The attached photo is from 1961. It is my father in his hand built outboard hydro, testing in the IntraCoastal Waterway, in Jupiter, Florida. He set a UIM World Record for Outboard Pleasure Craft /Outboard Unlimited on December 31st, 1961. Ted Jones told him that if he could “Fly” the Transom as high as the Bow, he’d really have something. Dad told me “It never would “Prop Ride”, but Carl Kiekhaefer’s Factory boys could not touch him in OPC SU. Hugh Entrop set many Outboard “X” World Records, but Frank G. Brown III set the UIM World Outboard Speed Record for OPC SU. Dad still has the original UIM Certificate. It states: World Speed Record, December 31st 1961, Boat # U5, Hull: Homemade,
Speed 72.89nm, 117.30km, SU Single Motor Pleasure Craft. Frank G. Brown IV
Australia displacement hulls
In Australia displacement hulls were the most popular and during the 40’s, to the early 70’s one of Australia’s best builders of clinker constructed boats was Frank Lewis in Sydney. I have attached a shot of a 17 ft Skiff of timber construction showing the graceful lines of this type of hull performing as designed, that is riding high and clean on the water. The shot also shows the Lewis finish that had the deck and cockpit finished to cabinet making quality. This boat was built in the mid sixties and was being driven by a well known driver in Australia during this period Russ Neville, at an Australian Championship event. I hope you find the photo as interesting as I. Regards , Graeme Morley.
Editor’s note – beautiful boat……I really like the way it’s deck is trimmed out too
Penetrating Oils
Machinist’s Workshop MagT recently published some information on various penetrating oils that is very interesting. Some of you might appreciate this. The magazine reports they tested penetrates for break out torque on rusted nuts.
They are below, as forwarded by an ex-student and professional machinist. They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrates with the control being the torque required to remove the nut from a “scientifically rusted” environment.
*Penetrating oils ……….. Average torque load to loosen*
No Oil used ………………. 516 pounds
WD-40 ………………… … 238 pounds
PB Blaster ……………….. 214 pounds
Liquid Wrench ……………127 pounds
Kano Kroil ……………….. 106 pounds
ATF*-Acetone mix…………53 pounds
The ATF-Acetone mix is a “home brew” mix of 50 – 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone. Note this “home brew” released bolts better than any commercial product in this one particular test.
A local machinist group mixed up a batch and they all now use it with equally good results. Note also that “Liquid Wrench” is almost as good as “Kroil” for about 20% of the price.
Steve from Godwin-Singer says that ATF-Acetone mix is best, but you can also use ATF and lacquer thinner in a 50-50 mix. *ATF=Automatic Transmission Fluid
What’s happening on TVH website
Here’s an update on one of my winter projects – housecleaning the entire TVH & PKP websites. Most of this stuff — you may not notice any real changes on. My hope is to have webpages look correct between photos and text and it shouldn’t depend on whether you are viewing the websites with a cell phone or a 65″ TV monitor. I’ve noticed many of the pages on the website had the text & photos ‘splattered’ all over the monitor with no rhyme or reason or had text scrolling across the entire width of the monitor which makes reading a real challenge. I don’t website build for a living…just fun, so I guess I am living and learning this stuff the hard way (my usual route, do it wrong the first time, then spend gobs of time fixing my mistakes).
- Photo Albums section is done.
- The former Boats section & Owner’s Directory have been combined. Now it’s just called boats.
- Official Race Programs section is done.
- vintage events & reports is done. These are webpages on past vintage regattas from 1998 through 2010.
- Drivers, Owners & Builders section is removed. That data was consolidated into other areas of the website, mainly viewer’s photo albums or put in the boats section.
- The monthly Calendars section is done. You shouldn’t notice any changes here.
- Photos from a Moment section is done. Same thing, you shouldn’t notice any real changes.
- the Models section is done. Same deal, nothing new just all the webpages cleaned up & fixed.
the former Latest Updates section has been replaced with this bulletin.- the APBA Vintage & Historic section r’cd a little housekeeping & is done.
- APBA History – new section on the website started. I took the historical parts of the APBA and started this new section which consists of the speed records (all records were consolidated) and the articles From the Vintage Notebook have a new table of contents to make finding articles easier and feature any of the “VINTAGE HOT BOAT of the MONTH” pics I had (wish I had more). The other 2 sections, Propeller Magazine scans from the early 1960s were cleaned up, as well as the Gulf Oil 100 MPH club member’s list of who achieved that goal.
- Directory – racing folks – cleaned up & updated. We have 156 folks listed to date.
- Where are they now? – cleaned up & all listings consolidated on one page.
- Racing Stories – current – all stories cleaned up & updated. Hey folks, it’s been a long time since I posted a new story in this section. Maybe someone can author and write us a story to read over the winter. Any topic will do.
- Racing Stories – Historical – all stories cleaned up & updated. Plus added one new ‘old’ story.
- Technical Restoration Articles – all stories cleaned up & updated. Plus added 2 new articles.
- LINKS – cleanup & all dead links removed.
- Sponsors – general housecleaning.
- Latest Updates– a couple of folks have asked that I bring back this section. Sorry, I had it for awhile but the NAVIGATION will take to you where need to go..Please send me an email if you find any broken links or other issues.
Looking for a new tow rig?
New 2014 restyled & redesigned GM Sierra and Silverado pickups unveiled today.
…and for the FORD lovers – here’s their new offering which appears like just some cosmetic changes for this year.
…….heck I’d be happy with either one.
Hydrocart History
A few posts back on this bulletin, I posted some info/pics on a hydrocart someone had. Another email was just r’cd on these unique lil’ raceboats, I thought I’d share along with some neat photos.
Hi Phil —
Thanks for taking the time and posting these jpegs . My father, Craig Bowman helped found the National Hyrokart Association in 1963. He was working in a friend’s fiberglass shop in El Monte, CA where the owner and his son were getting into boat building and racing. Since my dad was the lightest weight guy at the shop, he was recruited to be their driver. The attached photos were from a meet on Oct 6th, 1963 at Lake Ming in Bakersfield, CA where dad won the inboard division on a Dolphin hydrokart. The membership card was designed by my dad when they started the association earlier in the season. He was charging about $20 to register and join, which entitled you to a booklet of meets and rules & regs, etc. that was advertised in the back of a popular boating magazine at the time.
Letters began pouring in from all over, and he was even contacted by a man in Russia who was compiling a government-issued almanac on boat racing and very interested in the hydrokart phenomenon… At this point, my dad got a little nervous as he had accumulated $3-400 dollars of membership dues and wasn’t quite sure what to do next — it all happened very quickly. Eventually it was funneled into proper usage for NHA activities and the rest is history, but I thought hydrokart enthusiats might enjoy this bit of history and vintage photos.
Sincerely,
Eric Bowman
Unlimited Record Run
In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video from the record run in England:
Miss Thriller
Dave R. found this on the internet. Note the big aircraft engines. The ‘Sea Sled’ name sounds like a good description for the hull. The boat reminds me of the thrill jet boats that I’ve taken at tourist destinations. Big motor in back with a few church pews in front for all the paying customers.
The Missing and Deadly Miss Thriller
Miss Thriller, a 28-foot Sea Sled was returning to the docks at Arnolds Park Sunday night July 28, 1929, with 17 aboard when she was struck and sank by another passenger boat, Zipper. Nine passengers aboard Miss Thriller died in the accident. She sank in 90 feet of water more than one-half mile south of Dixon Beach. Miss Thriller was pulled to the surface, towed to Terrace Park Beach and hauled onto shore July 3, 1930 to salvage her twin airplane engines. What happened to her hull is not clear. Some say she was put on exhibit at fairs and carnivals. Other say a grieving parent doused her with gasoline and burned her up. There doesn’t seem to be a written account to confirm either story. There are, or were, other craft on the bottom of West Lake Okoboji.
Yep, sounds like the right boat from the description. Regards, Dave Richardson