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Johnny's Pages |
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MY
SPEEDBOAT ADVENTURES |
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A Hydroplane works on the principle of two raised sponsons which allow the air to lift the hull above the water as it gathers speed, till only the very edge of the sponson touches the water. The propeller is designed in such a way as to not only to push the Hydroplane forward, but also to lift the back of the hull out of the water, till, IF it is all going properly and at full speed, only the very tips of the two sponsons, and half of the propeller, is touching the water, which then means LESS drag, MORE speed. Hence the propeller half out of the water causes a rooster tail of water thrown up into the air behind these Hydroplanes. In the early days of Hydroplane racing they were also known as three pointers, meaning they race across the water on three points, 2 sponson tips, and the 1 propeller. ( 3 points ). The early
Hydros were all driven with the driver sitting BEHIND the engine,
but the modern Hydros are called cab-overs, where the driver sat in
FRONT of the engine.
My first Hydro "So Long" shown above, shows me sitting
behind the motor, but "Miss Cindy" was a cab-over as I sat
in front of the motor. (photos below) ...
If you wish to by-pass the following lengthy write-up ... HISTORY of RACING CAREER In late 1971, year after I started at Mt Gambier on 1st June 1970 as an assistant shunter in the South Australian Railways, I heard a loud roar one weekend in the direction of the Valley lakes area. My wife and I jumped in the car and on investigating there was a speedboat meeting being held on the Valley Lake. One of the race boats was a V8 Hydroplane called "Villian" driver Murray Langford. I was so impressed with these hydroplanes, I decided I would like to race a Hydroplane myself. Money being a scarce commodity being in the railways, I had to start out with as cheap as possible unit. Shoe string job.
Eventually in August 1973 I purchased my first Hydroplane speedboat was called "So-Long", bought it for $200. I think the original name was "So-Long it's been good to know you" but ended up just "So-Long" The fellow I bought it from was only too happy to see it get back into the water again. This old hydro was in a really bad state of repair, had been out in weather under an old canvas for long time and the old Holden grey motor needed some work done on it as well. I bought it on the condition that he teach me all about these old Holden engines, as the only thing I knew about car engines then was you put petrol in one end, and oil in the motor, and change the spark plugs. Apart from that my knowledge of car engines was absolutely "NIL". But with this boat I DID get a real CRASH course into learning ALL about the principles of the workings of a worked over car engine very quickly, as I could not afford to pay a mechanic to do the work for me. I've always had that ability to visually see something done and I could pick it up immediately very easy. These days into my late 60's not quite so good. Spent the next 4 months re-building this hydro and repainting it, and getting the old motor going, well, sort of. An interesting point about this hydro was back in the late 1950's I was told it held an Australian water speed record for 155 cubic inch (2,500cc) motors of the amazing speed of 61mph. I do not remember what the engine was in it at that time, but was definitely in my view not the grey Holden engine that was in it. So-Long had an old 149ci six cylinder Grey Holden motor, with some very limited success in handicap racing, and a maximum speed of some 40 to 45mph. It was really just a fun boat, more than often mixed with some frustrations, but definitely it was no speed demon.
The grey
Holden motors were never made to rev very hard, so as you can guess
with hydroplanes, revolutions are very important to get the
propeller to scream on the top of the water for a good top speed. I raced
"So-Long" from 1973 till 1975, and in time became a bit disillusioned, and eventually realized after being towed back to
shore at least once or twice at near every race meeting, with
problems either with the hull fittings, but most times with the old
worn out Grey Holden motor, but it was a good hard learning curve
for me of things to come. Purchased old Hydro "Miss Cindy" At the end of 1974-75 season during the off season (Winter) I bought the 18 foot cab-over hydroplane hull (meaning you sit up in front of engine) from Jack Newcoombe (builder of the hydro) of Goolwa on 14th July 1975, called "Miss Cindy", as I had my eye on this Hydro the year before at a Major race day at Lake Leake 10th March 1974 as I felt this hydro had some very good potential what I need to do, just needed some serious work put into it. The actual structure of the hull itself was in a good sound order, the 2.4 litre Prince motor the Hyrdro had in it had seen better days and was near buggered, but this Hydro was basically what I was looking for in a hydroplane without spending the earth and I could work on and do it all up myself (as I was a carpenter & joiner from 14 to 18 years old) to how I wanted it, now that I had some serious engine knowledge.
I purchased this Hydro for $1000, and stripped everything off of the boat, re-skinned the top of the hull, and rebuilt a new engine compartment, new driver's compartment, new top, and new big tail section so my Hydro would be much easier to be seen by other speedboat drivers in turns during a race through all the water these Hydros would put up behind them during racing. I had witnessed a couple of Hydros get literally run over and also crashed into in corners because they were too flat and were quite hard to see with all the huge water spray thrown up during a race. Was like driving in a huge downpour with no windscreen wipers. When I finally finished "Miss Cindy" she looked nothing like it originally did. I checked around all the wreckers in South Australia and finally found what I was looking for, a Nissan 240K motor that was written off in a rollover, with only 18,000kms on the Speedo in Adelaide South Australia. This was perfect as it was almost a brand new engine virtually bearly run in, and PERFECT for my now near new refitted out Hydroplane. Fitted new triple Webber carburetors to it, later a specially designed camshaft, and lash pads, special valve springs to the engine from the USA to cope with the high revs that the engine was expected to turn out. The normal Nissan Datsun 240K engines had valve springs limited to 6,000 rpm as these engines were purposely designed that way to purposely valve bounce at 6000 rpm so as to protect the engine from being over revved in normal driving conditions. Also found out that torsional oscillation of the Nissan crankshaft was highly critical at 8,000rpm to 8,200rpm, so I could safely go up to around the 8,000 rpm mark before a crankshaft would possibly let go. This was a major problem with using a normal car engine. The oil sump was marinised with a lot of copper water cooling tubes, oil temperature gauge installed in the oil sump and two really good water pick-ups attached to each sponson to cool the oil in engine sump during the high speeds of a maximum 7,800 revolutions. It was interesting to note at this point that I found very surprising, that as soon as the engine started to run at peak revolutions, the oil temperature in the sump would absolutely skyrocket incrediably, hence the water cooling tubes in the oil sump and it all worked well. The motor ran perfectly right from the start, only hiccup was just some Webber carburetor jetting problems with the triple Webbers for a short while, but once that was sorted out, it all ran beautifully. Also added a top quality big flow electric fuel pump and also used the engines normal manual fuel pump as well, very handy just in case the electric fuel pump failed during a race. It actually did once at Lake Leake, and still won the race running on the manual fuel pump, so it well paid off. I was rapt, so far, so good. It took me 7 months to put the Hydro together from the bottom up. Heaps of ideas went into that hull and motor, as the MAIN aim of all this was to have the hydro virtually so well put together, that is would be so reliable, it would be unbeatable in that respect at least, so then it was up to me as the driver to do the proper driving with my head, and not with the foot like most drivers seem to do. The one thing I notice during my early days of handicap racing, was most times it was NOT always the fastest boat that won ALL the races, it was the one that was the most reliable that raced and finished EVERY race, as every point counted. The marine outboard speedboats were so very reliable, so it was a big challenge for any driver to get an inboard car engine speedboat to be as reliable as an outboard speedboat. This was my aim, the hydo had to go everytime and finish every race. Of course outboard engines are specially designed for using in a watery environment. The 8 races during a race day all carried points for the clubs end of year Best Aggregate Points Trophy, as this trophy was considered the TOP club trophy and was much prized. So, if I was to have a chance at that trophy, my boat had to be extremely reliable just for starters, and also to FINISH every race at the very least. This trophy was mainly always won by an outboard speedboat. So a lot of care and planning went into the inboard Hydroplane and some were claiming that I was getting far too carried away with this hydroplane, but it did turn out to be egg on their face, for "Miss Cindy" became so darn reliable, just turn the key on and away she went EVERYTIME.......... and "Miss Cindy" can lay claim she was NEVER EVER towed back to shore during my racing career with her. I once ran out of fuel at Lake Leake during a practice run before racing had started, I literally refused to be towed back to shore, so I sat on the front of the hull with my feet in the water and paddled the Hydro all the way back to shore myself, this was as a lesson to me to ALWAYS make sure there is enough fuel on board. I tell you that NEVER ever happened again...... "Achievements with Miss Cindy" I spent the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons getting my act together as a driver of this now very much quicker and very reliable boat, and in the 1978 - 79 season finally was the big one for me and "Miss Cindy" and I did not put a foot wrong and that whole season all came together as I finally gained the top Mount Gambier Aquatic Club's "Best Aggregate points trophy" for that season, after 6 hard years of getting there with a lot of blood, sweat and yes.... even tears at times. The 1978 season gained three South Australian State Championships at the North Arm in Adelaide. The 155ci class, plus two classes above me, even gained 3rd place in the Unlimited class, as most Hydros in the Unlimited class were V8's and could all do around the 100mph plus mark in a straight line, so I was very happy with my (155ci) 2,500cc class Hydroplane getting a 3rd place amongst that lot, my ultra fast tight cornering fin was my secret. Also that year in 1979, being a railwayman, the Australian National Railways Institute nominated me for the Railway "Sportsman of the year" award which I gained also. So to me this was the icing on the cake for a great achievement after a hard long road from those old "So-Long" days. Much owed to that learning period.
"Miss
Cindy was later timed during timed speed trials at Goolwa over the
mile both ways at an average speed of 84mph. Just before the State
Speedboat Championships I had fitted a special fin fitted to the outside
of the sponson, instead of the inside of the sponson, as that
was the accepted way it was done to in those days to all Hydroplanes.
(see photo and story further down about this fin ) This allowed my Hydro to turn the corners extremely
tight and nearly as good as any displacement boat. One had to be
very careful not to be literally ejected out of the Hydroplane sideways during
these tight turns. After I achieved that "Best Aggregate Points Trophy in the 1978-79 season", other avenues were starting to happen for me and I then decided to retire "Miss Cindy" the Hydroplane to the shed, still in good order and put her up for sale. She was later on sold back to her original owner for his son to race at Goolwa in South Australia and that hydro raced another two years very, very successfully, the motor literally never had any work done to it during all that time, not even an oil change I was told later. The original owner's lad, later sold "Miss Cindy" to another chap in Adelaide and he raced her for another season, but the motor finally dropped a valve during a race and that finally wrecked the engine completely and I have no idea what happened to "Miss Cindy" after that. So ended nearly 6 years of a inboard boat and motor that I thought out and prepared very carefully when I re-built it, and as I said before the Hydro was so well put together and so darn reliable, this was its strongest point, even if I may say so myself. The Hydro raced five hard years virtually with no spanners put to it, apart from just normal maintenance on my own part. For me looking back now, that was quite an achievement in itself for a novice, especially the engine as I did most of it by reading Datsun (Nissan) engine books, and Datsun (Nissan) American Magazines. "A Change was now in the air for me". While driving the Hydro "Miss Cindy" the club started up a small (25hp) 20Kw class of outboard racing boats, so the club agreed to run this much smaller class of racing boat, providing that 4 boats could line up for a regular start. Only 3 could be found to be starters, so to get the 25Hp class up and running, I was approached by the other (25hp) 20kw class members to approach on their behalf a local Outboard Marine dealer in Mount Gambier, Bob Manser, as he once had and raced an old (25hp) 20kw "Comet" displacement hull still hanging up in his back shed just gathering dust. I myself could not afford to put a (25hp) 20kw outboard engine on it, so Bob Manser agreed to put an old secondhand (25hp) 20kw outboard engine on this hull on the one condition I must do all the driving of this tiny boat. At first I had reservations about doing this as the coming season turned out to be the very year I finally got the TOP aggregate points club trophy with "Miss Cindy", it seemed like learning to drive a small canoe with an 25hp outboard motor attached to it, after driving the bigger faster Hydroplane. The power to weight ratio was quite incredible. Also this meant driving the 2 boats in 2 separate classes at each and every race meeting, Whew!.... Looking back now I certainly took on a lot and do not know how I did it.. So this meant I had to drive "Miss Cindy" and "Comet" both entirely different types of speedboats at the same time. Boy oh boy, 8 races for inboards, and another 8 races for the (25hp) 20kw outboards, meaning 16 races at each race meeting, I use to be really buggered at the end of each race meeting. But at the end of that season "Miss Cindy" the Hydroplane I finally got the Club's Best Aggregate points for the season and the (25hp) 20kw "Comet" came in 6th overall. I guess that was an achievement to get these 2 entirely different type of boats out of 30 boats into 1st and 6th position at the end of the season, looking back now that was another achievement. By the way the club raced 3 classes of race boats, Inboard, Outboard and 25hp classes of 8 races each at every race meeting. "25hp Comet" At the end of that successfull 1978 - 79 season with the Inboard Hydroplane "Miss Cindy" and the Outboard (25hp) 20kw "Comet", Bob Manser said to me, "seeing you did so well with the "Comet" would you be interested in getting a 25hp (20kw) lightweight fiberglass outboard Wing-Boat hull", as these were the top 25hp high speed hulls around at the time and Bob said he would sponsor me with the very latest brand NEW (25hp) 20kw Evinrude Outboard engine for it. I thought this was far too good a chance to miss as it was always a concern if I blew the motor in Miss Cindy how could I afford another engine on railway pay. Well I quickly re-thought my position, as I really did love the Hydroplane racing, and now that I had finally achieved everything I had set out to do with the Hydro, to be a TOP club driver in an Inboard hydroplane, and State championship, there was not much left to go for, except sit back and enjoy racing. But I guess one does need something to always strive for. BUT also found I very much enjoyed driving this (25hp) 20kw outboard racing hull called "Comet" in as much as to the power to weight ratio was tremendous which made the boat extremely flighty and darn challenging to keep it upright and not tossed out. These Comet hulls went everywhere all over the water, except in a straight line. Driving one of these you would see sky, water, sky, water, left shoulder in water, then right shoulder in the water. These Comet hulls were like a real wild bucking horse. How I never tipped one over still amazes me to this day, everyone else did. Every other driver in 25hp racing had tipped theirs over a couple of times, some many, many times, and all gained their "Yabbie badges". And yes,,, that is one item I never manage to received in my 10 years of racing. So I retired "Miss Cindy" to the back shed put up for sale, and took up Bob Manser's offer of getting and driving this very small, ultra-light 25hp "Wing-boat". I called this new Wing-boat "Wings", the motor, hull, and one gallon of fuel all weighed in at 118kg, which is very light for the speed it could do. I myself weighed in at 72kg at that time, so it was an all up weight of 190kg with a 25hp outboard. "Wings" seemed an appropriate name for the Wing-boat, as this Wing-boat would nearly fly over the water (actually much like the Hydro did in a way so was a little easy to relate to it) that is when the water had a nice good ripple on it, but a bit of a dog to handle when windy and the water was a bit rough though. At some major race meetings we would get up to 17 of these little (25hp) 20kw boats turn up, it was great fun with that gaggle of boats all bobbing and bouncing around all over the place, all trying to get to the front, all handicap racing (except in Championship racing) as normally the fastest boats (me) always started last in the handicap races, it was really hard, hard work with some fancy driving and mental thinking to get to the front of that hot shot lot, and not having a bingle, or getting yourself disqualified in the meantime, or, ejected out of the boat into the water. Let me explain a bit about Club handicapping racing:- The first race of the day was usually a scratch race of 3 laps and you were timed for each 3 laps, but the other 7 races on the day were all handicapped, so IF you won the scratch race, now in the handicap races you were last off the rank, and you had to really get your act together and make literally no mistakes to do any good to get up front and win. There is quite an art to handicap racing. Of course my 20kw Wingboat "Wings" being the fastest in S.A. so where ever I went I was the last to start. Many drivers use to get very frustrated and could not understand, nor grasp when I use to say to them, we are NOT racing each other, we are racing against THE clock, as to break your time by more than 2 seconds a lap, or by 5 seconds over the 3 laps, you would be disqualified, and the time you broke the laps by, say for example, ( 4 seconds), you were put back a further 4 seconds in the next race, so as you can appreciate, it takes one awhile to learn the art of Handicap racing, and believe me it was an ART. Handicap racing is far, far more fun than scratch racing is, the quicker your boat went, the harder you worked. You had to use your head all the time, and not your stupid foot. That was many a speedboat driver's downfall in more ways than one. With scratch
racing the fastest boat just has to stay out in front and hope he
does not do anything stupid during the race, not much of a challenge
in that overall. Usually in most types of scratch racing, the more
cash (money) in it, the more chances of winning, and when
money comes into the picture, we ALL then loose sight of the
enjoyment that once was just racing for fun. But with handicap
racing, that is definitely NOT necessary so, as there is too many
things that can go wrong that money cannot buy, one is serious
EXPERIENCE. "Wings" "Miss
Cindy" and Bob Manser's old "Comet" were now both
retired to the sheds. "Wingboat achievements" With this Wing-boat achieved the "Best Aggregate points Mount Gambier Aquatic Club" for next three years in a row:- 1979-80, 1980-81, 1981-82. Raised the (25hp) 20kw water speed record of 66.05 km/h to 72.60km/h on 4th May 1980 at Goolwa, then again on October 11th 1981, broke my own record and raised the water speed record to 76.83 kph, again at Goolwa. A State record (25hp) 20kw quarter mile in 19.93 seconds at the Adelaide Speedboat Club, North Arm. Won South Australian 25hp (20kw) Championship at Adelaide Speedboat Club at North Arm on 27th November 1981. These speeds
may not seem fast, but realise as I said before that the Wing-boat "Wings"
weighed in at a total of 190kg with me sitting in it and one gallon
of fuel. So the power to weight ratio was a real handful most
of the time, as this boat just skimmed across the water practically
on the rear end of the hull, with just only the propeller basically in
the water, a real balancing act. The (25hp) 20kw Wing-boat was
extremely flighty boat, and a real handful at times, especially in any
choppy or rougher water. In the whole time I raced speedboats I NEVER had a crash, OR was ever tossed into the water, so the one thing I never received was the traditional "YABBIE BADGE", as the yabbie badge was for all driver(s) who were tossed out of their boats into the water. During 1978-79 season was Rear Commodore, 1979-80 as Secretary and 1981-82 as Treasurer of the Mount Gambier Aquatic Club. "Retired from racing altogether August 1982." When I sold "Miss Cindy"
I kept my high
Impact life jacket and crash helmet as a memento of those hectic speedboat
racing days. Below is
included a number of photos of the Hydroplane "Miss
Cindy"
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A
CHANGE FROM INBOARD HYDROPLANE
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"MISS
BUD" AT LAKE LEAKE GLENCOE SOUTH
AUSTRALIA
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