UIM World Championship Results

**Ron Hill** · 11-16-2005

Oberhavel is where we raced, I think. Truth is, I frequently had no clue where I was the whole time I was in Europe. When I wanted to get somewhere, I've have my wife get in a taxi and I'd follow the taxi...We used that same approach this summer in Italy...I don't understand the language and can't read the signs...Taxi drivers seem to know where to go, and I follow!!!!

**Jeff Lytle** · 11-16-2005

Hey Wayne.......Did you end up leaving the boat there, or ship it back?

**Master Oil Racing Team** · 11-16-2005

Motor Rennboot Club bought it for 3000 DM. They used it to train up and coming kids, and for any other driver from other countries that came to race and needed a boat. I named it Tex and only actually raced it once--in Austria on the Danube River. Funny thing is they bought it in 1979, but didn't pay me until I came back in 1981. Jimmy Carter was President when I sold it and if you remember we had 21 per cent interest rates, 20 per cent inflation and the dollar went totally to hell. When we made the deal it was 31/2 or 4 DM to the dollar. They paid me in DM and I held on to them thinking I was going back to Europe to race. I had to abruptly retire and never went back. When I cashed in my DM it was around 1 1/2 to 1 and I gained about 1600 US dollars.

**Jeff Lytle** · 11-16-2005

Ok, I figured it stayed there.

So------What made it handle the rough stuff so well? What had Tim done to the design?

**Master Oil Racing Team** · 11-16-2005

We tested during the winter when we had strong northers. Didn't take long for one to blow in. The back straightaway was just a little bit east of north, so we could run almost into the wind and turn around to run with it.

It was blowing 30 to 35 mph one cold morning when we tested and the boat handled beautifully. Going into the wind the sponsons mushed then firmed up to keep the boat from clipping the next waves. Running with the wind, which can be very tricky, the boat just plowed on through with never any sign of stuffing.

What we learned in Berlin and the following year at Linz, Austria is that it didn't handle swells good at all. The rough water we tested in had a head on breeze that helped keep the nose up and thereby keeping more weight on the transom. And the waves were fairly uniformly spaced. Running with the wind the sponsons were cutting the waves and rebounding at a regular pace to keep the rear of the boat from bouncing.

The swells we encountered in Europe were in addition to the wind blowing. I could run okay down the front straight in Linz, but on the back straight I would catch a swell wrong and I would literally hang on with all I had, to stay in the boat. The third heat my legs were probably 3 or 4 feet above the boat and high enough to pull the kill switch. I lay dead in the water and was unable to restart the motor.

I will look in my notes to see if I can find the sketch on the sponson design. Tim made a sponson change on one of my 350 hydros that made it very hard to drive---until an Italian friend put his prop on it. An interesting story for later.

**BRIAN HENDRICK** · 11-16-2005

This pic is of a DeSilva F, one of the last built, so I am told.
It was powered by a 460, now a M75H, although it does not handle well
with the tall six. Maybe a 497 OMC would run better on it ??

**Ron Hill** · 11-18-2005

Just found the same magazine....

Cool article, Wayne...

Sometime, I forget how many articles Powerboat really had about Boat racing...Some of the article didn't have my name in them, so maybe I forgot about them...

Bob Nordskog was an amazing man!!!!

**Master Oil Racing Team** · 11-18-2005

When I was looking in the storage above our carport for something I had to move some boxes of Powerboat and Powerboat & Waterskiing magazines. I kept skimming through them and set six or eight issues aside to scan. One of them was the back to back coverage of Paris and Berlin. You won the Berlin race. I haven't brought those issues down yet to scan, and BTW I forgot what Debbie sent me up there to get. I had to go back a couple of days later and bring down some compact suitcases.

**Brendan Power** · 11-19-2005

Bill Rucker SR'S baot was a Z Craft buit by Frank Zorkin out of Pheonix AZ.
Bill Rucker SR never ran an OMC only Mercury's.

**Ron Hill** · 11-19-2005

Billy Jack Rucker, Sr. MAY never have owned an OMC race motor, but I'd swear I raced against him at a lake in Northern California, where they hold Bass Fishing Tournaments......Rough as all get out...But they ran Stock Runabouts and Formula E Runabout together...Bill Jack and I had a great race....I thought it was a red and mohogany DeSilva with a three holer OMC......I had my Hill DU with a 55-H... The three holer would come off the corners like "Jack the Bear"....but run out of legs, and my 55-H would haul by on top end...We both were winning our class but neither wanted to let the other win the heat.....So we ran side by side for two heats......Maybe, it was three holer Merc.....

Seems that Billy Jack was driving for someone....

We had some great laughs after that race...as we were the only two really racing, as the water was way too rough......Rucker wasn't one to back off and either was I....Miss that guy!!!!

Miss seeing you at the races, Brendan...Why don't you post your business card....??? And, if I never thanked you for helping me out when I inspected for the Prop Tour...Thank you a TON!!!!!!!