Hydroplane Museum's News (126)

Through Them, the Rivalry of Their Mentors Lives On

Reprinted from the Los Angeles Times, September 17, 1986

SAN DIEGO — Bill Muncey vs. Dean Chenoweth. Atlas Van Lines vs. Miss Budweiser.

There were some fierce hydroplane races between those intense rivals in the 1970s and early '80s.

Muncey was the American Power Boat Assn. national champion in 1972, '76, '78 and '79 and is the all-time leading unlimited hydroplane racer with 62…

He's Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected in the Most Dangerous Game of Hydroplane Racing

Reprinted from the Los Angeles Times, September 09, 1985

SEATTLE — The deaths of boat racers Jerry Bangs and Bill Muncey gave Chip Hanauer the opportunity he needed to become the No. 1 driver of unlimited hydroplanes.

When Bangs was killed on Lake Washington in 1977, Hanauer was chosen to replace him. He was 22, a weekend racer, a schoolteacher with a…

As many of you know, Seattle's Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) has long been the home of the Slo-mo-shun IV, unlimited hydoplane racing's "Grand Old Lady". Well, MOHAI is moving from it's long time location at McCurdy Park, near the University of Washington, to the Naval Reserve Armory Building at Lake Union Park.

Slo-mo’s radical…

Unlike what has been seen in Formula 1 car racing, Indianapolis car racing, NASCAR, or Limited class boat racing, Unlimited hydroplane racing has brought out many unique and very unusual designs. Clear, not all of these worked as hoped, but they sure made things interesting, and often advanced the state of the technology.

Renown aerodynamicist Doug Ford…

Biscayne's waters shivered to the opening of the unlimited-hydroplane racing season as a new winged marauder called 'Pay 'n Pak' awed and eventually overcame Bill Muncey, the suffering 1972 champion.

By Dan Levin

Reprinted from Sports Illustrated, May 23, 1973.

The noise of the big boats set knees and spines humming Sunday in Miami's Marine Stadium, but the shock waves were even more intense. Out on the roiled water of Biscayne Bay a…

Join the Blue Blaster Booster Club and help restore Bill Muncey's Atlas Van Lines.

Dues are $100.00 per membership. These funds go directly to help the current Atlas Van Lines restoration project.

Membership benefits include:

• Dynamic Blast From The Past BBBC membership tee-shirt.
• Exclusive BBBC membership…

The 4th Annual Roger Newton Memorial scale model unlimited hydroplane show will be held at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent, Washington on Saturday, February 11th from 11:00 AM until 4:00 PM.

Admission is just $5.00 for the general public and is free to all Museum members. A pizza lunch will be available.

Come and learn about the exciting sport of scale model unlimited hydroplane racing from some of the nation's best model builders. Over 50 of these beautiful…

The Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum will be holding it's Annual Membership Meeting and Holiday Party, Saturday, December 10th from 6 PM to 9 PM. Once a year we all gather to share a meal, honor our outstanding members, and elect new Board Members and Officers.

This year's dinner will include a special visit from Gold Cup champion owner Erick Ellstrom of this year's National High-Points Champion team, the U-96 Spirit of Qatar racing team.

Cost is $15 per person. We would REALLY…

For unlimited hydro racing it was a remarkably uneventful event. Nobody got killed and the boats, most of them powered by aircraft engines, flew so low that Bill Sterett won with his Chryslers.

By Kim Chapin

Reprinted from Sports Illustrated, July 10, 1967

All that is good in the small domain of the thunderboat was demonstrated last Sunday on the Detroit River during the second annual World's Championship Race for unlimited hydroplanes.…

In one of the most unexpected upsets - and thrilling races - unlimited hydroplanes have known, a man who had never won before seized the President's Cup on the Potomac from the sport's last hero.

By Mark Kram

Reprinted from Sports Illustrated, July 17, 1972

Sunday on the Potomac. The thought of it seems to travel with a picture of a tranquil glade, a promise of stillness. A place where you can lie back on a blanket and ponder the birth of…

Two days of hydro racing end with four hospital cases, three retirements and no real winner.

By Emmett Watson

Reprinted from Sports Illustrated, August 22, 1960

The sport of hydroplaning, in which the sight of burning boats, crippled drivers and squabbling officials has become commonplace, degenerated into a grisly parody of itself at the Seafair Trophy races in Seattle last week. The regatta produced a winner (of sorts) in Miss Thriftway, driven…

Stan Sayres' famous "Slo-Mos" have made Seattle the nation's motorboat capital.

Reprinted from Sports Illustrated, August 23, 1954

To the close-knit speedboat fraternity of Detroit, the stumpy, graying figure of one Stanley St. Clair Sayres is like something out of a recurrent bad dream. Four years ago Mr. Sayres, an obscure automobile salesman from Seattle, Wash., came to Detroit with a strange contraption which, on the record, would go faster on…

Vintage hydroplane racing returns this summer - experience the roar and thunder the way it used to be! Boats like the Miss Bardhal, Miss Wahoo, Oh Boy! Oberto, and Miss Thriftway will be making a come back this summer thanks in part to the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum in Kent, WA. The vintage boats will also be on display in Stan Sayres Pits and a meet and greet autograph session with past drivers will take place on Saturday and Sunday.

2011 Hydroplane…

The zealots who cannot shake the unlimited hydroplane habit open the new season in the certain knowledge that heartbreak lies around the bend.

By Coles Phinizy

Reprinted from Sports Illustrated, June 2, 1975

After 15 honest years of handling lesser brutes, in 1973 Tom D'Eath, a 29-year-old Michigan boat driver, got his first try in an unlimited hydroplane. When he moved up into the biggest class of them all, D'Eath joined an elite group of boat…

That could be the motto of Dean Chenoweth, unlimited hydroplane champion and a man with unlimited courage.

By Coles Phinizy

Reprinted from Sports Illustrated, August 24, 1981

In his workaday world 43-year-old Dean Chenoweth of Tallahassee is a near-perfect person. He doesn't smoke. He doesn't drink. He eats what he needs, takes diet supplements and runs eight miles a day. Although a model of abstinence in his ordinary life, in his…

Gar Wood always wanted to build and race the fastest powerboats in the world. Finally, when nearing 40, he realized his ambition.

By William F. Nolan

Reprinted from Sports Illustrated, February 4, 1963

They all laughed when Garfield Arthur Wood challenged England for the Harmsworth Trophy in 1920. Wood was nearly 40, an age at which few sportsmen are found behind the wheel of an unlimited hydroplane. Besides, the English had held the…

By Doug Ford

Reprinted from h1unlimited.com.

There has been a lot of chatter lately about the potential of an automotive powered unlimited hydroplane--and for good reason. They are loud. They would clearly be a fan favorite. They attract an entirely different group of potential sponsors such as automotive products, motor oil, spark plugs,…

By Fred Farley - H1 Unlimited Historian

Garfield Arthur Wood - the immortal "Grey Fox of Grayhaven (Michigan)" - was Unlimited hydroplane racing's first superstar. In the years prior to World War II, "King Gar" personified power boat competition in the eyes of the world.

He won the APBA Gold Cup four times as an owner and five times as a driver, and captured the Harmsworth International Trophy eight times as a driver and nine times as an owner. Gar was the first to average over…

By Fred Farley - H1 Unlimited Historian

Dean Chenoweth drove Unlimited hydroplanes from 1968 until his death in 1982. Like few drivers before or since, Dean could guarantee results. And in so doing, he raised boat driving to the level of an art form.

Known primarily for his championship exploits with Bernie Little's MISS BUDWEISER team, Chenoweth won 25 Unlimited races. He captured the Crown Jewel of APBA competition, the Gold Cup, four times in 1970, 1973, 1980, and 1981. Dean…