Hmmmmm. Summer 1955.
I read in the Newspaper that so and so, Went 120 miles per hour in that funny little plane. Wonder how fast I could get my boat to go. Thus started a long line of raacing events in Watercraft. Both sail and engine powered. Well, the sail part was already pretty crowded with Clippers that would put out every bit of canvas and the cooks apron to go faster in a fair wind.
Now someone is going to try with an outboard! Have any of you seen some of those beastly Old contraptions? Well, let me tell you, I cannot even begin to fathom how anyone would want to race something so archaic that to go in reverse you had to turn the engine all the way around to allow it!
I bought an old Sears like that. That was the crankiest out-board engine I have ever restored and run. Now of course they made improvement to boats especially during the " Rum-Runners" and Prohibition days. Can you imagine a boat, half the size of a P.T. with an aircraft engine in it and maybe room for twenty cases of Canada'a finest?
They could certainly do the deed. Nobody ever mentions the failures though. These boats were anything but stable in a moderate sea. It was not unusual for them to start to " Dolphin" on a run and just drive themselves under at power, never to be seen again. Picture them leaping from wave to wave with the slower Revenue cutters and Patrol Boats far behind hoping they would hit a wave that would shatter or damage the hulls enough to enable them to get caught.
Enter the pure Racing Powerboat. Small, Nimble weird looking and one operator Kneeling in a boat that was more a streamlined raft than a boat, but with a little old Johnson, Mercury or Evinrude out-board that had been "souped up". Sorry,that was the term used, just like in cars! These little boats sometimes were less than twelve feet long.( Kind of like Automotive " Midget Racers" ) But they could move like ( For the Day) like " Greazed Lightning".
This was the place where the "Racing Hydro" came into being. Other hull shapes were tried for sure. But the fastest and getting faster were the boats with Wide bows with sponsons at the edge allowing air to flow under. The engines got bigger. All the way from Auto and Truck engines all the way to Allison, Packard and other aircraft engines and culminating in some attempts to use an aircraft turbine type engine!
Many times you would see, On Lake Washington, By Seattle, Washington, how a ripple caused by another boat crossing the course or a wind riffle cause these behemoths to go airborne to flip in mid air only to land upside down and the folks waiting breathlessly to see if a head bobbed up alongside indicating to operator had lived through it.Then a cheer like a roaring freight train would accompany that visible sign of survival!
The need to go fast, even on the water has never stopped. It has slowed immensly. Why? Well, the first boats of whatever shape probably cost a couple of hundred bucks not including the engine. That would add another couple of hundred. Today's record setters or attempted record beaters average out at a couple of million Bucks, Hopefully getting a wealthy ( Read Company) to sponsor them.
So there you have it. Even in watercraft, the desire to break speed and time records are out there It is not an endeavour for either the faint of heart or someone on a strict budget. I could buy a lot of Beers for what My neighbor's little Sponson equipped out-board racer cost. And I didn't have to worry about getting wet, broken or worse, So I'll just sit in my skiff,looking over the lake letting the fish nibble whilst I take another sip.
I guess, like many I'll watch them, if only to see a boat go faster than I imagined it could. Then I will collect my bet winnings and have another Pint.