 44.</p>
<p>10. “Old Algonac Awaits Dawn and Bets Are All on Gar,”</p>
<p>Detroit Free Press, September 17, 1932</p>Be Thankful This Thanksgivingtag:thunderboats.ning.com,2019-11-27:6315479:BlogPost:1167012019-11-27T21:15:38.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3744379672?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img height="549" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3744379672?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="351"></img></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">AS WE TAKE TIME THIS THANKSGIVING TO REMEMBER WHAT WE ARE THANKFUL FOR, ALL OF US AT THE HYDROPLANE & RACEBOAT MUSEUM WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT WE ARE THANKFUL FOR OUR WONDERFUL DONORS, MEMBERS AND VOLUNTEERS.…</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3744379672?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3744379672?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="351" height="549"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">AS WE TAKE TIME THIS THANKSGIVING TO REMEMBER WHAT WE ARE THANKFUL FOR, ALL OF US AT THE HYDROPLANE & RACEBOAT MUSEUM WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT WE ARE THANKFUL FOR OUR WONDERFUL DONORS, MEMBERS AND VOLUNTEERS.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">WISHING YOU AND YOURS A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING!</span></p>MUSEUM HOLIDAY HOURStag:thunderboats.ning.com,2019-11-27:6315479:BlogPost:1165042019-11-27T18:05:38.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3744180139?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img height="210" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3744180139?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="359"></img></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>HYDROPLANE & RACEBOAT MUSEUM</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>HOLIDAY HOURS AND CLOSURES…</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3744180139?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3744180139?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="359" height="210"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>HYDROPLANE & RACEBOAT MUSEUM</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>HOLIDAY HOURS AND CLOSURES</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>NOV. 28 - THANKSGIVING: CLOSED</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>DEC. 24 - CHRISTMAS EVE: CLOSING AT NOON</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>DEC. 25 - CHRISTMAS DAY: CLOSED</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>DEC. 31 - NEW YEARS EVE: CLOSING AT 2 PM</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>JAN. 1 - NEW YEARS DAY: CLOSED</strong></span></p>Museum will be closed while we run boats in Tri Cities!tag:thunderboats.ning.com,2019-07-25:6315479:BlogPost:1145372019-07-25T15:14:34.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3384184029?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" height="328" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3384184029?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="492"></img></a></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">We will be running four boats at Tri Cities this weekend July 26, 27 and 28. The Museum will be closed until </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">we return on Tuesday July 30th. We apologize for any…</span></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3384184029?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3384184029?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center" width="492" height="328"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">We will be running four boats at Tri Cities this weekend July 26, 27 and 28. The Museum will be closed until </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">we return on Tuesday July 30th. We apologize for any inconvenience</span>. </p>Holiday Hours & Closurestag:thunderboats.ning.com,2019-07-03:6315479:BlogPost:1147372019-07-03T17:19:11.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img height="180" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3188755867?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="320"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">THE HYDROPLANE & RACEBOAT MUSEUM</span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">WILL BE CLOSED </span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">THURSDAY, JULY 4TH</span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">IN…</span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3188755867?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="320" height="180"/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">THE HYDROPLANE & RACEBOAT MUSEUM</span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">WILL BE CLOSED </span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">THURSDAY, JULY 4TH</span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">IN OBSERVANCE OF INDEPENDENCE DAY</span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">WE WISH EVERYONE A SAFE AND HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!</span></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>The hydroplane connectiontag:thunderboats.ning.com,2019-04-03:6315479:BlogPost:1142022019-04-03T17:18:17.000ZHydroplane Museumhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/246tk6zdw9cbo
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1757386174?profile=original" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1757386174?profile=RESIZE_710x"></img></a></p>
<p>In the ‘50s, males 18 and older had three choices: Be drafted for two years, enlist three to four years or try to find work. In spite of the impending draft I landed a job that offered excitement like meeting well-known personalities and becoming part of hydroplane racing at Stan Sayres Inc. Stan Sayres Inc. was a Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth/Desoto…</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1757386174?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1757386174?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>In the ‘50s, males 18 and older had three choices: Be drafted for two years, enlist three to four years or try to find work. In spite of the impending draft I landed a job that offered excitement like meeting well-known personalities and becoming part of hydroplane racing at Stan Sayres Inc. Stan Sayres Inc. was a Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth/Desoto dealership on Broadway and Madison (recently demolished to make way for a much needed high-rise).</p>
<p>The lot had a high demand for sales reps but my draft status left that route closed to me. The employees were friendly but one guy stood head and shoulders above the rest, working on the grease rack, changing oil and lubing cars. Phil Namma had a real gift for gab, which made him prime for a sales position. What a salesman he was! One month his commission was $4,800! He was a force to be reckoned with.</p>
<p>My job entailed new and used car inventory and running parts for hydros. Several times during the race season parts and equipment were shuttled to Hunts Point where we witnessed our racer, Slo-mo-shun IV, being raised from the water under covered moorage. Grinning ear-to-ear, I chatted with the Mopar Parts hydro crew and drivers. Some visitors were able to catch a ride on a “Thunder Boat” and, try as I might, I never got one. But I sure did get drafted. TV personalities and other celebs got their ride of a lifetime.</p>
<p>Stan Sayres bought the Slo-mo-shun IV from Anchor Jensen (Jensen Boat Repair at Portage Bay) who built and drove it winning the Detroit River race in 1950 bringing the Gold Cup to Seattle. Other hydroplane builders were Ron Jones who made boats safer while his brother Ted Jones made them faster.</p>
<p>A Sayres master mechanic named Wayne and I were sent to 10th and Union to Davis and Hoffman Auto Repair. There in the basement were several large engines in crates Stan had purchased as military surplus after WWII. Some of the engines had powered tanks, PT boats and airplanes. Allison was the name on the engines so we found one matching serial number, loaded it up on a pickup and drove it to the service department.</p>
<p>Wayne, like a surgeon, laid several shop towels on a long bench where he dismantled the roller bearings assembly atop the huge engine and removed the packing grease. Each part was carefully cleaned.</p>
<p>Several days later Stan invited all employees to the second story to view and hear the results of Wayne’s artistry. Standing a safe distance away from what would be the heart of Slo-mo-shun IV the exhaust vented through the ceiling. He fired the big engine just at idle speed and we all felt the vibes in our chests.</p>
<p>Days later I drove the engine to Mr. Sayres house on Hunts Point where the crew worked on Slo-Mo IV around the clock readying for the big race. Crew members were found sleeping on Stan’s carpet.</p>
<p>Mr. Sayres handed me a heavy block of brass about the size of a brick. He gave me instructions to take it to Lake Union to Anchor Jensen’s Boat Repair, where Mr. Jensen carved a propeller for the Slo-mos. It was nothing short of magic. I tried my best to remember the crew’s names, even writing them down on my hands for future reference.</p>
<p>There was to be a test run and so, when it was announced that the Slo-mos would be running on Lake Washington, many people lined the shores! Hydro fever was everywhere, much like Seahawks fever today. There were buttons, t-shirts, pins, posters, sun visors and postcards. Kids pulled wooden hydros behind their bikes and some tried pulling them on the water behind them to get a rooster effect to no avail.</p>
<p>The day of the races people lined the Interstate 90 bridge and, as the boats jockeyed for the best position for the starting gun, the Slo-mo left Hunts Point. Under the west end of the I-90 bridge everyone started cheering. The noise from the hydros and the cheering are forever embedded in my brain.</p>
<p>Slo-mo won first of four races. The boats barely touched the water at top speed with the small window between water conditions and speed. People held portable radios to their ears trying to hear the races. On one occasion, Bill Muncy ran into Coast Guard cutters. Another time Slo-mo sped under the I-90 bridge, rooster-tailing the Seafair judges’ barge and soaking everyone. On a sad note, the Quick Silver flipped and sank taking the driver and co-driver with it. Bill Omara, TV broadcaster and newsman, fell to his knees and said a heartfelt prayer on live TV.</p>
<p>I met Bill Muncy while working for Sayres, driving him and other members of the pit crew to critical meetings. There were some great conversations. Bill owned the Mercer Island Roostertail Grocery store — I told him I really wanted to ride in a hydro. He laughed, saying simply, “You should have asked!”</p>
<p>On one of those perfect summer days in Seattle I motored my boat to where Keith Jacobsen (owner of Muffler City on Rainer) sat on his 20-foot boat with its full-blown supercharged Pontiac Bonneville engine. Keith and his girlfriend invited me aboard and, traveling at more than 95 mph, we screamed from Seward Park to the I-90 bridge! Now that’s boating!</p>
<p></p>
<p>By Richard Carl Lehman, Columnist</p>
<p>Reprinted from <em><a href="https://madisonparktimes.com/Content/Opinion/Opinion/Article/The-hydroplane-connection/9/9/30641" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Madison Park Times</a></em></p>Vintage Unlimiteds are Alive and Welltag:thunderboats.ning.com,2018-09-01:6315479:BlogPost:1112932018-09-01T23:07:31.000ZTimothy Ramseyhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/TimothyRamsey
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 4px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> <span style="margin: 0px;">By, Timothy Ramsey / HaRM</span></span></p>
<p>This past weekend, August 24<sup>th</sup> – 26<sup>th</sup>, many witnessed a lot of activity within the vintage unlimited scene as there were events stretching from Kent Washington all the way to Detroit Michigan that involved unlimited class race boats of all shapes and sizes. Below are just four events that we were aware of and there…</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 4px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> <span style="margin: 0px;">By, Timothy Ramsey / HaRM</span></span></p>
<p>This past weekend, August 24<sup>th</sup> – 26<sup>th</sup>, many witnessed a lot of activity within the vintage unlimited scene as there were events stretching from Kent Washington all the way to Detroit Michigan that involved unlimited class race boats of all shapes and sizes. Below are just four events that we were aware of and there were probably others too.</p>
<p><strong>Gull Lake Classic at Bar Harbor Minnesota – August 24<sup>th</sup>-26<sup>th</sup>, 2018</strong></p>
<p>The Gull Lake Classis is attended annually by thousands and this year’s event was no exception, among those classic hulls in attendance was Dr. Ken Muscatel’s “Miss Detroit III” that Peter Kreissle was kind enough to bring from Clayton while Dr. Muscatel and crew brought the “My Sweetie” out from Seattle.</p>
<p>Among others in attendance was the “The Tempo VI” owned by Lee and Penny Anderson out of Nisswa, Minnesota. Lee and Penny also own the 1924 Nevins “Baby Bootlegger”. Mark Mason also brought the “Curtiss Wilgold III” out from New Hampshire for this show as well.</p>
<p><strong>APBA “Gold Cup” Detroit Michigan – August 24<sup>th</sup>-26<sup>th</sup>, 2018</strong></p>
<p>The 2018 running of the APBA Gold Cup was once again held in Detroit Michigan and contested on the Detroit River, among the vintage unlimiteds in attendance was the “Miss U.S.” from Omaha Nebraska driven by Jack Schafer Jr., the “Blue Chip” from Chelan Washington driven by Mitch Evans, the replica “Miss Thriftway” from Vashon Island Washington driven by Steve Compton, and the replica “Gale V” from Henderson Arkansas driven by William “Bill” Black.</p>
<p><strong>Museum of North Idaho 50th Anniversary Coeur d'Alene, ID -</strong> <strong>August 24<sup>th</sup>-26<sup>th</sup>, 2018</strong></p>
<p>As part of the promotions supporting the Museum of North Idaho’s 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary, David William’s brought “Bruce McCaw’s 1958 Bardahl that Mira Slovak drove over for display, the Bardahl is celebrating its 60<sup>th</sup> anniversary.</p>
<p>David William’s started the “Mighty” 1710 ci Allison engine a number of times and it quickly drew lots of attention, Sunday mornings local newspaper featured a nice picture and article of the “Miss Bardahl”.</p>
<p><strong>Squire Shop Restoration / HaRM Kent Washington - Ongoing</strong></p>
<p>The 1979 “Squire Shop” restoration is just completing its 22<sup>nd</sup> month of restoration and looks to be turning right side up on Tuesday the 4<sup>th</sup> of September at 5:00pm. As of this writing the boat is scheduled to be on the water by early summer and hopefully to be running at next years Seafair events. The Squire Shop was originally driven by Chip Hanauer and we hope to see Chip back in this fan favorite next year too.</p>
<p>These great vintage unlimiteds are growing by the numbers and the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum is actively right in the middle of the more modern three-point classic restorations. In the past three years HaRM has completed the following restorations.</p>
<ol>
<li>The 1958 “Miss Bardahl”</li>
<li>The 1973 “Winged Wonder”, “Pay-n-Pak”</li>
</ol>
<p>As of this writing the “Squire Shop” is 10 months away from completion and then the shop will go very quiet, or will it?</p>
<p>There are currently five additional unlimited restorations being considered, of these five three will happen within the next three years for certain. The other two will depend on funding and volunteers, there are other restorations outside of HaRM being considered as well.</p>
<p>The next ten years are going to be an exciting time for the vintage unlimited scene and as a fan you have to be thankful for the efforts and the work being accomplished to support these restorations. If your level of excitement is over the top and you’d like to be more involved keep reading.</p>
<p>There are a couple of ways that you can help and depending on your interest and talents maybe even both opportunities?</p>
<ol>
<li>Become a member or if you are a member please remember to keep your membership current. These memberships are so vital to supporting us, we thank you all for considering and supporting this option.</li>
<li>Are you at all interested in helping? We welcome any and all levels of experience, if you know how to use hand tools great as we’d love to have you. Are you just a fan that has always wanted to know more about these great boats, we’d love to teach you. The vintage hydroplanes are still going strong but we desperately need some younger people involved to continue to carry this torch going forward.</li>
</ol>
<p></p>
<p>Drop by and let’s chat about how you can become a member or help us with the next restoration, we have lots of opportunities and would love to meet you.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum</strong></p>
<p>5917 S 196th St, Kent, WA 98032</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Tuesday:</strong> 10:00am – 8:00pm</p>
<p><strong>Wednesday:</strong> 10:00am – 4:00pm</p>
<p><strong>Thursday:</strong> 10:00am – 8:00pm</p>
<p><strong>Friday:</strong> 10:00am – 4:00pm</p>
<p><strong>Saturday:</strong> 10:00am – 4:00pm</p>Hydros and Hotrods - June 3rd - Todaytag:thunderboats.ning.com,2018-06-03:6315479:BlogPost:1097542018-06-03T16:30:00.000ZTimothy Ramseyhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/TimothyRamsey
<p>Our 4th annual Hydro's and Hot Rods Car Show brings attendees from around the northwest - featuring a large variety of beautiful vehicles and vintage hydroplanes on display, this FREE and Family-Friendly event also offers Live Music, assorted Food Vendors, Games and much more!</p>
<p><br></br> Doors open at 10:00am and the event runs until 4:00pm this afternoon, see you there..</p>
<p><br></br> 5917 South 196th Street<br></br> Kent, WA 98032<br></br> (206) 764-9453…</p>
<p></p>
<p>Our 4th annual Hydro's and Hot Rods Car Show brings attendees from around the northwest - featuring a large variety of beautiful vehicles and vintage hydroplanes on display, this FREE and Family-Friendly event also offers Live Music, assorted Food Vendors, Games and much more!</p>
<p><br/> Doors open at 10:00am and the event runs until 4:00pm this afternoon, see you there..</p>
<p><br/> 5917 South 196th Street<br/> Kent, WA 98032<br/> (206) 764-9453</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366361?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366361?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024"/></a></p>Hydro fever blends nostalgia with competition for die-hardstag:thunderboats.ning.com,2018-04-24:6315479:BlogPost:1094202018-04-24T01:00:00.000ZHydroplane Museumhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/246tk6zdw9cbo
<p><a href="http://thunderboats.ning.com/profiles/blogs/hydro-fever-blends-nostalgia-with-competition-for-die-hards" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366199?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="350"></img></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">David Williams left his real-world job to live his dream. He occasionally drives hydros </span><span style="font-size: 8pt;">and works as executive director of the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent.</span></p>
<p>Seafair's hydroplane races don't hold the same place in Seattle's…</p>
<p><a href="http://thunderboats.ning.com/profiles/blogs/hydro-fever-blends-nostalgia-with-competition-for-die-hards" target="_self"><img width="350" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366199?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="350" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">David Williams left his real-world job to live his dream. He occasionally drives hydros </span><span style="font-size: 8pt;">and works as executive director of the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent.</span></p>
<p>Seafair's hydroplane races don't hold the same place in Seattle's heart that they did in the 1950s and '60s when they were the only sport in town besides Husky football.</p>
<p>The city has grown up, but Seafair is still here as a reminder of the way the Emerald City used to be.</p>
<p>To most, it's a weekend when Seattle revels in summer fun, with the Blue Angels streaking into the sky, and traffic is usually the worse for it. But to a handful of diehards, it's a lasting way of life, an event that achieves holiday-like status, the defining point of the whole year -- year after year.</p>
<p>These are the people who keep the Seafair torch alive.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Lifelong dream of Seafair</strong></p>
<p>For David Williams, racing hydroplanes was a lifelong dream. He was born in the late 1950s, when the sport was in its glory years, and when Seattle didn't have a lot else to offer a sports fan.</p>
<p>"I fell in love with it when I was 5 years old," Williams said. "The dreams that we form as kids are probably the strongest dreams we have. They're probably also the most unrealistic."</p>
<p>But Williams was lucky. It took a while, but his dream came true.</p>
<p>Williams is now the executive director for the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent, and he does some driving on the side, including competing in this year's Gold Cup in Detroit.</p>
<p>"I am kind of the cliché jack of all trades, master of none," said Williams.</p>
<p>But among the restored boats at the museum, Williams is the ultimate authority, even authoring the book "Hydroplane Racing in Seattle," released in June.</p>
<p>Ten years ago, Williams was on the fast track to success working in the import and export business. But the death of his father made him realize the fast track wasn't necessarily the right track, Williams said.</p>
<p>When he went to visit, his father was in the intensive care unit. Williams noticed every bed contained the same sad story.</p>
<p>"Some 60-year-old, middle-aged white guy, a wife hovering over him and the obligatory flowers from the company," he said. "The people in the rooms changed, but the scene was always the same."</p>
<p>Williams quit his job and started volunteering at the museum. A lot of hard work and fundraising later, he's working in a sport he loves, which he says is in Seattle to stay.</p>
<p>"It's very unique, it's something that is Seattle," he said. "You don't see this in Portland or San Francisco or Los Angeles."</p>
<p>Williams will be on hand at the Seafair festivities this weekend, keeping an eye on the museum's display of the 1968 Miss Budweiser and 1982 Atlas Van Lines, and signing copies of his book.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Seafair family tradition</strong></p>
<p>The sight of the Miss Madison is familiar to most hydroplane fans. Painted green, red and white, the hydroplane looks something like a package of Oh Boy! Oberto beef jerky streaking across Lake Washington every year at Seafair.</p>
<p>The hydroplane is obviously painted to advertise, but to Seattle's Oberto family, sponsorship in the Seafair event is more than brand exposure; it's a tradition.</p>
<p>"I'm actually a second-generation hydro fan," said Larry Oberto, whose father, Art Oberto, began sponsoring hydroplanes in 1975. "I grew up in a house two blocks up from Lake Washington by the (I-90) bridge."</p>
<p>One of the reasons the Oberto family purchased the house was the large deck, well suited for throwing the Seafair parties they have earned a reputation for over the years.</p>
<p>Lately, the weekend parties have been thrown at Art Oberto's new house along the Lake Washington shoreline in Mount Baker. The house earned some notoriety when the raceboat Gale IV wound up beached in its rose garden in 1954, a commonly told story among hydroplane buffs.</p>
<p>It was a little later that Larry Oberto remembers the races of his childhood.</p>
<p>"As a kid, it was a chance to call up all your friends and go to the lake and swim and play," he said. "Then at the end of the day, you'd jump off the bridge."</p>
<p>The city has changed, and Seafair has changed with it, but the Obertos have maintained their annual ritual. Friends and family from around the country and world return to Lake Washington for the hydroplane races.</p>
<p>"It's something we do just out of sheer tradition," Larry Oberto said. "I think in a time of all the changes in Seattle ... people appreciate it. It would be missed if it were gone."</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Not just a man's world</strong></p>
<p>Hydroplane racing is often perceived as a male-dominated sport. But it's not an old boy's club. The 1981 departure of driver Brenda Jones might have looked like the end of women in hydroplane racing, but there still are a handful of women instrumental in running the sport from the sidelines.</p>
<p>One of those women is Lori Jones, who owns the U-9 Miss Car Pros with her husband, Mike Jones, a former driver.</p>
<p>The couple won the Gold Cup in 2001.</p>
<p>Jones said there's plenty of room for women in the sport if they have the right mentality.</p>
<p>"It isn't just a man's sport," she said. "Not at all. I mean, we have two female crew members, and they really love it."</p>
<p>If her husband didn't have such a history with the sport, or if she were single, Jones said would probably still try to carve out a career working in public relations or with sponsors in hydroplane racing.</p>
<p>"It would be a good career," she said. "I don't know if I could run a race team entirely on my own -- that would be a challenge."</p>
<p>The Joneses, who own an accounting business, took a break from racing after their Gold Cup win, but they returned to the water this year.</p>
<p>Lori Jones said it feels good to be back.</p>
<p>"It is kind of fun to be involved in a male-dominated sport," she said. "It's a challenge."</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The Voice of Seafair</strong></p>
<p>He's been the voice of Seafair for 40 years, a constant presence in a sport some said had too many fatalities and too few races to last.</p>
<p>Hydroplane announcer Pat O'Day, currently with KIRO, started his broadcasting reign in 1966, the same year three drivers were killed in a Washington, D.C., race. It's taken a long time, but O'Day says the sport, like himself, has made it through the good and the bad to secure a place in the hearts of sports fans.</p>
<p>O'Day, a disc jockey with KJR at the time, recalls he was in Dallas in the late 1960s with Jimi Hendrix when he got a call from a local station asking him to be the sole announcer for the hydro races.</p>
<p>"I said, 'I can't do seven hours by myself,' " he said.</p>
<p>Luckily, O'Day had friends in high places. Singer Wayne Newton owed him a favor -- O'Day was airing Newton's music long before other stations -- and he agreed to co-host the races.</p>
<p>"He did great," said O'Day. "Since then, some station has always picked me up, and that's how 40 years go by."</p>
<p>Since driver capsules and canopies have made the sport safer, O'Day said hydroplane racing has been slowly reclaiming a spot at the forefront of American sports.</p>
<p>"It's still a spine-tingling thrill, but we've eliminated fatality as the constant companion to the sport," said O'Day.</p>
<p>Hydroplane racing has been good to him over the years. He describes the sport as "just a lot of fun."</p>
<p>"I'm not alone -- there's a few thousand people who agree with me," he said.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Reprinted from the <em>Seattle PI</em>, August 4, 2006</p>Pay 'N Pak in a pool!tag:thunderboats.ning.com,2018-03-21:6315479:BlogPost:1078852018-03-21T22:00:00.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366353?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366353?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a></p>
<p>The Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum worked with a Hollywood production company to film a commercial for T-Mobile using Ken Muscatel's beautifully restored 1973 Pay 'N Pak hydroplane.</p>
<p>The boat along with four museum volunteers traveled to Los Angeles on March 5th and 6th. The theme of the Commercial is that "Speed shouldn't be contained" so they put the Pak into…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366353?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366353?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024"/></a></p>
<p>The Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum worked with a Hollywood production company to film a commercial for T-Mobile using Ken Muscatel's beautifully restored 1973 Pay 'N Pak hydroplane.</p>
<p>The boat along with four museum volunteers traveled to Los Angeles on March 5th and 6th. The theme of the Commercial is that "Speed shouldn't be contained" so they put the Pak into the pool, and with the magic of Hollywood, made it look like the boat was running!</p>
<p>To get the boat into the pool it took a 200 ton crane to be lift the 7,000 boat over the hotel, and some palm trees, the crane operator estimates that the boat was over 100 feet in the air.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366369?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366369?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024"/></a><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366416?profile=original" target="_self"></a></p>
<p>To make the roostertail, they hooked up 4 100 PSI hoses each pumping 3,000 gallons per minute.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366413?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="720" class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366413?profile=original"/></a></p>
<p>Here is a copy of the finished commercial</p>
<p><a href="https://ispot.tv/a/wQQM">https://ispot.tv/a/wQQM</a></p>A Ron Jones Introduction - A Century of Gold Cup Racingtag:thunderboats.ning.com,2017-01-20:6315479:BlogPost:1020212017-01-20T03:00:00.000ZHydroplane Museumhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/246tk6zdw9cbo
<p>The recently published book, <em>A CENTURY OF GOLD CUP RACING</em> by Fred Farley and Ron Harsin, is dedicated to two extraordinary men: Ted Jones and his son Ron Jones, Sr., whose trend-setting designs defined state-of-the-art in Gold Cup racing in the second half of the 20th Century.</p>
<p>Ron was asked to write the introduction to <em>A CENTURY OF GOLD CUP RACING</em>. It contains a moving tribute to his late father. Due to space limitations, Ron's preface had to be shortened for…</p>
<p>The recently published book, <em>A CENTURY OF GOLD CUP RACING</em> by Fred Farley and Ron Harsin, is dedicated to two extraordinary men: Ted Jones and his son Ron Jones, Sr., whose trend-setting designs defined state-of-the-art in Gold Cup racing in the second half of the 20th Century.</p>
<p>Ron was asked to write the introduction to <em>A CENTURY OF GOLD CUP RACING</em>. It contains a moving tribute to his late father. Due to space limitations, Ron's preface had to be shortened for publication. The full unedited introduction to <em>A CENTURY OF GOLD CUP RACING</em> is presented here.</p>
<p>Read and enjoy!</p>
<p><em>PREFACE, by Ron Jones, Sr.</em></p>
<p>I gratefully acknowledge the privilege to contribute a few lines in preface to a book which reveals the drama, thrill, excitement, heartache and joy felt by those participants competing for hydroplane racing’s pinnacle of achievement, the American Power Boat Association Gold Cup. My thanks also goes to Fred Farley, the unlimited hydroplane historian and co-author of this book, for his unflagging loyalty to the truth and his uncanny memory for the details and events covering many years of unlimited racing. Without Fred, a lot of our past would fade away, soon to be forgotten.</p>
<p>Remembering back as a young boy, my dad was always either designing, building or driving a race boat ~ or helping a friend get their boat going to make sure the race to be held on the following weekend would have enough participants. Hydroplane racing became his whole life, his dream, and most of his energy was spent building a better boat or fixing the one he had. He might be building a new engine or somehow figuring out how it would go faster.</p>
<p>Pre-WW2, he started a Seattle hydro club to establish and promote race sites and boat racing, and in so doing – helping his favorite sport to take hold in the Pacific Northwest. The reason I can remember the racing club meetings is because they were held in our home. My mom served homemade chili, doughnuts, ice cream and coffee to the members. Of course, when they left, my sisters and I got the remaining ice cream. Dad often spoke of the “Gold Cup” in those days, but at that time I didn’t understand its meaning.</p>
<p>By 1946, WW2 was past and life began to return to normal. Not long after my 14th birthday, Dad called me into his bedroom and I could tell by the look on his face that whatever it was that I was about to hear, it was serious. From a drawer full of t-shirts, he pulled out a drawing, which by that time was a number of years old and he handled it almost reverently. He looked me in the eye and laid a real trip on me. “Son, you are now at an age where you may have to become the man of the family.” Gulp! “Something may happen to me and if it does, your mom and three sisters are going to need direction, help and money.” Gulp again! “I want you to know that this drawing is for an unlimited hydroplane that I believe can win the Gold Cup, the Harmsworth (British International Challenge Cup Trophy) and set a new prop-driven straightaway record. You will have to find the right person, but it will be worth a great deal of money to someone ~ enough to keep the family going.”</p>
<p>I didn’t know whether to salute, pass out or run! But I did know he was serious and meant every word because his entire life was on that drawing. Those three events were what had driven him on for all those years – building, designing, racing, starting clubs – all directed towards winning the Gold Cup, bring the world’s water speed record back to America from England and win the British Harmsworth Trophy.</p>
<p>Why the Gold Cup? Because it was the oldest water sports racing trophy on the planet and it was the top event of the hydroplane world. It’s the Indy 500, the Kentucky Derby, Daytona 500 or whatever turns your crank. There is nothing higher, more challenging or more noteworthy to the hydro racer than the Gold Cup!</p>
<p>It would take another book to recite all the events that had to fall into place for Dad to meet another man to whom boat racing meant enough to put his money where his mouth was. Suffice it is to say, that a chance meeting between Mr. Stanley S. Sayres and Ted Jones ended up rewriting all the hydroplane record books. Moreover, it was paramount in establishing an entire new era for hydroplane racing.</p>
<p>That drawing Dad showed me when I was 14 became the design of a 3-point hydroplane for Mr. Sayres, and it was built at the facility of Anchor Jensen of Jensen Motor Boat Co. in Seattle. In early June of 1950, “Slo-mo-shun IV” established a world straightaway mark for propeller driven boats of 160+ mph, eclipsing the former record by nearly 20 mph. Subsequently, Mr. Sayres filed an entry to challenge for the Gold Cup, which had been held in Detroit, Michigan for many years.</p>
<p>Upon arrival in Detroit, the local newspapers began their evaluation of this boat, which “supposedly” had established a straightaway record. They seemed to feel their local “armada” would have no difficulty dispatching this backyard creation from somewhere out west. They even admitted it may have been fast in the straightaway, but would be a “worm in the turns.”</p>
<p>In the 1940’s and ‘50’s, a winning God Cup driver became an instant hero, a folk-hero of sorts and Dad finally realized his dream. He not only won the God Cup, he won all three 30 mile heats, settting heat and race records. In one heat, he lapped the entire field. The winning driver also received the privilege of determining the location of the next race, and of course, he chose Seattle.</p>
<p>For a man who had to drop out of high school to get a job to help support his family, this was the fulfillment of a lifetime of effort and dreams. It had all become worthwhile as he received the Gold Cup, a symbol of boat racing’s very best.</p>
<p>In my own case, you would think such a successful father would encourage his young son to continue on in the family tradition. But that was not to be the case here. In fact, during all those years he spent building boats in our basement, he used to lock the basement door and take the key with him to keep me out. When I graduated from high school, he made a final attempt to discourage me from building boats with another of those past feelings – should I salute, pass out or run speeches. I recall him saying that I would be better off in real estate or some business that offered a good living. He warned me that if I did become successful, people would copy my designs, while others would take credit for all my efforts and I would end up not making a dime out of it.</p>
<p>I did it anyway an! d even though he was painfully accurate, I can look back and be thankf ul for a lifetime of friends won, a lot of successful ‘firsts,’ inventions and designs. I can truly say that it was worth it all. Although I didn’t have Dad’s lifetime dream of winning the Gold Cup, I had thought to myself that if I could just be one-half as good as he, I could probably make it.</p>
<p>But reality has a way of bringing you up short In 1963, I redesigned and rebuilt one of Dad’s boats and really got it to go. The ’63, ’64, and ’65 “Miss Bardahl” was virtually unbeatable, winning three Gold Cups, establishing numerous records and winning the points championship three years in a row. So for the 1966 season, Mr. Bardahl and driver Ron Musson had enough confidence in me to enable me to build them a new boat which at that time was termed “radical.”</p>
<p>In 1966, I came close to abandoning it all when my new rear-engine low profile wide transom “Miss Bardahl” sheared off a propeller during the second heat of the Presidents’ Cup on the Potomac River and crashed, destroying the boat and costing Ron Musson his life. I was devastated, and it took a long time to decide to keep going.</p>
<p>So during those following years, the Gold Cup was far away from my mind. I turned my attention to drag boats, world record holders, Mercury factory racing tunnel hulls, ocean racing tunnels and a lot of limited inboard hulls. From 1966 on, most unlimited people wouldn’t even speak to me.</p>
<p>But in late 1969, Seattle business tycoon Dave Heerensperger came to my shop with world renown engine builder Keith Black in tow. Together, they convinced me that I should build him a rear-engine boat for two KB Chryslers. We built the boat and unfortunately it didn’t do well. I had designed it after many of my very successful limiteds of that day and I had anticipated that it would be run with a three-blade propeller. But someone told Mr. Heerensperger that a three-blade prop was a Jones crutch for a bad design so it never raced with a three-blade. However one time, after much carping from me, Mr. Heerensperger allowed a t est run at the San Diego race with a borrowed three-blade from Bill Muncey. On that one run, the boat ran extremely well, making a timing lap faster than Muncey had gone, and riding very well. But Muncey wanted his prop back, so it was all over.</p>
<p>The boat was sold and even though it won the gold cup in 1973 and it had the driver in back with the engine in front ~ a Rolls Merlin, the Gold Cup ‘shine’ was gone for me. Apparently, Dave Heerensperger had enough confidence in me to try it again. So in 1973, the “Pride of Pay ‘n Pak,” unlimited hydroplane’s first winged boat came out smoking. It won races in 1973, but not the Gold Cup. That was for 1974 and 1975 when my brother-in-law at the time George Henley won back to back Gold Cups, and those cups really had a lot of ‘shine.’</p>
<p>Perhaps the most meaningful Gold Cup for me was in 1980 at Madison, Indiana. I had built a rear-engine boat in 1979 for Bernie Little and the “Miss Budweiser” team, but although it won some heats, they did not have a really successful year. In an attempt to set a new straightaway record late in 1979, the propeller broke, causing a crash which destroyed the boat and hurt driver Dean Chenoweth quite badly. It is likely the boat was in the 220 mph range when the accident happened.</p>
<p>So we built a new hull for 1980 and it was a winner, big time. “Miss Budweiser” won the first 20 heats of the season, including the Gold Cup in Madison. I was able to get Jerry Schoenith on the telephone after each heat at Madison. Jerry, who was from a family of hydro racers, gave me a blow by blow account of “Budweiser” winning all four heats of the Gold Cup. I must admit that after hearing the results, I really lost it. There is no way to describe the happiness one experiences at a moment like that. All the years of heartache and frustration melt away with the energy of such great news. A boat you designed and built actually won the Gold Cup!</p>
<p>I hope you have been able to realize as you read these stories that the Gold Cup is difficult to attain. You may have the right boat at the right time but somehow that beautiful trophy can slip away so easily! I am the first to admit that a winning boat has to be the result of a winning team. It takes an owner willing to pay the expense, a dedicated, really talented crew, a heads up driver, hull, engine, propeller, support equipment and so on. If any of those items are out of sync, success may slip away. I just feel fortunate to have been a part of a number of winning teams.</p>
<p>Well, Dad passed away early in 2000, at age 90. But even in his final years, he was always good for another race boat story. Oh yes, some of the stories got better and better each time but you didn’t care because you knew he did it – he was there! He designed the boat and he drove it to win the Gold Cup. Writing these few pages has caused me to think a great deal about Dad, and I look forward to seeing him some day in heaven. No, it’s not because he won the Gold Cup or was a really great guy who deserved heaven, that I believe I’ll see him ~ but because before he passed away, he established a personal relationship with God by accepting His Son, Jesus, as his Savior and received eternal life. I’ll see him because I’ve done the same thing and I trust my reader will also.</p>
<p>Who knows – maybe we will compare Gold Cup stories together!</p>The Master Speaks - An Interview with Ron Jones Sr.tag:thunderboats.ning.com,2017-01-20:6315479:BlogPost:1020182017-01-20T03:00:00.000ZHydroplane Museumhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/246tk6zdw9cbo
<p><em>By Anne McRayde. Reprinted from Skid Fin Magazine, 2003, Vol 1, No. 1</em></p>
<p><strong>How did you first begin building boats?</strong></p>
<p>You could say I was born with it. My father was Ted Jones, who invented the three-point hydroplane, as we know it today. As a little boy, I was able to go with Dad, and my three sisters, and Mom to the lake and watch Dad test. When he was out testing my three sisters, who are marvelous people, screamed and hollered. I stood there very stoically…</p>
<p><em>By Anne McRayde. Reprinted from Skid Fin Magazine, 2003, Vol 1, No. 1</em></p>
<p><strong>How did you first begin building boats?</strong></p>
<p>You could say I was born with it. My father was Ted Jones, who invented the three-point hydroplane, as we know it today. As a little boy, I was able to go with Dad, and my three sisters, and Mom to the lake and watch Dad test. When he was out testing my three sisters, who are marvelous people, screamed and hollered. I stood there very stoically and quietly. At the end of the dad my Mother would tell my Father, “I don’t think Ron’s interested in those boats, you know the girls just scream, but Ron just stands there.” Well I was just dying inside to be a part of it, but didn’t know how to say it. My Dad was insistent that I not do this that he locked the basement door where he kept his hydroplanes and wouldn’t let me in there. Of course I figured out a way to get in on my own. When he was at work I would go in and study what was going on. I was born with it and made it a part of my life ever since. This is my 53rd year; I’ve been building hydroplanes a long time.</p>
<p><strong>Did your father encourage you once he saw how interested you were?</strong></p>
<p>Actually no. He did his best to stop me from getting involved. My Dad had a lot of heart-breaking experiences in the business realm of hydroplane racing. He warned me that if I did this there would be a lot of heartbreak and little pay. He believed that when all was said and done I would look back and say, “Why did I do that?” Well, mostly he was right, but I am very thankful that I did it. I have lots and lots of wonderful friends and family as a result of hydroplane racing. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.</p>
<p><strong>You mentioned that your father discouraged you from building hydroplanes. Your son, Ron Jones, Jr., is a boat builder as well. Did you encourage your son or take the same approach as your father?</strong></p>
<p>I did what I hoped was right. I encouraged him in the sense that when he was very young, we made sure that he and his two sisters went with us to the races. I noticed at the races a lot of times Ron, Jr., was over on the swings or on the slide. I wasn’t sure about his interest, just as my Mom wasn’t sure about mine because I didn’t yell and scream. But, Ron Jr., did have an interest, which he developed throughout his high school years. When he was in high school he worked in my shop a few hours. He developed into a marvelous boat builder. Today he has his own facility where he builds things out of composite. He builds airplane parts and hydroplanes. To be very honest, business-wise he’s far more successful than I. He’s constructed a wonderful business that’s very profitable and growing. Not only does he build great hydroplanes, but he has a contract to build doors for airplane cockpits. I admire him greatly; he has wonderful abilities and he is a very, very bright young man. Can you explain the process you take when building a boat?</p>
<p>I usually start with a piece of blank white paper. I draw one line and that’s the baseline. From there I construct the hydroplane in my head as I am drawing. As I begin to draw the boat all the things I’ve done in the past go through my mind. I remember the things that did and didn’t work. I try to think of new things that will be better. Eventually I have a drawing on a piece of paper. I let the paper sit for three or four days. I come back, look at it and say, “Oh no, that can’t be right.” It takes quite a while just to draw it. Then the actual construction begins. We build hydroplanes today of composite material, which is very much like aerospace material. Due to that, we have a lot of molds and tooling already prepared. Even so, with two good men working hard, it takes about six months to prepare an Unlimited Light from start to finish and get it ready to go into the water.</p>
<p>If you recall the days of the Slo-mo-shun and the old boats powered by airplane engines, we think of those as the “glory days.” The Unlimited Lights, that are built today, run with much smaller engines. As a result, the Unlimited Light is a very complex, fast, difficult piece of equipment. It’s easy to build a hydroplane; lots of people do it. The secret is to keep the propeller hooked up to the water and the boat stable on the water so bad things won’t happen and ruin your afternoon.</p>
<p><strong>What inspiration do you have as you begin to design a boat?</strong></p>
<p>When I sit down with that white piece of paper, before I draw the baseline, I pray. Because I know the extent of what’s going to happen, so I ask the Lord to help me put down the right lines and not the wrong ones. I would say that it’s the grace of God, if there is any success, it would be because of him. Now people obviously say, if every boat builder asked him for help, how can one boat win and not the other? I didn’t say that I ask him to win, I don’t. I ask him to let me do my best and to have the safest boat that I can possibly produce. I’m thankful for that because he has been faithful to help me.</p>
<p><strong>Is each component specialized for every hydroplane you build?</strong></p>
<p>Yes that is the secret for not making money. Don’t ever build the same boat twice, build everything differently. I have been criticized for that a good deal. But you see for me, after I build a boat, I am very proud of it. For example, after building Barbara Michael’s 5-Liter boat, I went to the races and watched it. I was very excited about it. In my mind I was thinking of all the things I would do to make the next boat better.</p>
<p>Every boat is a custom boat in the most intense sense of the word. Rudder shapes, propellers, shafts, skid fins, all the components of a boat are each unique. Eventually, the parts become unique to that boat. You don’t call up the hydroplane store and order parts. There is no hydroplane store, you’re it. Therefore you get to design all the pieces and build them one at a time. Because you had something fail ten years ago, this sticks in your mind and you never want to do it again, so you make this part a little better than you have ever made it before. Automatically you become a metallurgist because you have to learn what this metal will or won’t do. Then you have to learn about heat treatment of metal. You learn about paint, sub-painting, sanding, and wood.</p>
<p>In the old days we learned all about wood and what it could and could not do. Then once I decided that hydroplanes should be made out of composites we had to learn a whole new discipline. That was a whole new world to learn. We love composite because in the old days with the wood boats, if it crashed it was usually finished for the season. With the composite boat, they turn it upside down and sometimes race in the next heat. The structure is wonderful so you learn composite. You learn how to make the boat comfortable and user-friendly for the driver.</p>
<p><strong>All the parts of a boat then, work together as one.</strong></p>
<p>That is absolutely right. It takes a lot of pieces, a lot of thought. I love the sport, but I get the biggest kick out of designing a boat with this blank piece of paper and seeing it come to life. The boat becomes this living entity. Then I get to go see it run and I tell myself, “ I am going to make the next one better.” That’s what keeps me going.</p>
<p><strong>You mentioned boats moved from being built with wood to composite materials. What do you see as the future material for boats?</strong></p>
<p>Right now everybody is familiar with Tupperware, which is a wonderfully modern plastic, but you surely could not build a boat out of it; it wouldn’t take the abuse. However, there are people in the plastics industry working on a material like Tupperware. They take a big sheet of flat plastic, already made, put it on a form and place it in an oven in a vacuum. As the heat rises the sheet of plastic takes the shape it was around. You pull it and the end result is the final shape. That sounds far-fetched, but it is being worked on right now. That would be marvelous because you could mold a boat in a few hours, instead of a few weeks. Maybe in two or three days you would have a bare hull. That is a goal, which will hopefully be achieved.</p>
<p>There are many other wonderful products available to improve even on our composite structure, but composites generally take a long time to put together. Let’s say that Unlimited Light racing became so popular that 20 people came to me and all wanted a boat for next season. Short of a miracle, that won’t happen. But in the method I previously described, it’s possible that production could be set up to do something that well.</p>
<p><strong>From the time you built your first hull to now, technology has dramatically advanced. Was it more fun back in the old days when you were building boats in your garage out of wood?</strong></p>
<p>Not really, I have just as much fun today, 53 years later, as I did in my Dad’s basement at home. I built my first hydroplane based on some little drawings and a few numbers my Dad sketched on the back of an old envelope. I was 16 years old when I looked at that envelope; I didn’t have a clue what was going on. My Dad left then to go to Detroit and race the Slo-mo-shun. He was gone for a number of months. In that basement I built a little 48 c.i. hydroplane or what we call today a 1.5-Litre. I built that little boat all by myself out of wood. I was nearly done when a local fellow racing in that class heard about it and came to see it. The fellow looked and the boat and said, “I’d like to buy that.” I replied that I was building the boat for myself and was naming it Pop’s Chip, for chip off the old block. He said he would give me $300 for it. As a 16-year-old in 1948 this sounded like a really good idea.</p>
<p>I had a lot of fun with that boat, but it launched me into building other boats for people. I am 69 years old and having a ball building Barbara Michael’s Unlimited Light hull. I started with a piece of white paper. I put a baseline on it and all the lines are new, not like ones I’ve built before. It’s not radically different and most people won’t notice a difference, but I notice. There is a lot of difference. It’s a lot of fun and I can’t wait to get the boat in the water and have Barbara drive it.</p>
<p><strong>How did you keep up with the rapidly changing technology?</strong></p>
<p>I learned to build the first few boats by observing through a peephole in the basement while my Dad was working. While I wasn’t able to look firsthand, he did, like I said, drew a little boat on the back of an envelope. He did that a number of times.</p>
<p>I built the 1958 Miss Bardahl Unlimited hydroplane, my first Unlimited, under those exact circumstances. My Dad had a contract with Mercury Marine; he was a close friend of the owner. My Dad got a big contract to go back east for a number of months. He was just getting ready to go to the airport, I was driving him, when the phone rang. It was Ole Bardahl and he said, “Mr. Jones, I’d like you to build me a boat.” My father replied that he was just leaving to go back east on a big contract. Ole persisted; he wanted an Unlimited hydroplane. My Dad said he would fix him up. Meanwhile, I was standing outside waiting and becoming worried because we were late. On the way to the airport I drove and on an envelope he pulled from his pocket, my Dad drew some lines and numbers that became the Miss Bardahl.</p>
<p>You either learn or you aren’t going to make it. I learned technology by doing. My education is limited; I’m a high-school graduate. For a time, I attended Seattle Pacific University during the day, and because I had a family I also worked nights at Boeing. On my way to school after working all night at Boeing I woke up driving down Rainier Avenue. I was driving down the avenue and cars were honking and swerving on both sides of me. I realized this was not the way to live. I chose boats rather than education.</p>
<p>While I’m not formally educated I made it a goal of mine to study aerodynamics and hydrodynamics. I am layman when it comes to those topics. I understand pretty well what goes on in the water and the air. That turns out to be the most difficult technological discipline on the face of this planet.</p>
<p>For instance, the Russians when it was the Soviet Union, spent billions of dollars and years of testing technology and wind tunneling trying to build a boat that would fly and thus reduce the cost of transportation. After the Cold War was over they invited Americans of a similar discipline to come and see what they had done. Seven Americans went over and got a ride in this boat. It was a 325 mph part boat and part airplane. The pilot of this boat/airplane seated the American and Russian passengers and away they went. Once they hit 250 mph, the pilot took his hands off the wheel, turned around and said, “What do you think boys?” As he had turned around, the boat suddenly ran over a big wave and it pitched them up into the air. The pilot panicked, turned around and shoved the yoke forward as you would with an airplane. The boat/airplane nosed in at 250 mph. Fortunately, only one person died and several others had injuries. I say fortunately because it could have been much worse. The Russians lost this multi-million dollar craft. Why did I tell this story?</p>
<p>Because the discipline of building a boat that’s really an airplane and having it maintain both hydrodynamic and aerodynamic contact in one phase, is the most difficult thing to learn. We have a long way to go, but we’ve learned a lot. I suspect the next leap forward in technology will be a hydroplane that goes very fast, does all the things we want it to do and cannot blow over. One of my goals before I die is to make that happen.</p>
<p><strong>When you build a boat for somebody, how closely do you work with the customer?</strong></p>
<p>We try to make that a valid part of every boat. First of all, in boat racing my customer’s end up being my friends. Immediately, I am concerned about them. I become concerned about the owner if they should not happen to be the driver, because obviously he is invested a great deal of money. He chose me because he thinks I can do what it is that he wants done. If he has a driver or even if he is the driver, I become doubly concerned about their safety.</p>
<p>In the case of Gary and Barbara Michael, they have placed their confidence in me, which I appreciate more than anyone would ever know, but I want to reciprocate. I want to a part of that boat. As I said, I want that boat to become a living entity. I want to be a part of that entity all the time. Occasionally, I do get a customer who will buy a boat and then disappear and not consult with me. Usually what ends up happening is that they are not successful and sell the boat. The new owner calls me and says, “What should I do?” They become successful, set world records or whatever. Consequently, we like to be part of the boat all the time.</p>
<p><strong>You were a major force behind developing safety concepts in hydroplane racing. Can you explain some of the concepts you developed?</strong></p>
<p>The sport, unfortunately, has had a dangerous and difficult path. Many people lost their lives in hydroplanes. I did not want to attend any more funerals; it was too tragic. There was one day when three drivers died in Unlimited hydroplane racing. I made up my mind that somehow there has to be a better way. At the moment, I didn’t know what that was, but I kept looking into things that could work better.</p>
<p>It was safety that drove me my whole life to change things the way I do. I have been pushing the canopy idea since the mid-or-late ‘60s. It was hard for that to be accepted. People thought they would be like a marble in a glass jar, and when the boat crashed they would be rattled around and pulverized. They didn’t want any part of it. They assumed that they would drown in a canopy. I received all kinds of resistance, but I become so concerned for the people, that we developed things we think are better and safer, and make the sport better for everyone.</p>
<p>I have tried to make the boats safer, aerodynamically, which is a big problem. These boats like to be airplanes and fly away at unspoken moments. We have made safety features to prevent that from happening. But I think the biggest thing we have done is develop an environment in which the driver can survive a vicious crash. We chose to call it the enclosed safety canopy. It looks very much like a fighter plane canopy, which is where I got the idea. I bought a book on all the world’s fighter planes and I looked at every one carefully to see which one had something that we could utilize in the race boats. At that time I was doing this for Unlimited hydroplanes. I saw the F-16 fighter plane; the Air Force calls it the “Flying Falcon.”</p>
<p>The F-16’s canopy was a marvelous shape for us because it had a one-piece all plastic canopy with no structure. I knew that was what we had to have. I used that idea as my basis for developing the Unlimited canopy. Originally, I put F-16 canopies directly onto Unlimiteds. I made a structure that would hold it on the boat.</p>
<p>It was a while before we learned how it worked. We learned accidentally in a boat called the 7-Eleven. Steve Reynolds, a local driver, was testing in Pasco. He made a hard turn as he was supposed to do. The skid fin, which is a big piece of steel that hangs down on the left side of the boat preventing slides in the turns, broke off. The boat did an inside roll. It went clean over and lit right side up. The crew had radio contact with Steve and once it settled down he said to them, “Hey fellas I think I just spun out, I saw a lot of water.” He didn’t even realize what had happened. Meanwhile, the crew told him to sit there and they came right over.</p>
<p>That event started it, it set the program in motion. Everybody realized that the canopy was a good concept and we had better do it. I’ve graduated from putting a one-piece F-16 canopy to building an all-composite structure. I don’t put F-16 canopies directly on boats anymore because they are subject to deterioration by ultraviolet rays. We build a composite canopy with a minimum number of windows in it and they have been very successful. The windows are made like the F-16 itself, but these windows, the windshield and two side windows, are just large enough to see out of.</p>
<p>For once in my life, after building canopies I can attend a race and semi-relax instead of standing there with my fists clenched wondering if someone is going to be hurt. It’s a good feeling to know that the canopies have saved a number of lives.</p>
<p><strong>Throughout your career, approximately how many boats have you built?</strong></p>
<p>I don’t have an exact number, but it is over 500. Maybe 65 to 70 percent of those were built in the “old days” when we used wood. I love working with wood. It is a marvelous material and it has wonderful qualities. However, wood won’t take the constant abuse that hydroplanes give it. If you crash one it’s usually kindling. These days, by graduating to composite material, the boats last indefinitely. We really don’t know how long they will last, some of them have been around for 15 years and are still running. They can take crashes and be re-built very quickly. The most important aspect is that the structure is safe. Drivers can live through horrible crashes. The composite material is very wonderful for what we do.</p>
<p>So even though we have built many boats, we haven’t built that many composite boats yet. In 1974 I realized composite was the way we must go. It was 1984 before I could convince anyone and even then people called it the “Tupperware boat.” But the Tupperware boats are now the boats of today’s standards.</p>
<p><strong>Out of the 500 boats or so you have built, do you have one in particular that is your favorite?</strong></p>
<p>I knew you would ask that! You know, every year I have a favorite boat and then next year I have a new favorite boat. I will say this, there was a time when the Unlimited hydroplane, Miss US, stood out in my mind as on of my all-time favorites. For many years, it remained a favorite.</p>
<p>Then I built a boat called the Miss Madison. It was a piston-engine boat when the turbines became popular. In its first race it beat the turbines and the Miss Madison became a real favorite. My little girl, who is 21 months old, is named Madison; perhaps there is some connection there.</p>
<p>When I built the Wildflower Unlimited Light, I thought I had achieved everything; then we built one that was better. They are all my favorites. All the people are lovely people and my friends. I admire the owners and sponsors for putting up the money, but most of all I admire all the drivers. I wish I could do what they do, but I am happy and content to do the part I do.</p>
<p>I do have many favorites. Unfortunately, I can’t really stop at one, there are so many.</p>
<p><strong>How many world records have the boats you’ve built held?</strong></p>
<p>Well, I haven’t kept score. My father died just two years ago in January. At his memorial service the Hydroplane Museum presented part of the program. In a beautiful video they presented, they said between Ted Jones and his son they hold over 3,000 world records. I know my Dad was somewhere in the 700 to 800 figure, which means mine is between 2,200 to 3,000.</p>
<p>I am probably the only boat builder that I know who builds such a variety boats. For example, I have built inboard and outboard drag boats. I built the first outboard drag boat to ever go over 100 mph in a quarter-mile. I built the first successful tunnel boat in the world and the first ocean-racing tunnel hull. Besides Unlimiteds, Unlimited Lights and hydroplanes like the 5-Litre, I built boats in many other classes. Consequently, this allowed me the opportunity to hold many world records.</p>
<p><strong>Can you talk about a special moment that stands out in your mind?</strong></p>
<p>I would have to say that the day the Miss Madison Unlimited boat ran for the first time was a memorable moment. The reason is the Miss Madison team is poorly funded. The citizens of Madison, Ind., love their hydroplane, but they have to scrape to keep the boat together. Well, they came to me to buy a new boat and I knew that was a tough nut to crack. I was very enthusiastic about doing a good job for them, but the lighter turbine boats were already successful and the Miss Madison was stuck with an old airplane engine, which weighed 2,500 pounds (a turbine engine weighs just 600 pounds), so right away we had a big disadvantage.</p>
<p>When I sat down with a white piece of paper and drew the baseline all these thoughts passed through my mind. This little town, the owner was a businessman himself, but I knew it was costing him dearly to build this, and the team couldn’t really afford to pay a driver. So while I was building the boat I had all these thoughts in my mind. I’ll tell you we worked hard to make that boat come out as light as it could possibly be, because that was the only chance we had. Of course, I had a deal with them. They agreed not to race the boat until we tested it, because no matter how much experience you’ve had building boats you wonder if it’s even going to float. Well guess what? They didn’t follow through on their end of the bargain. The first time it was ever shown to the public was at the Pasco Race Event. I was a wreck. I shook for three days waiting for race day wondering what this boat was going to do. I didn’t even know if it would get up into a plane. Well the Miss Madison not only got up into a plane on its first heat, it beat the turbines and this old man broke down into lots of tears. So I’d have to say that was a real memorable moment, which I’ll remember for a long time.</p>
<p><strong>Did you ever want to drive?</strong></p>
<p>I used to drive almost every boat I built. I wonder how in the world, except for the grace of God, I am even here today. I would build a boat, put the engine in it, and take it to Lake Washington alone to ran and test it. Then I would call the customer and tell him his boat was ready to go. Today you wouldn’t dare test a hydroplane without a bunch a support crew including a rescue team and boat.</p>
<p>I used to do that all the time however and thought nothing of it, but I’ll be honest and say I discovered very soon that driving wasn’t my bag. I watched other people drive and they were much better than I was. I wrestled with myself for quite a while before I decided I didn’t want to be a driver. I wanted to build the boat and learn from the driver. I used to drive the boats on purpose so I could feel with the seat of my pants what was going on. I’ll have to say, without the seat of your pants; it’s pretty hard to know what’s going on. Now I can watch a boat and observe it and see what’s happening. The seat of the pants had much to do with my success, if there is any, and what I am doing today.</p>
<p><strong>Do you have more aspirations to build and develop?</strong></p>
<p>I have thought about hydroplanes so much that they consume a majority of my thinking time. The concept of blowing over wears so heavily on me it’s hard to explain. I want to build a boat that’s even faster, yet safer and no matter what the driver does, the boat won’t blow over. Now that’s asking a lot, but if you were to have asked me when I built Pop’s Chip would I see what I do today, I would have said no way. But we’ve gotten here, so I believe it’s going happen.</p>
<p><strong>What are your hopes for the future of hydroplane racing?</strong></p>
<p>Honestly, hydroplane racing in general, is on a decline. There are a number of reasons for that. In the ’50s when my Dad was popular and hydroplanes were “the thing” in Seattle, there were no Sonics, nor Mariners, or Seahawks. There were very few, if any, professional sports to attend. As a result, hydroplane racing became a very big, important event. They were big worldwide.</p>
<p>Now we have a lot of competition for entertainment dollars. We have people who say the boats are too noisy. We have all kinds of problems with hydroplanes.</p>
<p>My hope for the future is that the public will see what I see. They will be excited, as I am excited. They will realize, yes this is a sport. It has been said</p>
<p>by some vindictive sports writers in newspapers, “Oh hydroplane racing isn’t a sport, it’s just a big promotion event.” When you put a driver in the boat, place the seatbelt around them, close the canopy lid, and push them away; they are all alone. If the fans could learn how much of a sport this really is and how much depends on the driver’s ability that would help. If we as a sport begin to promote our drivers as entities and let the public know who they are, I think we will improve.</p>
<p>The Unlimited Light class to me is the most exciting things I have seen and this is my 53rd year. The Unlimited Light class shows me that it can be done. The people behind it are doing the right thing. The people involved as participants are so excited they can’t wait to get to the races. That excitement is going to pay-off. The little light boats have small Chevrolet engines, but they are going 150 mph; that’s exciting! I believe the future is in Unlimited Light hydroplane racing.</p>
<p><strong>What type of legacy, do you think, you will have on hydroplane racing?</strong></p>
<p>That is difficult for me to answer, but I hope that people will remember me as someone that was not only serious about his work, but sincere, and when I talked about safety, I mean I am really concerned about safety. When I talk about advancing hull design, it’s usually with the driver in mind, to make the boat easier and safer to handle. Obviously boats have to go through all types of difficulties. I want to be remembered as one who planned each one of those difficulties, tried to plan the boat around them, and make the boat get through things that other boats couldn’t. That makes the boat more successful. I would like to be remembered as one who built quality boats, that were meant to last, meant to be safe, handle well and meant to do the job they were called upon to do.</p>
<p><strong>How do you feel when you hear people call you a master builder?</strong></p>
<p>Obviously, it’s a wonderful thing to hear, but being the person that I am, I immediately think of all the other boat builders who are very good. There are some fellows who are just excellent. My son is a boat builder and he is really, really good at it. There are many other folks around that build boats and do it well. So when you say, “He’s the master,” maybe, but I have trouble with that. I can’t even answer your question.</p>The Man Who Builds The Thunderboatstag:thunderboats.ning.com,2017-01-20:6315479:BlogPost:1017202017-01-20T03:00:00.000ZHydroplane Museumhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/246tk6zdw9cbo
<p><em>By Bill Ames. Reprinted from Science & Mechanics, August, 1974.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366326?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366326?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="350"></img></a></p>
<p>The Unlimited Division of the American Power Boat Association is the smallest active racing class of that group. This elite coterie fields less than two dozen boats each year, to compete in about ten races. Yes these few regattas attract a total of more than two million…</p>
<p><em>By Bill Ames. Reprinted from Science & Mechanics, August, 1974.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366326?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="350" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366326?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="350" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>The Unlimited Division of the American Power Boat Association is the smallest active racing class of that group. This elite coterie fields less than two dozen boats each year, to compete in about ten races. Yes these few regattas attract a total of more than two million spectators!</p>
<p>The universal appeal of these “thunderboats” is a product of roaring sound, flashing color, and the hovering dangers of high speed. Powerful motors generating close to 2500 horsepower hurtle the giant hydroplanes around 2 ½ mile ovals at average speeds of 125 mph, in some of boat racing’s roughest water. Straightaway speeds reach 160 and the record for the measured mile stands at 200.419 mph!</p>
<p>Today’s typical unlimited hydro is about 30 feet long, has a 13 foot beam and weights nearly 3 ½ tons. It uses a 12-cylinder aircraft engine for power, either an Allison or a Rolls Royce. These supercharged engines run on various blends of aviation gasoline and methanol. Turning at 4200 rpm (nearly twice their design speed), these brute engines are geared to spin tiny, 13 inch diameter propellers at 13,000 rpm. The supercharger rotors turn at 35,000 rpm, faster than the speed of sound! To withstand this terrible torque, prop shafts are of high tensile steel, 1 ¾ inches in diameter.</p>
<p>The stresses imposed on a hull in these conditions create design and construction problems that are unique to Unlimited hydroplanes. Only a few builders have successfully met the criteria. Premier to this select group is Ron Jones of Costa Mesa, California.</p>
<p>From the drawing table to the trailer, an Unlimited requires about 2000 man hours of highly skilled labor. The classic construction uses hardwood stringers (Jones prefers white oak or Northern Appalachian ash). The gussets, or bulkheads, are of African mahogany plywood. The “skin” is of the same material, with 6061 T-6 aluminum bonded to the entire bottom.</p>
<p>The aluminum epidermis of an Unlimited is vital to its survival. At 160 mph, water becomes concrete-hard and can actually pick the soft grain right out of the plywood, de-laminating it. As Jones observes: “Peeling the bottom off at that speed can ruin your entire afternoon.”</p>
<p>Last year, Ron Jones scored another construction coup with Pride of Pay ‘N Pak, the first Unlimited hydroplane to be build entirely of honeycomb aluminum. Thus material consists of two thin sheets of aluminum, bonded to an aluminum honeycomb core. The cellular construction has tremendous strength and represents an important weight saving. The 1973 Pay ‘N Pak weighted in at 6,250 pounds, lighter than the previous version by fully 850 pounds.</p>
<p>The performance of the innovative boat has been astounding. Mickey Remund drove it to the most emphatic national championship ever recorded, setting new records in 90 percent of the available categories. (Miss Budweiser, also a Jones hull, took the remainder.)</p>
<p>During the 1973 season, Pay ‘N Pak won 20 of 28 heats it entered; set new qualifying records at seven races; set new competition lap records at six races; set new head records at seven races; set new world records for a single lap and a complete race; won four of the nice races run; and was the first boat to exceed 126 mph on a closed course.</p>
<p>In a business that relies almost entirely on word-of-mouth advertising, Ron Jones Marine Engineering has grown from a tiny, $35 a month building in Seattle to a 12,000 square foot plant on two high prices California acres. His 21 full time specialists produce hydroplanes for nearly all of the APBA racing classes.</p>
<p>Although Ron’s expertise is clearly established, he must still endure the bane of custom boat builders – an owner’s bright ideas. Racers are notorious experimenters, but sometimes have strange theories on what will improve a boat’s performance. Often, their efforts to discover a winning boat’s speed secrets become laughable.</p>
<p>Some years ago, Bill Muncey (one of today’s most successful Unlimited drivers) was campaigning a Jones 266 cubic inch hydroplane. A top seeded driver even then, he won 42 straight events, an incredible performance. As might be expected, curious competitors inspected his boat closely at every opportunity. On the vertical rear ends (transoms) of the two sponsons, they found something not on their boats, two small inverted grooves. Some of them approached Ron Jones, demanding to know the purpose of the grooves, and why their Jones 266 hydro did not have them.</p>
<p>As puzzled as they were, Ron checked with Muncey and got the answer. Bill’s trailer tires, which has no fenders, has come into contact with the sponson transoms and worn the grooves in route to the race site. Most of the owners accepted the explanation, but a few remained convinced that Bill Muncey’s boat had some secret advantage over theirs.</p>
<p>The needs of a high speed hydroplane combine to create a designer’s nightmare. Hull shape and size is controlled by the motor to be used. Weight and placement of the motor help to achieve the proper center of gravity and center of balance, but are limited by the drive system to be used. Since hydroplanes are affected by aerodynamic forces as well as hydrodynamic forces, every boat is, in Jones’ words, “a designer’s compromise.”</p>
<p>The individuality of each Unlimited hydroplane is demonstrated clearly in the four Jones has recently completed. One uses Roll Royce power, another has two supercharged automotive engines, the third uses an Allison with a V-drive, and the fourth is a Z-driven Allison. Although all owners opted for aluminum honeycomb construction, each boat is a separate entity and called for a different design.</p>
<p>Hydrodynamic considerations require a boat that can come on a plane easily without taxing the engine. It must run over constantly changing, but always rough, water with the smoothest possible ride. It must turn flat, high speed corners with no banking or skidding.</p>
<p>As an aerodynamic vehicle, a hydroplane demands perfect balance. Ideally proportioned, it would “fly” in such a way that, passing over an imaginary scale, it would produce a zero reading. It must accomplish this “flying” both upwind and downwind.</p>
<p>It is quite possible to design a hydroplane that will fly beautifully at 200 mph, but cannot come up on plane at all. The need for compromise is obvious.</p>
<p>For years the greatest worry of hydroplane drivers has been the danger of “kiting.” When air pressure under the bow becomes too great, the high speed boats can blow over backwards with sudden and disastrous results. Jones’ creative and much-copied solution to this problem is the now famous “pickle fork” bow. By moving the center, airfoil section of his boats a few feet aft and allowing the sponsons to protrude, he effectively moved the center of lift aft, too. This feature has proved so successful, it now appears on virtually every type of air-riding hull, including catamarans and tunnel boats. Every Jones design includes a pick forked bow, which as become as synonymous to Jones’ boats as fins to the Cadillac.</p>
<p>The problem with maintaining the proper “flying” attitude on an Unlimited has been inhibited for years by an APBA regulation. This rule allowed airfoil surfaces which could be adjusted, but not from the cockpit. In other words, not while underway. A 1974 ruling has amended that rule to permit controllable airfoils.</p>
<p>Although Ron prefers to build the proper flying attitude into his boats, he was typically quick to recognize the safety advantage of the new rule. The ability to alter trim quickly in a danger situation is too appealing to ignore.</p>
<p>On the radical, turbine driven U-95 which will debut this year, Ron provided a controllable horizontal stabilizer. Created by aerodynamicist Jim Larson, the bearing-mounted airfoil pivots at the ¼ chord (25 percent of the width of the wing). Using a rocker switch mounted on the steering wheel, the driver can adjust the stabilizer through a 16 degree range while the boat is in motion. Pre-season testing has shown it to be workable, and beneficial in varying wind conditions.</p>
<p>The continuing demand for Unlimited hydroplanes that can accept more and more of the tremendous power available compels Jones to play the role of innovator. He admits the impossibility of designing a 100 percent safe boat but, in the same breath, cites that as his goal. Some of the possibilities he is considering are: a stern-driven Unlimited; electronic stabilizers that sense attitude changes and correct automatically; a honeycomb aluminum boat that is molded, rather than built with laminated sheets. To achieve the latter, he is installing an oven which will be capable of molding an entire 40 foot boat.</p>
<p>Jones is an avid fan of racing and attends all events his busy schedule will permit. He admits to fatherly concern for every boat he builds, and for the welfare of the drivers.</p>
<p>“I guess I shouldn’t, but I worry about it until I’m sick. Last year, in Seattle, I watched Mickey Remund in Pay ‘N Pak and Dean Chenoweth in Miss Budweiser run 15 side by side. They averaged 123 mph for six laps, not more than three feet apart. I was speechless and petrified. That had to be the most thrilling thing I have ever seen in my life. Both boats were mine, so I guess you know how I felt.”</p>
<p>It is a safe bet that both drivers felt much better, knowing they were aboard Jones boats.</p>The Saga of Ron Jonestag:thunderboats.ning.com,2017-01-20:6315479:BlogPost:1020162017-01-20T02:55:53.000ZHydroplane Museumhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/246tk6zdw9cbo
<p><em>By Fred Farley - Unlimited Hydroplane Historian</em></p>
<p>Unlimited hydroplane racing owes a lot to Ron Jones, the Seattle area boat builder, who has revolutionized the sport so dramatically over the years.</p>
<p>If anyone has any doubts about the contribution of Ron Jones, Sr., to big-time boat racing, the outward appearance of the hydroplanes themselves should suffice. The boats of yesteryear were, for the most part, rather narrow, quite box-shaped, and less streamlined. They had…</p>
<p><em>By Fred Farley - Unlimited Hydroplane Historian</em></p>
<p>Unlimited hydroplane racing owes a lot to Ron Jones, the Seattle area boat builder, who has revolutionized the sport so dramatically over the years.</p>
<p>If anyone has any doubts about the contribution of Ron Jones, Sr., to big-time boat racing, the outward appearance of the hydroplanes themselves should suffice. The boats of yesteryear were, for the most part, rather narrow, quite box-shaped, and less streamlined. They had forward engines and rear cockpits and rode awfully rough through the turns. Today, thanks to Ron, the boats are generally wider, flatter, have forward-mounted (or cabover) cockpits, and corner a whole lot better.</p>
<p>"I went through fifteen years of rejection on that particular design," Jones recalls. "But the cabover, I feel, is safer. The weight placement is more helpful in getting the boat around the corner."</p>
<p>Ron grew up in a racing-oriented family. His equally renowned father, Ted Jones, designed such famous contenders as SLO-MO-SHUN IV, SHANTY I, MAVERICK, HAWAII KAI III, MISS WAHOO, and MISS THRIFTWAY. The younger Jones started building Limited hydroplanes in 1950 while still in high school.</p>
<p>His first race boat was a 48 Cubic Inch Class rig, which he sold for a few hundred dollars. The 48s were the smallest of the APBA inboard hydro classes.</p>
<p>Ron attempted his first 7-Litre boat in 1956. This was the WHIZSKI, powered by a Packard V-8. WHIZSKI is the craft that owner Wally Pannebaker tried to pass off as an Unlimited by extending the tailfin 4 feet 2 inches in order to meet the minimum Unlimited hull length of 25 feet. Ron had nothing to do with the tailfin extension and didn't want to have anything to do with it. WHIZSKI entered the 1957 Gold Cup at Seattle but couldn't reach the qualification minimum of 95 miles per hour.</p>
<p>Jones made a few starts in the late fifties as a 280 Cubic Inch Class pilot. But he gave that up rather quickly, because "I found that I was a rotten driver."</p>
<p>Ron built his first Unlimited, the MISS BARDAHL, which his dad had designed, in 1958. The boat won its first race, the Lake Chelan Apple Cup, and went on to win the Season High Point Championship with Norm Evans and Mira Slovak as drivers.</p>
<p>Five years later, Ron was called in to perform modifications on another MISS BARDAHL that the elder Jones had designed and built. Ron installed an entirely new set of sponsons and changed the length of the afterplane among other things. In 1963-64-65, the rebuilt boat won three straight Gold Cups and National Championships with Ron Musson driving.</p>
<p>"I like to feel that I was responsible for helping my Dad in that it was basically a good boat, an excellent boat, that needed a little help in the sponson department."</p>
<p>After having worked with the BARDAHL people on two previous hulls, Ron accepted his first major Unlimited Class assignment: the design and construction of a new and innovative MISS BARDAHL for the 1966 campaign.</p>
<p>Jones had built a popular 225 Cubic Inch Class hydroplane, the TIGER TOO, in 1961. The boat was a cabover, and Ron could hardly give it away. But once it entered competition, TIGER TOO was highly successful. Jones was anxious to try the cabover concept on an Unlimited hydroplane.</p>
<p>"We knew that Unlimiteds basically were not as aerodynamically supported as many perhaps thought. They were really kind of careening around on two sponsons, reacting to the water. We attempted to build a boat that would be more aerodynamically supported than previously. That was our first consideration.</p>
<p>"Second, we moved the weight aft in an effort to help the handling and cornering of the boat. We made the transom wide which, today, is very well accepted. At the time, it was not accepted at all. We also did some things in the area of the strut and the sponsons which, perhaps, were ahead of their time.</p>
<p>"All these things put together were in an effort toward making the boat go faster with the same horsepower as before. Or, if the driver didn't care to go faster, he could work the engine--in this instance, a Rolls-Royce Merlin--a lot less and go into the corner much faster. This would increase lap times because of less elapsed time in the turn.</p>
<p>"So, the whole effort of the 1966 Miss Bardahl was to support the boat aerodynamically and, through improved hydrodynamics and weight placement, make it corner and accelerate faster."</p>
<p>Ron's brainchild created quite a sensation when it appeared on the Unlimited scene at Tampa, Florida. Not since Ted Jones introduced THRIFTWAY TOO, which raced between 1957 and 1960, had a Thunderboat cockpit been located ahead of the engine.</p>
<p>After withdrawing from the Tampa event with a gearbox problem, MISS BARDAHL made her competitive debut a week later at the ill-fated 1966 President's Cup in Washington, D.C. Pilot Musson waxed the field in the first heat. In so doing, MISS BARDAHL posted the fastest heat speed of the race and dramatically served notice that she had what it took to be competitive. The much-maligned cabover concept of Ron Jones suddenly had credibility.</p>
<p>Then, disaster struck. While dueling for the lead in Heat Two with Rex Manchester in NOTRE DAME, MISS BARDAHL lost her propeller. The craft became airborne and took a nosedive to the bottom of the Potomac River, shattering the hull and fatally injuring the driver.</p>
<p>Jones was shaken to the core by the tragedy, even though his design and construction could not be faulted. Ron Musson was a close personal friend. And the accident served to perpetuate the now-debunked myth about forward-cockpit hulls being unduly hazardous.</p>
<p>"There were accidents that had nothing to do with the fact that the boats were cabovers," Ron recalls, "but they were associated with cabovers. And, therefore, it was difficult to sell the concept."</p>
<p>Not for four years did Jones attempt another Unlimited. In the mean time, Ron introduced RECORD-7, which dominated the 7-Litre Class in 1969 with his good friend George Babcock driving. RECORD-7 was the first Limited inboard to average better than 100 miles per hour in a heat of competition.</p>
<p>Jones is quick to point out, however, that a lot of factors contributed to RECORD-7's phenomenal success and no one thing was responsible for clearing 100 MPH. Wide afterplanes, pickleforks, and cabovers were all ideas that he had been exploring for over a decade.</p>
<p>"Although we did a lot of new tricks to that boat, including a few that perhaps went unnoticed. And we had a much better shaped deck aerodynamically."</p>
<p>RECORD-7's performance proved to be a wake-up call for the Unlimited fraternity. "Up until that point, we had been successful with a lot of Limited classes. But, for some reason, the Unlimited hydroplane owner is not impressed by the so-called 'little boats.' Yet, RECORD-7 was impressive enough to get their attention."</p>
<p>The first Unlimited boat to follow RECORD-7's lead was the 1970 vintage PRIDE OF PAY 'n PAK that Ron built for Seattle's Dave Heerensperger. The PRIDE used a pair of hemispherical engines built up by the highly regarded Keith Black.</p>
<p>"I was 90 percent right with many of the concepts of that boat. It did show some bursts of straightaway speed on occasion. But the boat was a little too heavy for two Chryslers. We didn't have the propeller technology that we have today. I wish that I had had the propeller and gear ratio combinations in 1970 that we are able to enjoy today. We might have been a great deal more successful."</p>
<p>PRIDE OF PAY 'n PAK nevertheless emerged, the following year, as an enormously competitive machine. Repowered with a single Rolls-Royce Merlin, prepared by crew chief Jim Lucero, and with the cockpit relocated from forward to aft, she dominated the second half of the 1971 season and handed Ron his first three Unlimited Class victories (at Seattle, Eugene, and Dallas). With Billy Schumacher driving, the PRIDE also became the first boat to qualify at 121 miles per hour around a 3-mile course (on Lake Washington).</p>
<p>Although not significantly faster on the straightaway than the traditional post-1950 Ted Jones-style hulls, PRIDE OF PAY 'n PAK could outcorner anything on the water.</p>
<p>By 1974, Ron Jones boats were finally recognized as the state-of-the-art. Between 1971 and 1974, Ron constructed a staggering total of eight Unlimited hulls: the 1971 COUNTRY BOY, the 1972 NOTRE DAME, the 1973 PAY 'n PAK and the U-95 turbine entry, and the 1974 COUNTRY BOY, VALU-MART, MISS U.S., and LINCOLN THRIFT.</p>
<p>By far the most successful of these was the famed "Winged Wonder" PAY 'n PAK, which ranks among the all-time great Thunderboats with 22 race victories. It stands with Ron's other big winner, the 1980 Rolls-Royce Griffon-powered MISS BUDWEISER, which likewise captured 22 first-place trophies.</p>
<p>The 1973 PAY 'n PAK, which became Bill Muncey's ATLAS VAN LINES in 1976, was the first hydroplane of any shape or size to be built of aluminum honeycomb, rather than marine plywood.</p>
<p>"I had originally thought that I would use a honeycomb bottom. But after talking with the people from the Hexcel Company, I was very impressed and decided to use it everywhere in the boat that I possibly could for a weight saving of about a thousand pounds."</p>
<p>In planning the new PAK, Jones wanted very much to build a cabover. But Heerensperger insisted on a rear-cockpit hull and won out. Ron nevertheless utilized many of the cabover hull characteristics while still seating the driver behind the engine.</p>
<p>"But I did insist on the use of a horizontal stabilizer. Heerensperger agreed because it would give him a lot of publicity. And it did. Perhaps, by today's standards, the stabilizer was not everything it could have been. It was, however, a good running start on the widespread use of the concept.</p>
<p>"And in all fairness to Jim Lucero, he certainly added to the boat's ultimate performance by preparing excellent engines, good gearbox/propeller combinations, and probably some fine-tuning on the sponsons."</p>
<p>Perhaps the most eloquent showcase of the talents of Ron Jones occurred at the 1973 World's Championship Race in Seattle. Despite mist and rain, the competition was superb and unforgettable.</p>
<p>The honeycomb PAY 'n PAK and its 1970 predecessor (renamed MISS BUDWEISER) ran side-by-side. Drivers Mickey Remund and Dean Chenoweth shared the same roostertail en route to becoming the first boats in history to average better than 120 miles per hour in a heat of competition. A local newspaper labeled the PAK and the BUD as "the champion fogcutters of the world."</p>
<p>That 1973 campaign was the first season in which hulls designed by Ron won the majority of Unlimited races (eight out of nine). PAY 'n PAK and MISS BUDWEISER both had four wins and finished one-two in National High Points.</p>
<p>In spite of being three years older and a thousand pounds heavier than PAY 'n PAK, MISS BUDWEISER was able to achieve parity with the PAK. This was due to driver Chenoweth consistently securing the inside lane in heat confrontations between the two entries.</p>
<p>The famous PAK/BUD rivalry continued into 1974. PAY 'n PAK won seven races and MISS BUDWEISER won four to sweep the eleven-race campaign.</p>
<p>The 1975 season was another banner year for the Ron Jones hulls. That's when the Billy Schumacher-chauffeured WEISFIELD'S (former VALU-MART) had the defending National Champion PAY 'n PAK on the ropes in the first three races. But PAY 'n PAK driver George Henley overcame an almost insurmountable point lead by winning five of the last six races of the season to retain the championship. Never before or since has the momentum of one boat been so surely halted by the performance of another challenger.</p>
<p>And in 1976, Jones had the satisfaction of seeing his MISS U.S. win the APBA Gold Cup at Detroit for owner George Simon and driver Tom D'Eath. This was the first time that a cabover three-pointer had ever won the sport's most coveted trophy. Since 1976, every Gold Cup winner has steered from the front.</p>
<p>In assessing the total contribution of Ron Jones to Unlimited hydroplane racing, the many race victories, speed records, and forward-thinking innovations speak for themselves. He was the first to install an F-16 safety canopy on an Unlimited, starting with the MISS BUDWEISER and the MISS 7-ELEVEN in 1986.</p>
<p>His main concern has always been the safety factor for the drivers. This concern shows in all of his work, because Ron is more than just a talented boat designer and builder. He's also a good friend.</p>The Famous Bill Muncey Dunking of 1979tag:thunderboats.ning.com,2016-12-09:6315479:BlogPost:1010272016-12-09T01:30:00.000ZHydroplane Museumhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/246tk6zdw9cbo
<p>By <a href="http://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DonMock" target="_self">Don Mock</a></p>
<p>t was the 1979 Jack-in-the-Box Regatta on San Diego’s Mission Bay where an interesting, yet little known event took place. But it wasn’t until 35 years later that the story became even more interesting thanks to a photo that surfaced from photographer Bill Osborne. Besides a few lousy shots I took with a little cheap camera, this is the only other photo I’ve ever seen of Bill Muncey and the Atlas Van…</p>
<p>By <a href="http://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DonMock" target="_self">Don Mock</a></p>
<p>t was the 1979 Jack-in-the-Box Regatta on San Diego’s Mission Bay where an interesting, yet little known event took place. But it wasn’t until 35 years later that the story became even more interesting thanks to a photo that surfaced from photographer Bill Osborne. Besides a few lousy shots I took with a little cheap camera, this is the only other photo I’ve ever seen of Bill Muncey and the Atlas Van Lines "Blue Blaster" at the end of the race in San Diego in 1979.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366294?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366294?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a><em>Bill Muncey and the Atlas on Mission Bay</em></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366466?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366466?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Famous promo photo taken the day before the race.</em></p>
<p>My wife to be Kathy and I had driven down from LA where we were living, and went onto Fiesta Island to the start/finish line to watch the race, one of the best places on the planet to witness and unlimited hydro race. In those days spectators could wade into the water to experience racing up-close.....real close......to the point of getting wet from roostertails.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366478?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366478?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Part of the large crowd on Fiesta Island watching the racing action.</em> <br/> <em>(Squire Shop, Tri-City Tile and Masonry and Atlas heading for a start)</em></p>
<p>After going dead in his first preliminary heat, Muncey won his second and made it into the final with 400 points. In the final heat the Atlas again had engine problems and died right in front of us on the second lap. As the final heat continued the wind and wakes from the other boats began nudging the Atlas toward us and the beach. Drifting within 50 feet from the beach, Bill clapped for Steve Reynolds in the Circus Circus as he roared by and took the checkered flag for the win. As the Atlas drifted even closer, in only about 4 ft of water, several excited fans rushed out and surrounded the boat to keep it from hitting bottom.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366398?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366398?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Steve Reynolds waves to the crowd in a preliminary heat.</em></p>
<p>Bill must have been disappointed after loosing the race, but climbed out of the cockpit and walked around the deck leaning over shaking hands with what probably grew to 30-40 fans hanging on to the boat. I was standing just at the water’s edge thinking about wading in myself to shake hands with the legend. But just then a clearly over-zealous fan, who appeared to have made sure he didn’t have to pack any beers home with him, climbed up on the boat and jumped up and down waving like an idiot. Bill had his back to him leaning over shaking someone's hand when the drunk idiot ran over and pushed Bill head-first into Mission Bay. I was shocked and furious at the idiot and basically embarrassed to be part of the rowdy crowd. I wanted to do something but several good Samaritans helped Bill scramble back up on the boat. Soaking wet, still wearing his helmet, he waved for the tow-boat to get him the heck out of there. That’s about the time the Osborne photo was taken. I had run out of film in my camera. Soon after the tow-boat got the Atlas headed back towards the pits, Kathy and I headed to the car and back to LA.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366445?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366445?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a><em>Start of the Final Heat.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366664?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366664?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a><em>Atlas slows on lap two with an engine problem.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366711?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366711?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Muncey and the Atlas float helplessly in the middle of the front stretch<br/> near the start/finish line. Ron Armstrong zooms by in the Miss Van's PX.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366715?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366715?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Bill waves his arms to alert drivers as Chip Hanauer in the Squire Shop finishes lap 4.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366587?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366587?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Muncey watches the Dr. Toyota, the last boat to finish the final heat.</em></p>
<p>I’ve told this story hundreds of times but have never met anyone else, among the thousands of fans, who witnessed this infamous incident. And have never seen another photo besides my own.</p>
<p>The next photo is from Bill Osborne’s new book <em>Fifty Years: A Personal History Of Unlimited Hydroplane Racing.</em> Bill gave me a rough in-progress PDF copy a few years ago to check out. It’s a great book filled with many of Bill’s amazing photographs.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366718?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366718?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Moments after being pushed in the water by a drunk fan,<br/> Bill Muncey is surrounded by the excited crowd.</em></p>
<p>Another person I’ve told this story to many times is Chip Hanauer. Chip and the Squire Shop finished 2nd in the race but he didn’t hear much about Bill getting dunked, just that the Atlas went dead over by the start/finish line. He does remember having to avoid the Blaster every lap. When I saw the Osborne photo, I immediately sent it to Chip and reminded him of the story.</p>
<p>A few years earlier, Chip had become involved in NASCAR, mentoring young Seattle driver Tayler Malsam in the Camping World Truck Series. Chip traveled to all the races and met several old acquaintances from his car racing years. One was Keith Koldsbaek, who worked for Hendrick Motorsports. Keith even visited Seattle in 2014. Chip brought him to the museum to see the 82 Atlas and Blue Blaster. Chip gave him a tour of the museum and a copy of the DVD about the Blaster restoration. Several crew members and drivers at Hendrick know of Chip including Kasey Kahne, so many were interested to see the video and hear about Chip driving the newly restored boat.</p>
<p>When the subject about Chip and the Atlas reached Jimmie Johnson, he told Keith that he knew all about Bill Muncey and the Atlas Van Lines. Jimmie had grown up in San Diego and was taken to races on Mission Bay by his dad. He also raced motorcycles with Edward Muncey as a teenager. Then Jimmie recounted one time when he was about 4-5 years old, he sat on the deck of the Atlas when it was floating in the water. He remembered that the boat had gone dead right in front of them on Fiesta Island and drifted close to the beach where his dad carried young Jimmie out to the boat and sat him on the deck.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366685?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366685?profile=original" width="361" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Four-year old NASCAR Champ Jimmie Johnson in the yellow cap.</em></p>
<p>Keith relayed Jimmie’s story back to Chip who immediately sent the famous photo to Keith. When Jimmie saw the photo he was shocked to see he and his dad sitting near the back of the boat by the tail. Chip called me when he heard from Jimmie and I was blown away. I’m standing right outside the frame of the photo and after 37 years, the only person I found who remembers Muncey’s soaking was none other than Mr. Seven-Time Champ Jimmie Johnson. Chip has talked to Jimmie about going for a ride in the boat sometime, or even driving it. Jimmie loves the idea but no plans finalized yet.</p>Steve LaCava passes awaytag:thunderboats.ning.com,2016-12-06:6315479:BlogPost:1011252016-12-06T05:30:00.000ZHydroplane Museumhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/246tk6zdw9cbo
<p>The Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum has learned of the passing in late November of Steve LaCava, the sport’s Rookie of the Year in 1980. An experienced 7-litre driver, LaCava purchased the former Valu-Mart from Bill Wurster early in the 1980 season and entered the boat in three races as the Oh Boy! Oberto. His best performance was a fifth-place finish in the Tri-Cities event. He sold the boat the following year, but drove it at two events as the Miss Kawaguichi Travel Service. The Museum…</p>
<p>The Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum has learned of the passing in late November of Steve LaCava, the sport’s Rookie of the Year in 1980. An experienced 7-litre driver, LaCava purchased the former Valu-Mart from Bill Wurster early in the 1980 season and entered the boat in three races as the Oh Boy! Oberto. His best performance was a fifth-place finish in the Tri-Cities event. He sold the boat the following year, but drove it at two events as the Miss Kawaguichi Travel Service. The Museum wishes to extend our condolences and prayers for his family and friends.</p>Battle of the engines: Piston vs. Turbinetag:thunderboats.ning.com,2016-12-04:6315479:BlogPost:1011182016-12-04T02:40:43.000ZHydroplane Museumhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/246tk6zdw9cbo
<p><strong>Piston</strong></p>
<p>Today, there is only one piston-powered unlimited hydroplane — Ed Cooper's U-3. It uses a turbocharged Allison engine developed for World War II fighter planes. The U-3 team builds most of its own engines, but it is estimated an engine like the one in the U-3 would cost $70,000-$80,000 to buy new. Allison engines run on methanol fuel and burn much more than a turbine. The U-3 burns 18 gallons of methanol a minute while the turbine burns 4.3 gallons of kerosene…</p>
<p><strong>Piston</strong></p>
<p>Today, there is only one piston-powered unlimited hydroplane — Ed Cooper's U-3. It uses a turbocharged Allison engine developed for World War II fighter planes. The U-3 team builds most of its own engines, but it is estimated an engine like the one in the U-3 would cost $70,000-$80,000 to buy new. Allison engines run on methanol fuel and burn much more than a turbine. The U-3 burns 18 gallons of methanol a minute while the turbine burns 4.3 gallons of kerosene a minute. Allisons became widely used in power boats shortly after WWII — the first victory by a hydroplane using an Allison engine came in 1946 by the Miss Great Lakes in Washington, D.C. Along with the Rolls-Royce Griffins, they were the engine of choice from the 1950s through the mid-1980s. Their main disadvantage is their lack of dependability, largely because of all the parts involved. They are prone to breaking down. Also, since the piston engines are heavier, boats using them don't accelerate as well out of turns.</p>
<p><strong>Turbine</strong></p>
<p>Most of the turbine engines used by hydroplanes are Lycoming T-55 L-7 from Chinook helicopters built for the Vietnam War. There are said to be about 840 of them available, and they can be purchased for roughly $50,000. The biggest reason they became the motor of choice among hydroplane owners is their dependability. They have fewer parts than a piston engine, and many of the parts are welded together. One owner said he has used the same three engines for the past five years. They also weigh about half as much as piston engines, coming in at around 900 pounds. Turbine engines run on kerosene fuel and need much less than piston engines, saving on expense and weight of the boat. A turbine was first used in a hydroplane competitively in 1974. The first victory by a turbine boat came in the Pay 'N Pak in 1982 in Syracuse, N.Y. By the mid-1980s, they were being used regularly. Since the early 1990s, all but one boat has used turbine engines.</p>We have a lot to be thankful for at the Museumtag:thunderboats.ning.com,2016-11-23:6315479:BlogPost:1010032016-11-23T02:38:50.000ZDavid D. Williamshttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/DavidDWilliams
<p style="text-align: center;">Its Thanksgiving at the Museum. Great Food, wonderful friends, fantastic volunteers. . .</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">and a few amazing boats too!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366290?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" height="407" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366290?profile=original" width="305"></img></a> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366342?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-right" height="410" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366342?profile=original" width="308"></img></a> …</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Its Thanksgiving at the Museum. Great Food, wonderful friends, fantastic volunteers. . .</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">and a few amazing boats too!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366290?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366290?profile=original" width="305" class="align-left" height="407"/></a><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366342?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366342?profile=original" width="308" class="align-right" height="410"/></a> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366375?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366375?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p>Thunderboats are impressive, even without the thundertag:thunderboats.ning.com,2016-08-25:6315479:BlogPost:1000772016-08-25T01:30:00.000ZHydroplane Museumhttp://thunderboats.ning.com/profile/246tk6zdw9cbo
<p>Reprinted from <em>The Seattle Times</em>, August 5, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366372?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366372?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450"></img></a></p>
<p><em><strong>Sketched Aug. 3, 2016</strong></em></p>
<p>The thunderous hydros are meant to be watched as they glide over Lake Washington during Seafair. But, for a quieter experience, you may want to see them up close at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent.</p>
<p>The exhibit grew from a private…</p>
<p>Reprinted from <em>The Seattle Times</em>, August 5, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366372?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366372?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p><em><strong>Sketched Aug. 3, 2016</strong></em></p>
<p>The thunderous hydros are meant to be watched as they glide over Lake Washington during Seafair. But, for a quieter experience, you may want to see them up close at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent.</p>
<p>The exhibit grew from a private collection of memorabilia into a warehouse jampacked with hydroplanes that have been restored to sailing condition. Nine were on display when I visited, including the historic 1975 Oh Boy! Oberto, the first one to be sponsored by the local brand.</p>
<p>Years before we had Sounders, Seahawks or Mariners to root for, hydroplane races put Seattle on the map of professional sports. I often hear these words when people talk about them: “Quintessential Seattle.”</p>
<p>Here are more sketches from my visit to the museum:</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366436?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366436?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>Modern-era hydroplanes use enclosed cockpits to protect the pilots in case of crashes. The cockpit of this Boeing hydro came from an F-16 aircraft.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366442?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366442?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>Back in the day, it was normal for towns to have their own mascot hydros. The 1960 Miss Burien was sponsored by a group of Burien merchants.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366510?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74366510?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>The 1957 Miss Wahoo belonged to Bill Boeing Jr. With its wooden finish, it stands as the most elegant in the collection.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/author/gabriel-campanario-seattle-sketcher/" target="_blank">Seattle Sketcher Gabriel Campanario</a>: 206.464.8795 or gcampanario@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @seattlesketcher. Gabriel Campanario illustrates life in the Puget Sound region. He has been living and drawing in Seattle since 2006. He's a Seattle Times artist, founder of Urban Sketchers nonprofit, Spaniard, husband and father.</em></p>