Thunderboats on Lake Chelan Oct. 3

Should anyone need a reason for a nice drive, Saturday Oct 3, there will be six Vintage Hydro's running exhibition laps on Lake Chelan.

http://thunderboats.org/

The plan is to get the boats in the water between 10:00 and 11:00 am.

Bing says it is 182.7 mi, 3 hr 10 min from Tukwila...

 

173 miles to the the south end of the lake from my place.. I don't think I'll have the TR on the road by then.
Sure would like to hear those V-12's again.
I grew up with those boats.

"On Saturday, October 3rd, the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum will arrive in the quite town of Chelan, Washington and make some NOISE! Six vintage hydros are scheduled to make the trek across the mountains and participate in the annual "Fun Day". Headquarters will be the Grandview on the Lake (the old Caravel) and the pits will be run at the park on the other side of Campbell's Resort.

Scheduled to appear are: 1955 Miss Thriftway, 1957 Miss Wahoo, 1959 Miss Thriftway, 1962 Miss Bardahl, 1967 Miss Budweiser and the 1975 Oh Boy!Oberto.

Wahoo raffle winner Forest Brooks will be in attendance to collect his prized ride in Miss Wahoo along with a vast number of museum members who are planning to attend."

 

Had a great time with wonderful weather and only a gust at lunch time so the boats had full run of the course at all times. The Gentleman in the Green "Bardahl" shirt is our own F Club member and owner David Smith. The man in the blue hat is Scott Carson, Executive VP at Boeing.

They were giving rides and the pilots loved to depart from the dock quickly,
which generated a wave that broke the dock surface and lightly flooded everyone's feet who was standing on the dock!
LOL.
Guest passenger's would come back screaming and yelling from the fun of that ride.
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Fabulous! So Sorry I missed it.

 

That would have been fun and I spent the weekend waiting on a deadbeat roofer that never showed up instead.

 

Wow. Had no idea that Thunderboats were out there again. The first time I saw them was on lake Washington summer of 61 along with the USAF Thunderbirds. T Birds were flying 100's and boats were making noise with Allisons and Merlins. The following weekend was the same show all over again at Coeur D'alene. We got to get right down on the pit dock. What a show. Used to go to school with a Dave Smith who was the son of Harrolds Club owner Harold Smith. Wonder if it could be the same guy?

 

Great noise. I wish they could source some alternate V-12's of modern design, build some new hulls and start racing REAL Thunder Boats again instead of those glorified leaf blowers. I would even start going to the races again. I stopped attending 25 years ago.

 

That would be pretty cool...hmmm.... If you had hulls and engines spec'd, I know three guys that would do this right now.

A new V12 spec engine shouldn't be too hard to figure out (there has to be something comparable to the Allisons) and I have a good connection to a guy who builds the current unlimiteds (as well as a host of other boats).

This would be a neat spec series.

 

This event started an event which is now in its third year running called the Mahogany and Merlot weekend

http://www.mahoganyandmerlot.com/

 

There aren't any. Don't think we haven't been looking, for years!
The closest thing is/was Ryan Falconers modular V12....up to 600 cu.in., or the Viper V10's.
To be viable, the motors really need to be <20> liter range, and all alloy. Very few companies/engineers looking that direction these days......;-)

A business proposition for someone; 10 teams, requiring 10 motors each; 100 'spec' motors, one contractor responsible for all motors; your 'subscription' cost covers upgrades over time to all new castings (to replace 75-yr. old metal). Eventually, whole engines available new....

Ditto solution for new hulls.....

Then of course you need a bit of marketing to draw the crowds.....

Is there really a market?

Another problem is; most guys who could fund this only want their own single boat, with history, and it usually comes with a motor(s). And they only use it 3X per year, not in anger.

Fun to bench-race the idea tho.....

 

Maybe I should have driven from Santa Fe.

I used to give a (small) support to the Raceboat Museum.
And would go there from time to time when I lived in Seattle.

But I did miss the restoration of the Smiths' boatsince they did it after I left,
although I did see movies that the son took.

Back in the day I organized a Ferrari Club tour of the Budweiser boat shop.

 

Hi Lowell,

Good to see you on here! I do remember that Budweiser shop tour very well. Dixon and David did a great job showing us around the place.

 

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