The Vintage Hydroplanes

So nice to see APBA Vintage events back on the Monthly Calendars.
Many thanks to Phil Kunz for allowing use of his photographs.

In the mid 1970s, Steve Ball of San Diego, California designed and built this unique 21′ boat and powered it with a Fiat engine to compete in the 850-cc hydro class. They went on to set a World Straightaway Speed Record in 1975 averaging 101.47 mph through the trap. More pics by Phil Kunz are here.

Bullet Bob Schroeder returning to the pits in U-54 Wildroot Charlie. The white boat in the foreground is my Uncle Ray DeGlopper in his Eby & DeGlopper Marine dealership committee boat.
Bill DeGlopper

Four different hydroplane builders pulled a few fiberglass inboard hydros out of their molds back in the day. Click to see/read the story. Perhaps this could have been a neat way to start a stock or modified class that would have been very competitive if you had a field of a dozen boats and everyone of them was the same boat and motor combination?

APBA rules did not allow any apparatus (like an extended cowling) that could be simply bolted on the boat to meet the legal class minimum boat lengths (LOA) required. A boat or two tried that and it was soon outlawed so the wood hulls were cut and modified so they could compete in the next class up. If you look at all of these boats, something just doesn’t seem right. Regardless of how they looked, some were very competitive moving up in class at the time. There are even a few instances were boats moved down in their class and became successful. Click here to read/see a few hydroplane hulls that were extended

Story of Marion Cooper and Jim Davis and some of the hydros that they both campaigned under their ownership as HORNET.