30 x 20 photo

I had one of Phil Kunz’s 8×10 photos that I bought from him hanging up next to my hydro. He photographed this at Newport, KY in 1966 of my Moonshine Baby battling Briar Hopper. The 8×10 always looked so small next to the 19′ hydro. I sent in the digital copy Phil sent to me and had it made into a 30×20 photo-on-canvas. Above is what it looks like. My wife just came back from the garage after seeing it for the first time and said, “First off, OMG….that is frickin’ amazing”.   (click on photo 2x to see it bigger)

Note added 2018-Mar-12: I talked with P. Kunz and he is willing to have these 30×20 photo-on-canvas prints made for anyone who wants one. It will ship direct to your house from a photo shop in California. Canvas is stapled to solid wood 3/4″ frame, has a back fabric cover put on it and a v-notched hanging hook. It comes ready-to-hang. The photo shop even includes a pair of white gloves in the box. Very nice quality. $100. Contact P. Kunz.

Slo-mo-shun IV

Neat photos and conversation on the team testing ideas out on SloMo IV over at Leslie Fields’ Hydroplane History facebook page.

Cotter Buick team

I think the tilt on the trailer went past the stops…

Miss America IX

First Boat in the World to Exceed 100 MPH
March 20, 1931
102.256 MPH
Indian River, Florida
Visit the website.

Miss DeSoto – 9 hour enduance race – 1959

Phil Kunz and I were discussing the Miss DeSoto boats (pic further down this page) and Phil mentioned he had a crazy photo that he got (from somewhere) showing when one of the iconic Miss Desoto hydros was put to the endurance test by racing in one of the 9 hour endurance races back-in-the-day. Thinking possibly the Miami to Bahamas and back, race?
Note the extra fuel tanks placed in front of the motor and behind the driver. Also looks like the Hemi is running, but with 6 carbs and not the Potvin supercharger it campaigned with for years
Can you imagine driving a hydro for 9 hours in the open water?
If you have any info on this, please chime in…would be great to read some background on this!

1962 Shepherd


I found this great pic of the two-seater that got into “some trouble with the law one night” and hit a buoy and sunk. Article below. I remember folks talking about the hydro on our old message board.