What a Wonderful few Days!

[David D. Williams]

It is one of the quirks of the Hydro Business that there are long cold months during the winter when little or no activity is taking place, and then for a few days at the end of July and start of August we are so incredibly busy that there is hardly time to blink. (I often tell my friends that I know what it must be like for Santa Claus to go the whole year with seeing a soul, and then in one night seeing everyone in the world!) The Hydroplane Museum spends all year preparing for the crazy, hectic period of nonstop action that starts Thursday July 26th as we move our vintage boats into the pits at Tri City, and ends Sunday night the 5th of August when we put the boats away after running at Seafair. In between there is an amazing blur of activity that includes, parades, static displays, an auction fund raiser, selling merchandise, entertaining hundreds of visitors at the museum, hosting a $100 a plate dinner and last but certainly not least, putting on 12 separate multi boat running exhibitions. This flurry of activity over a week and a half accounts for over 30% of the Museum’s yearly income.

I’m proud to report that this year’s “Hydro Hysteria” was the most successful in years. Not only did the boats look, sound and run great in Tri Cities and Seattle, but our Auction Gala was the most successful one we’ve had in at least five years. We also had boats on display at the Museum of Flight for their fabulous Need for Speed event, and we even found time to send the Century 21 through the Torch Light Parade.

To put it plain and simple, the key to this summer’s success was our amazing group of volunteers. The boats crews, the merchandise crew and the auction committee all went above and beyond to work long hours in the hot sun to make sure that everything we touched this summer worked and worked well. The result is a Museum that is financially strong and ready to face the fall and winter with enough resources to keep the doors open, the boats roaring and the lights burning. I cannot tell you how grateful we are to everybody who worked to make this summer so successful!

Sincerely,

 

David Williams

Executive Director

Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum