CHALLENGES:
John Harth has responded to our challenge about members looking for racing propellers He has 30 or 40 of them in different sizes both for racing outboards and inboards, 2 blades and 3 blades. He can be reached at (516) 541-3188 or email him at Allshoookup52N@msn.com.

RACE SITES:
 Aug. 10 - 12th Hampton, VA East Coast Boatracer Reunion Party and vintage flybys. All are invited, Inboards and Outboards. Contact: Buddy Roper (747) 850-0694. Last year the California West Coast Boat Racing Reunion drew over 400 in attendance. Let see if we can equal or better that number. Talk to your old boat-racing pals, drivers, owners, crewmembers, and family. I’ll be there! Hope to see you all at Hampton.
Sept 7 & 9th Buffalo, NY, 
Sept 21-23  Wolfeboro, New Hampshire Contact Hank Why at (603) 569-2212 or email: hankwhy@aol.com
Oct. 6th  Cypress Gardens, Florida - protected smooth water in the Gardens on a triangular course, hydroplanes & jersey speed skiffs. Contact me (941) 792-7554.

ON A SAD NOTE:
In early June, Andy Miller originally from Berlin, NJ who retired to the Tampa Bay area passed away from complications of lung cancer. Andy was one of our more colorful hydroplane drivers. I remember him in the early sixties driving a 280 inboard hydro called Thunderpumper. He was a driver for hire. Andy drove such boats as the WA WA Too; Max Schnell; the El Condor, 7 Litre; and he did a brief stint in the Unlimited Lincoln Thrift. There was no one braver with the throttle than Andy during that era.

In February 2001, Bill Thomas of Hayes, VA passed away. He was the 1962 National Champion in his E Service Runabout High Hopes. Many of you will remember Bill and his riding mechanic Jimmy Harris.

BOB SILVA’S WEST COAST REPORT:                Sawyer’s Red Rockets - Part II
Following his 1951 record runs and sweeping wins in Europe, Paul Sawyer Jr. focused on a new challenge, the building of an Unlimited hydroplane, also to be called ALTER EGO. During this time his record setting 266’s, BELLIGERO II, F-111 and ALTER EGO, F-1 fell from the spotlight. Hull designers were quick to expand on Sawyer’s record setting design ideas and by the end of 1953 sixteen of the ninety-three APBA registered 266’s had joined the Gulf 100 mph Club. Sawyer’s 1-mile record had also fallen to Bobby Sykes in the Joe Guess built 266, GUESS WHO at 121.703 mph.
Sawyer failed to even register his two “red rockets” for the ’53 racing season and eventually sold them both to the veteran Canadian racer, Bill Braden of Waterdown, Ontario. Braden changed the color schemes from all red to all white. BELLIGERO II was renamed AERIAL VI and the famed ALTER EGO became known as AERIAL V. But all the success that Sawyer had enjoyed with the two hulls did not follow their ill-fated new owner, Bill Braden.
The two boats were inside Art Hatch’s Marine when a fire broke out, but there wasn’t enough time to push both boats to safety (which boat would you go for first?). The AERIAL V made it out burned but repairable. The AERIAL VI was burned beyond repair. Braden continued to race the remaining boat for several more years; eventually cutting back on the number of races he attended as he approached his 45th birthday. The prestigious $10,000 Duke of York Race, held on Canada’s Fairy Lake in August of 1958 was, unfortunately, one race he did enter. Exiting the second turn of the big two-mile course, Braden nearly flipped in the rough water while dueling with third place, Joe Albee in SIR RON II. Moments later, the two boats came together raking Braden from the cockpit. Art Asbury, following in MISS MOSKOKA, dove in and swam to his good friend who was floating face down in the water. It was a shocked Asbury who was first to know that he had lost his beloved friend and one of boat racing’s greatest supporters.
The boat was then sold to Gordon Brown who attached a wooden fin to the headrest, installed a stock 265ci Chevy, renamed the hull and began competing in the 280 class with Al Stewart driving. By now, most people had forgotten the hull had ever belonged to Sawyer. Steven Kew was the next owner, reportedly painting it black and crème and naming her MISS SANTANA, still running as a 280.
The boat was sitting outside Central Outboard Marine with a for sale sign on her in 1982 when a B Stock Outboard racer, by the name of Gerry Chamberlain happen by, looking for a Merc engine. Intrigued by the inboard hydro, Gerry gave Kew a call but months passed before they struck a deal.
Gerry stuck with the name and number on the hull, SLO-MO-SHUN; CE-141 but replaced the gray paint with blue, raced the 280 class for awhile, repainted the hull Orange and then broke the crank in the 265 Chevy. The 266 class by this time had expanded to 6 Litre (350ci) and that’s what Gerry planned to install in the now purple hull. Little did he know this would have put the boat back in the class she’d set all those records in, over 40 years earlier. Funds ran short however, and instead the hull sat in his yard for years until he heard about the growing popularity of APBA’s Historic/Vintage class. So, with his wife Lynda, they towed the boat to Toronto’s 1999 Antique Boat Show. It was there Gerry met Art Asbury and they struck up a conversation about the boat’s history. Art said the boat looked familiar to him and Gerry mentioned that Bill Braden reportedly had raced it at one time. That’s when Asbury knew what to look for, the telltale gash that SIR RON II’s propeller had left on the rudder bracket that terrible day on Fairy Lake. The gash was there and more, all the same running hardware, the same HiJ 12x21 prop and behind the seat, in a corner, Sawyer’s trademark racing red.
The boat was then quickly painted with the name ALTER EGO, F-1 over the purple paint scheme and taken to Clayton 2000 for display.
Gerry and Lynda don’t have the funds to restore the ALTER EGO to its gallant past. It will require much work, striping the many coats of paint will be a massive chore. The cowlings are modified and the boat should have a full race Mercury Flathead but…the Sawyer red rocket lives and is available once again.

VINTAGE HOT BOAT OF THE MONTH:
The ALTER EGO, the first limited inboard hydro to enter the Gulf 100 mph Club, as she looks today with a disco purple paint job instead of Sawyer racing red minus The Mercury Flathead V-8. The boat hit the 115-mph mark in 1950.

©2001 Tom D'Eath