Mr. Pete Finds A Boat

What an unexpected Christmas surprise. My son Andrew handed me an envelope that contained two new Butts Aerowing decals and a note. The note stated that I was the owner of a Butts laydown hydro.

Andrew had for several years searched the internet to find someone who would build a scale down Butts Aerowing (about 3 feet in length) but never found anyone. He wanted to surprise me for my birthday or Christmas. Finally he turned to my boat racing friend in Corpus Christi, Steve Wetherbee. Steve has been an avid collector of Pro , stock and mod boats and motors for close to ten years now. Andrew decided the only way to get me a Butts was to find a ral one, so he contacted Steve to help.

Steve told him the chances of finding a good one at this stage were slim to none, but he would give it a try. Steve contacted a few of the old racers he'd gotten to know over the last several years, one of them being Pete Nydahl. He swore them all to secrecy since this was supposed to be a surprise.

Steve located one in Michigan and based on the deck configuration and aerodynamics, it was built in 1976 right after my record setting boat "Shadowfax". Steve went up to Michigan and picked it up. He no longer got back and Andrew helped him unload it at his lakefront property when Pete called and said "Iv'e found the boat for Wayne. He has to have this one. He needs to repaint it the Master Oil colors and put his number on it." Pete sent the pictures to Steve. Steve agreed thatt was the boat for me.

The boat was painted solid black and was owned by Bob Saxvik in Ohio. He had it hanging upside down in his man cave basement room serving as a "lamp shade" for a fluorescent fixture. It was well preserved by smoking from Bob and his friends when they used to smoke. It was in immaculate condition top bottom and all the way around. It is still in racing condition with no patches or any flaws.

I am in the process of stripping paint, clear and black off the sides and bottom and sanding right now. Andrew came down from Austin several weeks ago, and he wanted a picture of it taken next to his Dodge Challenger Hellcat. His friend Kevin took some aerials with his drone.