Forgotten World of Hydroplane Racing: Wartime Engines Second Life! (Hydroplane Raceboat Museum)

And you could tell he didn't want to let go. Dean died the next year in this pit right here. They flipped over and you're stuck here. How do they keep it from filling with water? Or not. Where would the motorsport industry as a whole be if this hadn't happened ? We are at the Seaplane and Race Boat Museum near Seattle, Washington. This is an aspect of motorsport that we do n't really know anything about because I didn't grow up in a region where it was. Can you tell us something interesting? Something interesting. Well, come in . Welcome to the Seaplane and Race Boat Museum. Where did this aspect of motorsport come from? Bull Cup racing began at the beginning of the last century, in 1903. It is actually the oldest continuously organized motorsport trophy in America. From 1913 to 1950, the Gold Cup was held in Detroit, Michigan . So he really became part of their culture. They have been the center of great boat racing for generations. A gentleman here in Seattle named Stan Sears, who was a local car dealer and racer before World War II, wanted to get back into boat racing when things started to normalize after the war. It turned out that he found a lot of pre-war equipment and nothing suitable for setting a new world record for the measured mile. He called a gentleman named Ted Jones, who had been a local Boeing engineer in the race before the war, and told him of his plans to build a boat capable of setting a new world record, and that he wanted to use a recently surplus World War II fighter engine to do so. Ted wanted to build a boat that was essentially an airplane wing with running surfaces underneath, and use a propeller to create three points of suspension so the boat would glide through the water rather than furrow it like the boats they had seen in Detroit did. Well, Stan said, “Sounds pretty good. "Make me one of these." Two years later, they released a boat called Slow Motion 4, Stan's fourth racing boat. And they set off for Lake Washington. And what do you know? At 60 mph, the back of the boat came out of the water. She leveled off, they accelerated and set a new world record – just over 178 mph . And that brought Seattle into the world of big boat racing. So this is the same place where all that Budweiser used to be. Bernie Little would park his bus here and park his truck, and we would park the boat right here, and this is where they would unload and unload Budweiser. Here comes Budweiser. Bob Nash. He can be proud of himself. He finished. He got a few more points for Budweiser. Every year when I was a kid, I would stand right at the end of that little concrete plaza where I would watch the entertainment. All the news teams are here. He set off and was ready to meet Miller. We're going to look at one of the most historic holes we have here, the slow-paced par-five of 1951. Now, after setting the world record, the SES team has decided to return to the city of Detroit and compete for the Gold Cup. The guys from Detroit heard about this boat, which was moving fast in a straight line and left Seattle, setting a new world record, but they didn't give it any chance of winning the race, because at those speeds it was impossible to turn. That was stupid. However , to their surprise, the slow-moving quad turned quite well, and the SES team won the 1950 Gold Cup . What engine was in this? This is Allison from a World War II Mustang fighter from the United States. One thing that is n't really talked about is that all of motorsports owes a debt of gratitude to Ole Bardaw of Bardaw Manufacturing and George Simon of US Equipment Company because they sued the IRS to be able to use their company names on the boat as advertising. Before that, you couldn't use any money spent on your racing endeavors as advertising expenses. You couldn't really ride all that . But just so these guys, this B doll, here it is. I had no idea. They were the ones, they were the innovators that changed things, changed the laws so you could avoid advertising costs as part of your racing business. God, I wonder where the motorsport industry as a whole would be if this hadn't happened ? Tell me. Because all these companies, they're sometimes people sponsoring races because they want to get written off, not because they're racing fans. They just need to invest their money somewhere. Yes, that's incredible. In what year did this happen ? Uh, it was in the late 50s, I think. Right before it all really happened , it was a powder cake that looked like we could, and then the money started coming in after that. Corporate money started flowing in. Madness. I had no idea. This is funny. This plate says "repair repair, flight" and " flight time record". This engine no longer necessarily flies in the air. You know, I was thinking yesterday when we were watching this that these cockpits are shaped like the fuselage of a 1940s independent car or something with a boat around it. Very simple. Like the seating arrangement and everything else. It looks very vintage-independent. Some technologies were borrowed. Of course, slow motion was the first winner here in Seattle. After that, we still have a long way to go before we get to the next real innovation. From 1951 to the mid-60s, the boats look almost like the ones you saw on the lake yesterday . Brown driver front to back. And then there was a race in Washington, D.C., where three drivers died in one day . And they decided that, you know, maybe we need to do something different. Building materials had changed after the events of the 1966 Presidents Cup, but they wanted to make them safer. The problem was that the old propellers had too much lift for the excessive thrust they provided. So, if you look at videos of old boats, you 'll see that the rooster's tail is very high and comes right out of the stern of the boat. But that means all your energy is also directed there. So, there's too much lift to compensate for that. This pit. This is a 1973 Pan Pack. They carved out the front of the boat, and that was the beginning of the pickle fork design. And if you look around, you 'll see that Squire Shop has it. Griffin Bud has it. Atlas Van Line has it. This was the next step in the evolution of racing design. And it was done for safety, not because it was cool. Safety, because if it was going to go nose to nose, if there's nothing here, then there's nothing to grab onto. So the bolt would n't hit the nose. He would just come in and go out. Would that help with lift, also, so it doesn't get a little bloated? But how the wing works depends on the angle of attack at the bottom of the pit. You can see that there is another opening at the back with a much more pronounced angle of attack. So the greater the angle of attack, the more efficiently the wing works. Interesting. So do these things only turn left or also right ? You could turn right, but the races were only with left turns, like in NASCAR. Yes. So these holes at the bottom are asymmetrical? Hmm, when you go to newer designs, there is a difference between the left and right sponson. And perhaps the biggest difference lies in this. This was a Griffin Budweiser design by Ron Jones , son of Ted Jones, in the late 70s. And this boat had an offset cockpit. You can see that the engine in the cockpit is above the internal sponsor. And Ron felt that the widest and deepest part of the sponson should be on the outside, not the inside, as was the case on previous boats. So Ron specifically made these sponsons so that the outer edge gave them a wider stance on the water. So they would be kind of cut inward, almost like skates. Yes. But you can see how the different levels are arranged at the bottom of the sponsons. Here is the outer edge. It is deeper than the inner. Yes. And it has several edges. Yes. This is interesting. And it's not something you won't find on the other side. So it was a matter of getting the boat onto the turning bed and getting it off it . What they also used, starting with this boat and boats from the late 60s and early 70s, is a much larger piece on the side of the boat called a skid fin . And the skid fin is a large piece of metal that hangs high from the inside of the left sponson. And it is used to keep the boat within the turning radius. So he turns around. He has something that fights centrifugal force. Mmm. With this generation of hulls, you just turned it, you just turned it, turned it and turned it, and the back of the boat just turned with it. These boats could now begin to make a powerful turn. Well , thanks to the skid fin that could keep it in radius. Where is this? Okay, let's see if we have one available to us. Um, you can see it hanging right here. Yes. But since they were unlimited, there were no rules governing offset, hall shape, or anything like that that could be devised to make it the best. Here is the guide pin on the fan-shaped lines of the 1977 Atlas. And you can see it hanging. And this is even small compared to the slide pins of that time. Today they have to be installed using a forklift. And they could adjust this with this rod. Yes. So they go around the corner thinking, "Oh, he needs a little more grip." Then they tightened it up a little to secure it a little . So, uh, what the team thought was the right angle, that's how they set them up. So were they definitely tweaking it between rounds? Not necessarily. Um, that besides the anti-roll bar, they did more than just change the propeller or the wing in the rear , because with the suspension package they were the first to use a rear anti-roll bar, and in auto racing, a rear anti- roll bar is used to create pressure on the tires to keep the car on the track. Yes. In this configuration, the rear fender is used as a lifting device to hold the front of the boat down to prevent it from tipping over. They are not on any of them now because they cannot be transported. Oh, but basically the wing would just go through it and it would be ...There it is. You can't even see him. Part of trailer design, which is a whole other topic of fascination, are these elaborate trailers. You know, some of the first hydraulic systems were developed by a gentleman named Gar Wood, who was a Gold Cup racer back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and they had to be transported by road, and they were too wide to be transported on the street. So they created a hydraulic lift trailer for transporting boats. So, the top wing of this boat doesn't look like it can be adjusted on the fly. This is not something you set up before going out on the water. None of the rear fenders were ever adjusted. The only thing that is adjustable even today is the front fenders - " kandar" on the other side of the driver's cab. This is the first boat built from cellular aluminum. We went from wood to honeycomb aluminum. And this was the next generation, lighter, stronger, just the next basic building material that we used in hyper racing. Is n't there one made of wood whose structure we could see? This is one of those types of motorsport. This...This is all interesting. I wish I was more aware of these things when I was growing up. It's, uh , famous for being the 1971 Gold Cup winner in Madison. This is " Miss Madison," and the hall was originally built back in 1960 and donated to the city of Madison by Sam Dupont. So, uh, this is a historic hall and one of the few halls that was ever built with a bottom made of a solid sheet of metal, a solid sheet of aluminum. So we very carefully saved the bottom of the boat, because it's the only such product in the world. Hmm. So, you're doing all this restoration yourself. It's all here, in the museum. This is madness. We build the hulls, we build the engines, everything is done in-house. The only thing we send is carburetors, because that requires special equipment. What kind of wood is this? Oak spruce. I am not a carpenter. They probably make fun of me, like, you know what, I've never made anything out of wood. I can't tell what it is just by looking at it. But yes. And what about that epoxy that holds it all together? I think it's just a Western system. This is fascinating material. Is this how it looked, or how it will look now? This was the hall when it was used as Miss Madison in the mid-60s. Do you have more parts of it, or do you have to build everything from that? Um, we have the tail, we have the original engine cowling, the cockpit, but basically everything needs to be redone. Did you notice where the board is connected? Yes. Here's one that's a little cleaner. And this is the maximum. You cut it like this. Probably for maximum resin bond surface area. How much does one of these halls weigh before it has its fiberglass cladding? The finished product is about 5,000 pounds before the engine. How much does the engine weigh? Unit, you're looking at about 6500 pounds on an engine with...Yes. With an engine inside. Oh, okay. The engine itself doesn't weigh 65. No, no, no, no. That would be the engine. And then we can show you a piece of aluminum honeycomb structure. This is exciting. I mean, this place is n't really that big, but you have every bit of line to demonstrate everything you're talking about. We have quite a few places, but yes, this is the only facility of its kind in the world. It's not that big, but it can fit 20 buses. I know. I mean, it doesn't look that big, considering these boats are the size of buses. And that, and that's what this pain relief pack is made of . This is what Atlas vans are made of. How can you, I guess, not actually restore it, right? Once it gets wrinkled, you will have to replace it. You just need to buy a new one. This is wild. How light it is and how strong it is. Does it have to be like curves, and everything has to be made by whoever makes this material ? Yes. Yes. Well, there's still some wood in the pit. It's not like it's 100% this stuff, because it's a little heavy, but you can, you can do it layered. Hmm. Who is Bill Money? Who is Bill Money? Yes. Tell us about Bill Money. Good. Well, Bill was a guy from Detroit. He was the most victorious racer a few years ago. He had over 60 wins and you love to love him and sometimes you love to hate him, but he was always at the forefront of the sport. This particular hull was the last one he dived on. You know, it's a 1977 Atlas Van Lines , and Bill fought for years for cabin control over design because he felt like it just put you in the accident scene first . But when he got used to this pit, he decided that things weren't so bad. Uh, this particular hole has a lot of lift. As you can see, the width of the air trap is twice as wide as the air trap in the old round front bolts. What do you call an air trap? What does this mean? The space between the sponsons is an air trap. And if you look down the side of the opening, you can see how deep it is in the front. Yes. And then it reaches all the way to this little corner. Well, that's a lot of air compression. So that's a lot of air being forced into the front of the boat and not a lot of room for it to escape. And this creates significant lift. In addition, this hole had a higher angle of attack . Is this the same bore design as the last boat Bill raced? This is the last hope that Bill participated in . This is the boat on which he died in Aguapulco in 1981. This boat. This boat. What happened to him? What happened to the boat? What happened to Bill? For example, why, why is the boat here? He is not there. I...I don't... Okay. Well, Bill Bill died in the last race of the year, in 1981 in Alapoco, Mexico. That year, Bill chased Griffin Budweiser. And there was one race left. It was the World Cup. And Bill wanted to perform well. He really wanted to take off his driver's uniform, with which he became world champion in 1982. Well, it's time for the final race of the day. And since they were in Mexico, the sun sets earlier because you're closer to the equator . So they were very hopeful that they would be able to complete the final race earlier than usual. Well, they failed to do that. So they rode towards the setting sun. The final race of the 1981 World Championship . Bill had one of the best starts of his career and he went up the back straight for the first time. I think sailing into the setting sun, visibility and other things worked against him in a boat that was very eager to capsize. The boat had just started to rise and he needed to turn right to lower the boat, but he was also nearing the end of the straight. So he had to turn left to prepare for the turn. So it ended up in no man's land. And you can just see the boat hang and eventually just tip over backwards. And it wasn't a violent accident at all, but unfortunately the boat kind of landed on Bill, and he died on the track. So this is where we lost Bill. Yeah, that's, uh, I think that's something that's very different from auto racing, where usually when someone dies in a race car , the car is destroyed. Uh , the last thing I expected to see was a boat. Well, it was restored, but it wasn't that badly damaged. In fact, it was only cracked in the middle. A little damage to the sponson, but basically the boat came out in pretty good shape. Hmm, that's the nature of an explosion accident. And racing is good because when you come up, all that air at the bottom of the pit slows it down. It closed a little, just rolled over, and that was it . After that, uh , we developed a driver's capsule and additional safety equipment. The same guy who investigated the Dale Nhard accident, the same guy who got involved and also came to Unlimited Racing and helped develop the five-point seat belt for Unlimited Racing. So, the pilots are now in a cocoon. It 's interesting that you say that, because as this story has developed, I've been trying to put it in simple terms. It's almost like Bill Mooney, who is kind of the Dorhart of this. Yes. Hydroplane racing. Absolutely. You know, I would even put him in the Richard Petty mode , because he was one of them, at least in the Pacific Northwest, where this kind of racing is a little newer to us than other forms. Uh, in my opinion, Bill and Richard Petty would be something like synonyms for each other. Don't you have one of those newer pods that you convert the simulator from? We have it. Yes. Let's check. Look. The sport was relatively safe from 1951, when Seattle joined in 1951, until 1966. Four drivers died in 1966, and then another driver died in 1967. So in this very short period of time, five guys died. Uh, back then, in that era, you wanted to be thrown out of the boat, not under it. The original concept of safety was to go beyond an accident. It was the hope that if you hit the nose, you would , and the boat would start to sink, then you would be thrown out of your seat. Was this the famous photo of Dean Chennovich? You know, that's part of it. Yes. I mean, Dean, who was in the mile race, and it was crazy Dean who said it was the Twilight Zone when you go in there, because it was too fast and too long. G. So, I don't know if you'll see another team going for the world record on the water, because it's a dangerous... dangerous game. Didn't the same thing happen to him as to Bill? Yes. Yes. Dean died the following year in this pit right here. This one? This one? That one. What the hell? What happened ? It was the same situation. What? It was another blow, and what happened? Dean was trying to reclaim the world record in the 2.5 mile qualifier. So he went out and decided he would set one record and see if he could get the qualifying record back . And almost the same thing happened to Bill. At some point, too much air gets under the hull and it will simply tip over backwards. And we lost Dean, and pretty much everything was the same . What damage was done to this pit? They said it was more substantial than the debris from Bill's accident. Hmm. Um, but we put them back together . It's all been restored, and, uh, we drive it quite often. Are there other…