A few posts back on this bulletin, I posted some info/pics on a hydrocart someone had. Another email was just r’cd on these unique lil’ raceboats, I thought I’d share along with some neat photos.
Hi Phil —
Thanks for taking the time and posting these jpegs . My father, Craig Bowman helped found the National Hyrokart Association in 1963. He was working in a friend’s fiberglass shop in El Monte, CA where the owner and his son were getting into boat building and racing. Since my dad was the lightest weight guy at the shop, he was recruited to be their driver. The attached photos were from a meet on Oct 6th, 1963 at Lake Ming in Bakersfield, CA where dad won the inboard division on a Dolphin hydrokart. The membership card was designed by my dad when they started the association earlier in the season. He was charging about $20 to register and join, which entitled you to a booklet of meets and rules & regs, etc. that was advertised in the back of a popular boating magazine at the time.
Letters began pouring in from all over, and he was even contacted by a man in Russia who was compiling a government-issued almanac on boat racing and very interested in the hydrokart phenomenon… At this point, my dad got a little nervous as he had accumulated $3-400 dollars of membership dues and wasn’t quite sure what to do next — it all happened very quickly. Eventually it was funneled into proper usage for NHA activities and the rest is history, but I thought hydrokart enthusiats might enjoy this bit of history and vintage photos.
Sincerely,
Eric Bowman