Name: Black Magic
Class/Motor: 266 cu. in. F class
Length: 17’ 3”

Other hulls known from the same mold: My Bad Penny - burned to the water line. Queen Jean  - When talking to Bob Conn, who built the fiberglass boats, his thought was my hull was the Queen Jean. Nothing has been found on this boat name, except the name in an Alabama program. Miss Miami - Todd Bohnet is currently restoring. Black Magic - It was known that the Conn Craft boats were taken from a mold made from the original Lauterbach boat, Black Magic; however, there was no information at the time that the first boat was the fiberglass “Black Magic.

The hull is totally fiberglass with wood, fiberglass-covered, stringers. As seen in the pictures, the top coats of paint and fiberglass have been removed.  When talking to Bob Conn he stated that the Queen Jean was in a Miami to Nassau race and had gas tanks in the sponsons. My boat has tanks in the sponsons. With having the larger tanks in the sponsons it is believed that it ran in endurance type races. I talked to Henry Lauterbach and he confirmed that Bob Conn had made three 266 class boats before stretching the mold to make the 7 liter version. 
The hull is in pretty good shape and is in the process of being restored.
 

The mold was made from a wooden 266 class Lauterbach named Black Magic F-909. This photo was taken by Brent McLean in St. Petersburg, Florida of that hydroplane.  "I took this photo in February 1962. That year there were two of the fiberglass 266 hydros at the Southland Regatta. I do not have a photo of the other, but as my memory serves me, the boat was called My Bad Penny and was purple and white or two-tone purple. The boats were built by Bob Conn of Conn-Craft in Miami. He took a mold from the wooden 266 cu. in. class hull, Black Magic which was a Lauterbach built hydro. I remember both boats as they had a unusual hollow sound as compared to the wooden hulls. I also remember the Lauterbach Black Magic at the St. Pete races prior to 1962".