The Vintage Hydroplanes

Dennis Baxter is looking for his father’s old hydroplane from Canada.
This and other boats people are looking for —  in TVH “Where are They Now? section.

A unique hull is this month’s WANTED POSTER over at Phil Kunz’s website.

Jim Retif’s Miss Nehi (1952 High Point champion) in the 135 cu. in. class. The driver is Bobby Bourcq. The news photographer Bobby is holding on to is unknown.  Phil Kunz obtained the photo from Ennie Argence’s scrapbook. Ennie was the National Champion and kilo straight-a-way record holder in the 266 cu. in. class hydro Gun Shy in 1960.

A really neat story posted in the Hydro Racing story section on Les Brown and his Long Gone hydros from crew member, Ray Jackson.

Hello Vintage Hydroplanes website,
I just came across your site as I was looking up information on older hydroplanes. My father (Réal Lavoie) had one for a couple of years and my sister in law just scanned this old pic of him with his boat, dating from 1968. We lived in Laval, QC, Canada and we would go the various regattas in the province (Valleyfield, St Felicien, Bauharnois, Pointe aux Trembles, etc).
The fashionable thing at the time was to name your boat “Miss (city name)” so ours was the Miss Laval, #41 with a Chevy 280 cu in engine, so he raced in the 280 class. I was 10 years old at the time but I have many memories of that boat and the races. There was a driver with the family name “Leboeuf” that would often win at that time…  Just seeing your site brings back many more!
This is the only photo I have at this time.
Thanks!
Guy Lavoie

Kevin Braun added 10 more photos to his father’s photo album on the website.