VINTAGE RACERS REDISCOVERED:
Joe Marshall has found his Charlie Lloyd designed and built vintage 7 Litre.  This boat was the former Miss Kentucky built for Gene Bergen out of Newport, KY. Joe sold the boat several years’ back and he is tickled to find it in such good condition. He tells us that he cannot wait to get started on its restoration. 

CHALLENGES:
Tony Lamontia of Key Largo, FL is looking for his old blunt nose Jones 145 ci hydroplane, Andiamo. The last owner that he knows of is Jeff Corrigan of Cincinnati, Oh. If you can help with its whereabouts call Tony at  (330) 645-9370.

ON A SAD NOTE:
Inboard hydroplane racing and the Detroit area recently lost a good friend. Sam Guarino of East Pointe, MI passed away June 27th. Sam was one of the founding fathers of the Marine Propriders Association and a loyal APBA supporter for over 50 years. He campaigned his home built 266-ci hydro Water Bug F-37. Sam chose the number F-37 because that was his age at the time he started driving. Sam won his share of local races. He never won a Nationals or a National Championship. He never set a record, but men like Sam are the backbone of our sport. He supported and helped the local racers in his area, lending out his skills as a master machinist to whoever needed them. Sam saw the potential in a lot of Rookie racers and gave them their first chance to drive in the bigger class. Guarino was most proud of winning the Calvert Cup which was a free-for-all at the Louisville Regatta competing against the larger 7 Litres and on one day in Montreal, Canada Sam in his Water Bug on a choppy course, defeated Charlie Dunn in the more powerful Miss Washington DC. Sam liked to talk about this exciting heat of racing in the latter part of his career. He was the essence of the backyard racer. Sam died at the age of 87.

BOB SILVA’S WEST COAST REPORT:      LITTLE JOE GOES TO AUSTRALIA 
Back in the days of heavy, chromed and two-toned Detroit iron it wasn’t uncommon for a person to faithfully buy the same make of car year after year. Brand Loyalty was shown not only to makers of automobiles but to hydroplane builders as well. Morlan Visel, for instance, was a “Wickens Man”.
Visel’s venture into boat racing started right after WW II with the purchase of a Fred Wickens built inboard hydroplane, Suds, 21-A. The front running, West Coast 135 class hydro, built in 1938 for driver Gil Ozenne, was an early 3-point design. Suds gave fellow 135 class competitors fits with its plentiful speed; occasionally stepping up a class to win 225 heat as well. Unfortunately, the racing days for Suds ended quite dramatically when Visel later crashed the hydro during a test session. Undaunted, Visel went to Wickens for a new hull and was so impressed by Fred’s knowledge and craftsman that he ordered not one but three 135 hulls!
Racing the 135s out of his Florida home base, rookie Visel was quite successful campaigning on the Southeastern circuit and caught the attention of fellow competitor Joe Palmer of Chesapeake Bay. Palmer, knowing a good thing when he saw one, bought one of the 135’s from Visel’s stable and renamed it Tommy Boy, A-22. The combination proved to be so dominating that it gave Wickens name a notch of recognition on the Eastern Seaboard as Palmer went on to win 80% of the races he entered with his Tommy Boy. Meanwhile, Morlan Visel, a quick learner with the dollars to back up his ideas, went to Wickens for yet another boat. This time it was to be an Allison powered Unlimited.
 Wickens, building his first Unlimited hydro, incorporated the sponson design from his 135’s into the new hull, The Hurricane IV, G-2 as it was named, showed great speed but unpredictable handling characteristics. Discouraged by the problems with his Unlimited, but armed with design ideas of his own, Visel returned to Wickens for one more 135 hydro.
 The newest Wickens built creation would feature design ideas from Joe Moore and Visel. Named Little Joe, 2-A and running the same popular V8-60 Ford Flathead as did his previous hulls, the boat proved to be a record setter. Racing on Salton Seas heavy waters Little Joe set a competition record for 135 hydros at 77.519 mph on November 10, 1951.
 By 1954, Visel moved to Crystal Bay, NV, on the shores of Lake Tahoe and sold the Hurricane IV to Bill Stead. Then Visel, Ollie Meek and Stanley Dollar Jr. became business partners in the new Sierra Boat Co. at Lake Tahoe’s Carnelian Bay. With this new time-consuming business venture, Little Joe seldom saw any racing action, the last being Tahoe’s 1955 regatta where Visel placed fourth in the seven-boat field. By the end of ’55 the boat was sold to Australian speedway entrepreneur and boat racer, Kym Bonython.
Renamed Bullo Bee II she sported the slogan “for the bulls toil” on her aluminum cowling (Bonython also owned a bull-stud ranch). The newly purchased Wickens proved to be the best of the field on Australian waters, winning the championship for 1956 and setting a new Aussie speed record for her class. But Christmas Day proved to be the end for the little Wickens and almost the end for Bonython. Hitting a roller at high speed, the boat went airborne and came down bow first. Bonython, tangled in the wreckage of the rapidly sinking boat, was finally able to pull himself free and float to the surface with a badly broken leg. The boat, raised and towed to shore on Snowden's Beach, was a total loss.
Morlan Visel took one more stab at Unlimited racing, when he bought Jay and Roger Murphy’s Movealong, U-30. Visel, the “Wicken’s Man”, now owned a hull built by Staudacher, which he named Hurricane VI, U-30. The boat, racing close to home, placed 3rd at the 1962 Harrah’s Tahoe Regatta.

VINTAGE HOT BOAT OF THE MONTH:
Morlan Visel’s Little Joe, 2-A sits on the trailer in the pits at Salton Sea, 1952, ready for action. A year earlier, the Visel/Moore designed and Fred Wickens built 135 ci. Hydro had set a competition record of 77.519 mph. The boat was demolished in Australia, Dec. 25, 1956, after setting records as Bullo Bee II.

PHOTO CAPTION:  
RC Model Alter Ego, F-1. Owner Bill Clack.

©2000 Tom D'Eath