Butts Aerowing-The Only Way To Fly

[Jeff Lytle]

A good look at the Butts "S" bottom.

Mal Harden flyin' high:

[Jeff Lytle]

Jerry Kirts flyin' HIGHER!!

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The only other hydro's I can think of that had that sort of S bottom but somewhat further back were Hal Kelly's Jupiter (BSH) and some Ben Hur by Hall Kelly too that in their day aired out pretty good for old time stock outboard racing in the 1960s and some later 70s. for some. That an S bottom on a big Alky must have been plenty amazing and feeling if not a might hair twitchy at the time. Flying high! Oh Yes!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Jeff---That pic has made the rounds in a number of racing programs. That is the picture I had Jerry sign for me when I was collecting autographs. That wasn't just a shot when he got a little too aired out. He was hanging it out all the way 'round the course. There's another photo of Dan out there doing pretty much the same thing. As usual, your eye for detail really picked a striking example of the S bottom that sometimes doesn't even stand out when the boat is upside down on the stands in bright sunlight.

And John, there is nothing more exhilirating in my opinion that flying a 700 hydro at top speed in good water. For me, what chased away the butterflys and got the adrenalin going was turning right out of the pits, checking the tattletale for water, looking over the left shoulder to make sure there was no traffic, feeling fresh air under the helmet, then punching that 700cc Konig while pulling a left to begin milling before the start. The feeling of power and acceleration would put my mind in racing mode.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

It is over 2 years ago that I finished rebuilding a 1966 Quincy Flathead 44 cube "F" class Alky out of the many parts and boxes, that used to be run by the Quincy Drivers; Simison and Schoch but I built it as I envisioned it without the pictures of it that became available later. I put on more modern and compact Merc distributor ignition that didn't interefere with the one Carter Model N carb as well as hanging the latest generation bells with the water injection system with all this parked on a steel tower with Merc 55H flatsided gearcase.

When I finished her I was only going to put her through one 3.5 gallon methanol tank load, purge the methanol and fogg her down with storage lube and put her on display, not knowing that this was one of the most vaunted Flathead F Runabout engines in 1966s, so I found out later. I parked her on Wayne Walgraves old 1970 G-71 Chapparal F hydro I have and had rebuilt here to use specifically for a test bed tryout boat and ran her sitting down on a shallow buscket seat with armoured legs going through the cowl dash on either side of the steering wheel. She started so easy and acellerated on to plane so fast and so loud she attracted lots of local attention and in a nearby town some miles away that it got written up in a local paper as undesirable to more quiet townsfolk at Lac Du Bonnet. We used to club race there too but that was SO's certainly not this. I did not push her except for 2 good straights accellerations to flat out opened up, meanwhile just taking her real easy sorta cruising my fuel column guage on the tank (my lube turns the mix the color bright purple) showed in about 12 minites it was largely gone and when I got in less than 1 quart was left with air starting to get into the two lines to the pumps, so she was shut off. She was sure powerful and what a scream but on top speed wise out a Yamato 500 RC really curled my hair more so, but you missed the sound to it like the Flathead has. There is nothing like a Flathead 6 for its music and the Flathead 4s pretty much take 2nd spot for sound to go with the raw power of the engine. They are not that fast anymore but they sure grab and fire your imagination with their performance. The thing is now is to run them conservatively for some events but not really race them as you don't want to see less and less from a chance engine explosion and scattering. That would break my heart.

[smittythewelder]

Hey, I like that new photo you have beside your name, John (is that what the computer-literate call an "avatar"?).

My first BSH was the S-curved bottom Hal Kelly Jupiter I built. It was so gorgeous and I was so proud of it . . . until I started racing. It was a slug. Like some or maybe all of Kelly's hydros, it had a hook in the bottom that kept the sponsons glued to the water; two of my neighborhood pals built Wetbacks, and they had the same problem. In spite of being slow, my boat wouldn't turn, and I got thrown onto the deck in my first heat of racing, and thrown into the water in the second heat (Idlewood Park, Lake Sammamish; Spring, 1965). The following winter I had Ed Karelsen build me a boat. When I took it out testing, the sponsons rose off the water and the boat just flew, and I thought, "So THAT'S what a real raceboat feels like!!!"

Anyway, what I wanted to add was that Hedlund and Craig (Selvidge)-Craft hydros both had S-curved bottoms, as did some later Karelsens. The idea was to move the center of lift aft toward the center of gravity, slightly, to make the boat a little less pitch-sensitive. Pickleforking serves the same purpose, more effectively.

I wish I'd kept my old Jupiter. Now I know how to fix it, make it work. Well, I did keep my set of plans . . . .

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The avatar is courtesy of a board administrator who kindly offered me the avatar logo as it was not a priority for me but he thought a "little" different and offered me one of the ones he was getting a kick out of so I respectfully accepted and that is what you are seeing. Its nice.

I can just see Smitty the Welder! At high speed in a hydro driving with one a mig welding gun welding the crankcase with the other hand and holding steering wheel and throttle set very close together!


We saw the same thing here when it came to the Jupiter and Ben Hur Hal Kelly hydros and like yourself people went out of the (rolled out) cockpit and over the deck for a bath. Though having built one it was too small for me right off. They were the cause of a few 20H crankcase and block blow ups. It was the two Ben Hurs around here that changed that for not only themselves but the Jupiters and a couple of Swift Atomic A hydros. They put one anti trip extended non-trip plate on the right sponson and one on the right rear non trips raising the anti-broaching capability a lot giving the racer on the outside of you a real good face washing. This helped a lot but here but the Sidcafts, Marchetti sand Swifts early on outperformed the the Jupiters in BSH. The Ben Hurs were all 40H powered in D class, so their placing occurred but wins were nill because the Ogiers, Swifts, Marchettis and Sidcrafts out with 55Hs performed them hands down. We were nearly 4 years late going to pickelforks here because we paid attention to the local scene so well it delayed development and new raceboat types for years. My old Jupiter is still here in good shape though not been in racing for years. It sees only lake running with its owner of many years now, these days.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

There were several wetback B-C, D and some C Service run Wetbacks here that no one wanted to take out and race them after they were built after a few test runs trying setups. Here they got the reputation with the name very quickly. You menttioned wetback hyros and racers would go silent shaking their heads saying no no no and no way!! I gave away an old sized DSH wetcback last year to a friend of a friend who is parking a Merc 402 short shaft ski/fish engine on her just to run on the river locally some nice day! We have had lots of nice days but with the drowned driftwoods in the thousands of tons fouling the shoreline and boat launches from the summer flooding that is another good luck in your survival trying to even go in there just the once!

[Seagull 170]

John my class B Gasoline Anzani that I recently bought & that we have discussed much, came attached to what I think is an S bottomed Ben-Hur.
If anyone has the same I would appreciate some photos just to confirm I have what I think.

Charles Large
England

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

To me a Ben Hur, Hal Kelly Be Hur boat is an ovesized Jupiter in some respects and has so many similar kind of scaled larger similar looking features particular to Hal Kelly. I will see what I can come up with. Google - Hal Kelly Boat Plans - Ben Hur Cabover Hydro and I think you will be faster that way very quickly as they are out there, I have seen them myself. I owned a Ben Hur D hydro for a time but it was not as good running as by Ogier C-D and then Gordon/Ogier that was my last newer DSH I had until 1980 in use when I got my first pickelforks just prior to that in an overlap of differing hydros.