I've been trying hard to remember his first name. I think it was Phil but can't be sure. Charlie maybe you can remember.
Flyer
Leigh,
I've been trying hard to remember his first name. I think it was Phil but can't be sure. Charlie maybe you can remember.
Flyer
Leigh,
You would be correct, Leigh. It wasn't long after Dave Rawson started building boats that I left college and moved in with Dave to learn the art of hydroplane building. Heard a lot of stories about Phil and what Dave learned during this time. I slept on a couch next to a 10 inch South Bend lathe in his living room, and got a treat when we got some alky out of the trailer and used it to cook steaks in his fireplace. Dave is still around but doing high end super yacht finish woodwork. I stop to see him whenever I am in the area. If anyone would like his email............let me know.............
Charley Bradley
When we were planning the 1977 Nationals, most SoCal people were fine with my dad inspecting motors as he had inspected many Nationals, and if my motor (s) needed inspecting guys like Harold Berghauer, Dick O'Dea, and Hal Barnes to name a few could easily check my motor (s). But a Referee from SoCal seemed too much CALIFORNIA, so the name Phil Charland came up as he had worked other Nationals and everyone agreed he did a great job. He did a great job at the 1977 Nationals, except he tossed Broom out in 35 SS Hydro for "Rough" driving me...Phil was from Jersey and Broom was from Jersey...I passed Broom, on the last turn, which caused me to get a boat between me and Hank Menzies, giving me the win....I argued with Phil that Broom drove "FINE" and he was wrong to toss Broom...Phil said, "I tossed him on the first lap." End of story!
As I continued to look at Bob Brown's CSH at Seattle I noticed, that the boat had NO AFTER PLANE. I also noticed that he had a propeller that would hardly touch the water as his transom was so high. Thinking he was defending Champion, I decided I'd watch him closely.
Green Lake first turn was at the opposite end of the pits, so you could not see the first turn very well, but I could see the "TELL TAIL" squirting from Bob's sponson fin. He exited the turn on the outside, and headed for the pit turn. I was "Shocked" to see him have probably a 10-12 boat lead in one straight away. He slowed that mother down to almost a stop, his outside sponson grabbed hard and the rear end came about half way around on him, but he's slowed so much he had plenty of time to catch it. Then, he kind of moved slowly off the corner, but by the first turn, he was 10-12 boat lengths ahead.
Seems it was only three laps, but each was the same. Smitty the Welder said the boat had very hard chines on the sponsons and flat chines on the back. This could explain why it cornered poorly....but I think the fact he had the motor jacked up to the stars was also part of the problem.
Bunky Bowerman won CSH in Hinton, West Virginia in 1976 by about the same distance Bob Brown won in 1959.
Padded heads or no padded heads, Bob Brown had a great set up for top end.
Elgin Gates, had the Mexican build him some boats, the were copies of Shirlee's (McDonald)...But for A and B Stocks.
John,
That's what was screwing me up so I called Tim Townsend and he also thought it was Phil. His father had a Charleton ran c-d . He thought that Pat Benz had bought one of the last boats. He said that he would have died years ago.
Flyer
Leigh,
Oh, fine, now I'm wondering if I have been misusing a common racing term for fifty years. Ron, you say above that you looked at the boat and it had "no after plane." I have always thought that "afterplane" was a specific DIMENSION of standard hydroplanes, namely the length in inches from the back edge of the sponson to the back edge of the boat, a dimension the Charleton I saw certainly did have (I'd guess about 68"), So please set me straight on this.
I've been looking for some pictures of a Mexican Hydro and a Mishey...(Looking on the Speed and Spray Magazine)...but haven't found anything.
On a runabout, anything behind the transom is considered "AFTER PLANE".....The distance from the back of the spnson and the back of the bottom...I don't know what that is called.
Emmet Reese (San Diego) drove a Mishey 'C' Racing Hydro and if I remember, he was middle of the pack racer. Ralph Holmes (Phoenix) raced a Mishey 'F' Racing Hydro with a 460. He and Chuck Parsons used to do battle at Long Beach Marine Stadium. Ralph also ran, '1 man 'F' Racing Runabout. He was killed in a plane accident in the middle fifties if memory serves me correctly. Only problem is at my age, Getting Lucky, means remembering what you walked into the room for!
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