Every once in a while, usually over lunch after business discussions, I would kiddingly bring up the subject of "How's that old hydroplane doing?" He would grumble and say very little. From time to time, I would pester him about, "When will the restoration begin? What's the hold up man you should get cracking on that project." And then one day over lunch, I was giving him "grief" again about not doing anything with that old hydro....he looked at me and said, "Do you want this hydro?" At first, I thought he was kidding me. Then he said something along the line like.....really, I'm not kidding, take it.....Without hesitation, I said, "Hell, Yeah!" I told to him that I would give it a good home and start restoration. The next day he arranged to have me pick up the hydro from the storage facility were it had been sitting for the last 8 years. When I arrived there, the owner of the warehouse sternly looked at me and stated, "Do you have the 8 years worth of rent that SOB owes me for storing that thing!" I was, like, "uhhh, what?...The former owner didn't mention anything about that......I ain't got no money"....then he started laughing, as he knew my boss, and said, "go ahead and get that thing outta here". I drove into town and bought 2 junk tires to replace the 2 flat tires on the trailer and hooked it up to my truck. I brought the hydro home and asked my wife if she wouldn't mine getting her car out of the garage so I could temporarily store it for a couple of months. Being near the end of winter (and not being the first time I've begged her for this), she agreed and the hydro was moved into its temporary shelter.

Later in the spring, after I finished my 1926 Ford T Roadster that I was rebuilding I hauled the hydro into the shop. I have never tried a restoration of a boat. But I'm kinda a confident fella in my abilities and thought to myself once again there's always a first time for everything. So with the help of my son we yanked it off its trailer to get better access to the decking. I proceeded to try to unscrew the many silicone bronze fasteners that held the plywood decking unto the hull. It's very relaxing work removing deck screws. You bust the screw heads off here and there, mumble a few swear words, grab an alternate tool and proceed to dig those buggers out of the wood. But for the most part things moved along quite well. After what seemed like 1000 deck screws the deck skins were all removed. It became quite apparent then that a restoration I was after for would be almost impossible and that a rebuild was in order. A "pattern boat" was what I had on hand which pretty much confirmed my thinking even before I started. Whoever was the last owner 'blew up' a chevy small block that was last installed and it literally coated most of the main structural framing with oil. The oil had permeated into the wood and softened it to a degree for which I thought would make an unsafe boat. At the time if it wasn't for the all the hardware that came with the boat I would have not hesitated to cut up the hull with my chain saw and burn the old hydro in my fire pit. I decided the old gal was worth being rebuilt. I am a sucker for the labor-of-love projects such as this and I figured wood is relatively inexpensive and since most of the hardware was with the hull the motor would be my biggest expense. Since I would be doing all the labor there would be no cost there. The trailer was salvageable and could be restored, with again, mostly sweat equity. The journey began towards a rebuild of the entire hull with no idea how much time would be needed to complete the undertaking. Didn't really care either, because I was back to "work" having fun with another project.

During the rebuild, I had still not investigated who the previous owners of the hull were and whether or not this hydro had any "pedigree" of Championship caliber. I didn't really care and decided that when time permitted, I would attempt to track down some of the boat's history. Not knowing where to begin with a search for this type of information our engineer at work copied me off an article from one of his Wooden Boat magazines. The article was about Jon Staudacher, Hydroplane Designer and Builder.  I located Jon's telephone number and called him telling him I just came into a vintage hydroplane that look similar to a photo of a hull he built in the 1960's that was pictured in the magazine article. I mailed him some photos of the hull which only had the H-54 number on both sides of the fore deck. He replied it wasn't a hull he built or knew but gave me Tom D'Eath's name and told me to call him as he knew Tom would probably remember seeing this hull from his racing days. After placing the call it turns out, Tom was the chairman for the American Power Boat Association's Vintage & Historic class. I described the hull to him and he thought he knew the boat and asked me to forward some photos so he could confirm his first idea of who this hull belonged to originally. After a few days Tom phoned me. Luckily, he knew of this hull and who originally raced this hydro. I was very excited to finally know  the name of what the hydro originally campaigned under. On top of that it was a name I really liked right off the bat! Moonshine Baby. That was what it first campaigned under and I told him Moonshine Baby it'll be again. Tom also informed me it was a Ted Jones designed hull, but it was not built by any of the hydro builders of it's day. The original owner built it. Blueprints were sold by Ted Jones in the late 1950's and early 1960's and the original owner/driver purchased a set. I immediately called the original owner Dallas Kremer who told me he hadn't seen the boat since the mid 1970s and was excited that it was still around and that it was being restored. He shared with me many wonderful stories of the years he spent racing this hull. On top of that he sent me a few photos of how the hull looked in it's day and a newspaper articles on the boat's racing days. 

Wow....Excitement abounded the project as I jumped even more into the project. Tom also remembered the names of the other 2 owners. I was able to contact the third owner but the second owner had recently passed away. But I was contacted by his children who saw an inquiry in Tom's vintage article in Propeller Magazine that I was searching for the second owner. More wonderful stories to go with my hull's biography that I was starting to compile on its racing history. After meeting famed hydroplane photographer, Phil Kunz at The 1998 Antique & Race Boat Regatta in Clayton, NY, more photos were purchased and more history compiled. Through this website I have met more individuals who played a part in this hydros history, as well as many fans of the sport remembering the hydro appearing at lots of races.

©2001 Phil Spruit

Since I originally wrote this story in 2001, I have completed the rebuild and  restoration of the hull which can be viewed on this website. I will always remember those individuals who took time from their day to call me, email and snail mail photos, newspaper clippings, etc. on this hull and I certainly appreciate their effort. It's just another reason, I believe, makes this sport a pleasure to be associated with.

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