The Vintage Hydroplanes

Buccaneer E-101 – Picton, Ontario 1979

Buccaneer E-101 – Tonawanda, New York

One of Ron Jones best boats ever. Winning more races then just about any boat ever built by him.
Brent Franklin

Editor’s Note – for some reason I had these pics and no info to go with them, but I thought worth publishing. Reply if you have any info to add.

Merlyn Culver, famous Yankee Doodle owner/driver, in his Lauterbach that he got in trade and put a Mercury outboard on. The hydro started out life as a 266 cubic inch class with a flathead Ford. You can see where the exhaust holes were patched up. When Merlyn got it, he was retired from racing and the Ford was shot. He converted it to outboard himself for fun. This might be the only outboard Lauterbach ever. Keith Brayer

In about 1958 I picked up this boat in Urichsville, Ohio. It was in a barn. It belonged to Lou Butler and another man from Zanesville that owned a Floral business. This was their next boat after the Wicken’s Barracuda. There was no engine but the boat was complete and on a high wheel trailer. I put a 256 cu.in.Stude V-8 engine in it but never ran it in competition. It was tail-heavy with this motor placed to use the existing shaft, engine rails etc. At about 85 MPH it wanted to ride too high. This was our first hydro after years of runabouts. The following spring I took the boat to Merlyn Culver’s boat house ( BRAD’S) on Indian Lake next to his cottage. He stripped away all of the cowlings, shortened the afterplane about 6″ and added the high transom for the big  6 cylinder Mercury outboard. It was another of his fastest boat on Indian Lake projects. Merlyn was one of my mentors in boat racing. The following year Jon Culver and I bought a pair of 18′ Raysoncraft Sk runabouts. His had a 383 Plymouth and mine had a 392 Hemi. Merl then parked the Lauterbach and raced everyone on the lake with the SK Rayson. He was the ULTIMATE hot rodder with fast boats and faster cars. The hydro is pictured in front of his cottage.
Rob Kaufman

I saw this boat in 2004, thought you might like the see these pictures.
Greg Lindstrom

My name is Kim. My father built and manufactured The Flying Dutchmen Racing boats in Miami, FL in the early 1960s and later moved to Ohio. He raced professionally for many years. We have 100s of pictures and movies. My Dad is in bad health now at the age of 65. He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease this past year. I just wanted to locate some old pictures of his boats and possibly someone still has one stored away somewhere. It would make him feel so good to see that somewhere across this United States that someone still has pictures or even an original boat. Please let me know. My Fathers name is William M. Blough SR. and he owned Aqua King Boats in Miami where he also Designed and Built The Flying Dutchmen.
Thank You, Sincerely, Kim Seal

Hello, a year ago I stumbled over some pictures of an inboard hydroplane on the internet. I forgot to add the site to my favorites and now I can’t find it. It had a rather unusual engine (even for us Europeans) a three cylinder 2-stroke engine from an IFA Wartburg, which is a German car from the era when Germany was divided. This one was manufactured in East-Germany. I haven’t seen this type of engine in a boat before, or in another context either for that matter. I had hoped that someone knew of the website, and could give me an address. I am a member of The Classic Race Boat Club in Sweden, and I am restoring an outboard hydroplane that was made for the Crescent Race Team in the sixties. I haven’t got my hands on a Crescent engine yet so I will make do with a Yamato for now. I’ll attach a few pictures of my boat and a sister boat I saw at a classic race this summer. I won’t race this summer but I’ve taken a license for next year (2007)
Thank you for the best Hydroplane site on the internet.
Best regards, Magnus Nybom from Sweden

I finished up a Mk55 in the Spring 2006 and used it on my Wild One II which I finished the fall before. Got a 10hp Wizard and a 1929 Johnson K45 that came with a pointed nose cone as though maybe some body raced it way back. Went to Quincy in the Summer for the OF Chrisner Memorial, was a great trip.

HK Madcap 1948 Speeditwin stock C Service (not Alky)
I have completed a project and have attached pixs. It’s not an IB project, but I have provided info on an IB project  (S class, slowly underway). I have always been involved in OB projects as the DeGloppers, anyways, here is the final version.  Keep your prop in the water! Stuart Mills

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