New Year, New Look

I saw this new website look and thought this would be a nice one to freshen up our website with.
If you have a REALLY neat photo and think it is “cover material” for The Vintage Hydroplanes (like the old “Photo From A Moment” we used to do a few years back), please email it to me and if I like it, I will place it on the opening page of the website!

Ron Jones, Sr. passing


The memorial service for Ron Jones Sr., will be held from 11am to 4pm on March 4th at the Life Center located at 1717 S Union Ave Tacoma, WA 98405

From David Williams, The Hydroplane & Race Boat Museum on Facebook this morning (1/19/17):
It is with great sadness that I have to share the news that Hall of Fame boat builder and designer Ron Jones Sr. passed away this morning. Please keep Ron and his family in your thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.

Ron made available to us some of his vintage hydro plans on this website and he sent us some neat photos to show the boats to go along with that endeavor. Here’s the link. If you want to look at the photos of some of the boats he designed / built, when you get to his webpage of boat plans, click on the boat names to see some of his photos he sent in.
A true gentleman and master designer and builder…the sport will miss him dearly.

2007 Antique Race Boat Regatta at Wolfeboro, New Hampshire

1998 Antique Race Boat Regatta at Clayton, New York

Gold Cup trivia

Started 100 years ago when Bernard Smith, driver of Miss Minneapolis, won the race and the right to have his named etched on the Gold Cup in 1916.
The rest of the other driver names etched in it (plus some other info) can be read at Wiki.

Gar Wood Quote

…..someone told Gar Wood that his boats were not gentleman runabouts to which he replied, “No gentleman would ever ride in one of those boats”.

Early Air Boats

Interesting boats and hull designs to say the least…
The Author of the article states, “Information on the airboats was hard to find, but everything I found indicated they were used solely for racing (at that time in Italy)”.
Some of these early Italian design hulls (due to the sponsons) could have been adapted for hydroplane water screw driven….no?

Idroscivolanti and the Raid Pavia-Venezia

2017 Monthly Calendars

Welcome 2017.  The 2017 monthly calendars are, once again, posted. Well, I have posted January & February. If you have a neat vintage-related photo and would like to see it featured, please email it to me. If no pics come in, I will rely on ‘borrowing pics’ from Facebook as well as other sources. When the 2017 Vintage Events Schedule becomes available (hopefully someone at the APBA V&H will email that to me), I will add the event dates to the monthly calendars. I hope everyone has a great 2017!

BLACK MAGIC

Hey Folks – I r’cd the following below from Chris who just acquired this beautiful hydro. It is always great to read about another hydro that survived just enough to be restored. Interesting that it appears to have water-cooled headers running on-board. Perhaps a cool lake racer in it’s last version, but what was it before that?
If anybody can help Chris out with history, please post here or click on Chris’s name below and send him an email.

Hello, Vintage Hydroplanes
My name is Chris Sztuke and I have recently purchased the hydroplane called Black Magic. My plans are to restore the boat, however I know very little about the boat. The lady I purchased the boat from new very little about it as her husband passed away and the paper work and any information on the boat was lost in a fire. I would be very interested in any information I could get to help in the restoration and to understand the history of the boat.
I am located in Southern Ontario near Belleville.  I know the boat has been in this area for the last 25 years.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Chris Sztuke

Editor notation: History found – Ross McCracken and Bob Abbott both responded that this is the former Miss Maple Leaf II.
Bill Ireland was former owner / driver.