Butts Aerowing-The Only Way To Fly

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

I guess that is what is wrong when you don't look outside of North America to see what everyone else might be doing! I thought a hydro was a hydro and a runabout was a runabout? I can remember when a stock runabout was very different from what Alky drivers used and I sure liked them more and so did eveyone else because they all headed in that direction anyway!

I come on this thread having 2 Butts Aerowings myself, one a Super C from around 1980 and another one that was built for 1987 or 1988 that goes like nobody's business down a straight, that is downright freaky but does not corner well and that is probably my fault through setup as I have improved on that, BUT, no one can tell me anything about this mystery Aerowing of mine and now I am hearing about hydros being outlawed for technical reasons outside of speed?? and handling?? somewhere else??? I thought that rules for Alky were governed by boat, engine displacement and fuel or is the UIM as ridgid as the Olympics committees when they are not out cheating to win??

This sounds as strange as the 1987 or 1988 Aerowing and its story sitting in my garage! I am unwashed here. What is this?

[Mark75H]

Not hydro, not alky ..... STOCK 45ss tunnel hull

Its easy to forget that 45ss Tunnel is a STOCK outboard class in APBA

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The only restrictions Tim ever had to deal with regarding Alky was the restriction involving wings. The PRO commission finally dealt with that and lead to designs that were much safer at the speeds we were doing then.

Sometimes things happen between when boats are constructed and when they finally reach there destination and THEN finally sealed. I was looking at some old records the other day and found some when Tim came down to test and set up a new boat of mine. According to the records, it was handling funny and Tim checked the bottom. It had moved. I have a photo of that that appeared in an article I wrote for Powerboat. The boat was brand new, never been raced and I know that it was perfect when it left Tim's shop. But in South Texas, heat and humidity can really move wood around.

Then, when I picked up a boat in November and spent Thanksgiving with Tim and his Dad at his brother's house in Detroit, I ran into snow on the way home. Several days of snow on an unfinished deck caused some delamination and resulted in depressions on the deck. A funny story resulted, but the point is a little movement in the wood can make a big difference as you know. And I think there can also be internal shifts that may flex when you are all bolted up and at speed. Then remember about the post I had about a prop change that totally changed the handling of the boat.

Take a picture of the bottom of your boat and post it. I think it is radically different from the boat in question. I think Joe would recognize it.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

OH, Jeeeze, I was never aware that Tim Butts ever built a 45SS stock tunnel boat! I suppose builders build for those that want them built, that is their livelihood.

I am no fan of 45SS stock tunnel boat racing from my experience watching them make themselves into mucho kindling wood, is not safe or exciting racing to me. The accidents wiped out nearly half the entries in one heat on a shortened course in Beloit one summer past was sickening.

I was always of the opinion that OMC 45SSs belong to another level of stock hydro and runabout (even 2 man) should have been a bigger one and a hydro or runabout at that, that would not be confused with the smaller Merc/Mariner 44 cube - D deflector stock classes. To me 45SS was a waste where in hydro or runabout or both would have been exciting racing.

You can tell I am pretty bent towards things hydro and runabout because I was one of their disciples since little and nothing class F and under should be on a tunnel boat! So I am eccentric! Its nice to be different, in our different sport.

[Jeff Lytle]

The 1st time I heard of an Aero Cat 45SS was when I saw this ad in Propeller many years ago:

Butts Aero Cat

Up in my neck of the woods, we used to run Grand Prix.........A sorta' run whatcha' brung class that was dominated by the 700's. We used to have DSH step ups, 44's, and all the alky displacements all together.
In the early days of the class, The Father and Son Team of Ron and Steve Allison built 2 hydros and powered them with Merc mod 50 engines. They were fast, but never consistant winners.
We also used to get Mod 50 tunnel step ups as well. They were a bit slower on the straights, but with the power trim and cornering ability, would really make a race of it. Our problem was, we could never run inside them cause' they would slam the door on us in the corners. There were some near misses and that forced us to outlaw the tunnels in our GP races.
It was a tough call. One of our own racers, Glen Coates, built a full kneeler tunnel and put a 500 Konig on it to run with us. No trim, but it ran quite well for him. The rule we put in placed a maximum sponson length on our boats, thus eliminating the tunnels altogether.

Look at Tim's ad John.........He did built Hydro Cats for Alky too. That's probably the design Joe and Wayne are speaking of. I guess the ad was placed before this design got the kybosh as well.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Jeff, It looks like that was an ad from 1987. I don't remember when Tim quit, but it couldn't have been too much later. Here is one of the first, if not the first Aerowing ad. It appeared in the December 1970 issue of "The Roostertail". Notice that he had A & B available. At that time he had not yet built a C-D-F hydro.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Accidentally came across this negative--was filed in another category. I originally thought my cousin had taken this picture from a boat, but of several frames, this is the only usable one, so it wasn't him.

This was January 3, 1973--only three months after its first race. Tim was already looking for ways to improve his boats. This was probably the first of many Christmas holidays that Tim spent with us. It became a tradition. After the season ended, he would be working on boats and deliver them during the Christmas holidays. We would test his and our equipment.

Before Tim built this boat he took some rides in our D Marchetti to get a feel for the speed and power. We took delivery in October 72 at the NOA World Championships in Alexandria. I don't remember what he was looking for during this test session, but he was having me run close to the shore so he could observe. I made about six runs. Tim wanted me to cruise about 30-35 mph, then when I got close to him--nail it. You can see on the full frame about when I got on the throttle, then a couple of close ups of the water rolling up underneath the hull.

Wish I still had that hull. It was amazingly successful for the first one. We ran it for a number of years, then we retired it to my Dad's bar and filled the cockpit up with some trophies. That's the boat Doug Hall referred to in an earlier post.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Its amazing how stubbornly long people hang on to convention hydros round nose and even wedge nose hydros even when the writing was on the wall with pickelfor boats as early as Tim Butts were. Can anyone pin down when the actual "first" pickelfork hydros appear, somewhere in some stored scrap book I saw one with two very sort pickels as in a couple of inches, back around 1970. The passing comment was it was a prototype for some alky some dreamer was thinking about and that its just a passing fad!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

John--I don't know if Tim actually built the first picklefork, but I have never heard of one prior to his. I wrote an article on Tim and his Aerowings that appeared in POWERBOAT MAGAZINE in 1975 and in that article Tim states,"I took the conventional three point hydro and went as far as I could go. Then I realized that something entirely new had to be brought into the alky world to take the speeds. I designed my first Aerowing in 1968, built it in 1969...and in 1970 I raced it at Memphis". It is not clear if that particular boat had pickleforks, because he had to hide some aerodynamic stuff to avoid the ban against wings. I think it did but not positive. The second one did have the pickleforks. At that race he blew everyone away, but he didn't show up as winner because he jumped the gun.

[F-12]

Tim's first Aerowing was a very short version of the final product (using the word final loosely) The pickles were about 4 or 5 inches long as compared to his later boats. I use the term 'final' loosely because with every boat he built, there were improvements. I think the first model of Aerowing was named 'Ruthless'. Go figure where that came from. Anyone remember? I do.
Wayne, have you heard anything from Tim in the past few weeks? I'm hoping he gets things moved and has time to come out and play with us. That is long past due.................