Ted Jones Hydro

**Mark75H** · 02-09-2006

Larry's sister is very interested in their father's work. She is a member here and on other boards, always looking for pictures of the boats Wilbur built.

**BRIAN HENDRICK** · 02-09-2006

This pic is a PR [Hubbell?] powered McDonald as seen at the John Ward race in '61. # 108 N, Al Redmond. The boat still exists in NY, but in poor shape.
I was told this rig set a competition record in the late '50s.

**Ron Hill** · 02-09-2006

It sure doesn't have the McDonald look....the bottom would give it away.......Almost looks like a Hal Kelley "Mad Cap"....but then, my mind is going.

Did Wilbur McDonald build all of Hugh's boats? Or did Hugh build some of them...as I recall, the early ones had a cloth deck...

I wonder how many cab overs were actually built...The only one I ever drove was a cloth deck...and a very fun boat to drive...Honest as heck, get your *** in the back and the nose came up, but scoot forward and the tail "POPPED" and off you went...

The CABOVER or "Monkey on a Stick" as stick as they were called by many........DAMN SID CRAFTS CAME ALONG AND MADE THEM ALL HISTORY IN ABOUT A WEEK!!!! This is no slam on Sid and Mickey as they built a great boat....

Times change!!! And so do designs..

**BRIAN HENDRICK** · 02-10-2006

The coaming 'cut-away' and the low cloth deck distinguish the McDonalds from the Jones. This pic from Charlies files. Were the Sids 'faster', or did they corner faster, ie race faster??

**Ron Hill** · 02-10-2006

That's a McDonald cap over as I remeber them, except I thought they ran 55-H's on that size....

Speed or boat can be "DISCUSSED" forever, let me try my opinions and observations....

About 1962, Ted May managed to buy Elgin Gates's equipment. Included, as I recall was a triple deck trailer, two Mexican Phantom A-B runabout, a gold plated Mark 55-E and an Entrop Cabover... At that time we called them "ENTROP CABOVERS".....because Hugh drove them and we assumed he built them....Much of the design, we heard, had come from Boeing's wind tunnel..

Anyway, I got to driver Ted's cabover, also known as a "Monkey on a Stick"....at Irvine Lake, testing..I must have driven it for an hour...THIS BOAT ALSO HAD A RUDDER TO KEEP THE BOAT FROM "CAT WALKING" ON THE STRAIGHTS AND IT ALSO HELPED IT CORNER...BUT IT ALSO SLOWED THE BOAT DOWN...

FAST FORWARD TO LIKE 1967. The HEDLUND'S WERE BUILDING HYDROS THAT WERE WINNING EVERYTHING IN A AND B HYDRO. Thye had a deck like a "BULL NOSED" DeSilva, but the bottom was a mini Entrop Cabover, except they didn't have you driving from the nose, you sat on the transom, until she started to "blow over", then you'd better have ben on the steering wheel..

The Hedlund Hydro ook over...Until, 1974, when Steve DeFeo came to Daytona with a Craig Craft (Craig Selvidge had designed a new hydro, with designs copied from the likes of Cliff Bedford...the hollow transom and with some totally new concepts of les drag...Steve DeFeo won ASH at Dayton by a half lap, the rest had ahEDLUNDS...iN 1975 ALMOST ALL THE A HYDROS WERE CRAIG CRAFTS.

The thruth was the Sid Crafts, the Craig Crafts "prop rode" BUT ONLY A HALF INCH OFF THE WATER...They weren't as pretty as the "CABOVERS"...but they disturbed less air, ran parallel to the water and as a result ran faster and quicker.They were not more stable to drive, but the B and H Hydros of today, will run faster and quicker than anything I've ever seen...but I'd also say they aren't more stable than an old Sid.....

Personally, a One Designed Cab Over class would be great......but

**Joe Silvestri 36-S** · 02-10-2006

Interesting read Ron. Thanks for the story. Any other stories like the one posted above?

**BRIAN HENDRICK** · 02-10-2006

Looking for a pic of a Hedlund, but came up with a Dubinski ...?????
Looks like a Hedlund to me. All were derivatives of Jupiters, lots of lift, 'S' bottoms, called semi-cabovers, but certainly all 'tail-draggers' !!
Seems to be what the PROs run in Europe today, as they run much
rougher water than we do.

**Mark75H** · 02-10-2006

I always thought R-96 looked exactly like Entrop's old D

I asked Hu about wind tunnel testing (he was a model builder for Boeing). He said no, they would not let him use the wind tunnel (they charged by the hour for its use).

**BBaron** · 02-12-2006

The boat I put on here is a Ted Jones no copy or any
of that and we ran D engines on it
Just got back from the reunion it was nice

**Modhydro Steve** · 02-13-2006

The following is a quick synopsis from phone conversations with Hugh when I was restoring the MacDonald:

Jones was responsible for the cabover designs. Hugh said that He and Jones used to hang out at the same Mercury dealership and used to BS on some evenings. Hugh picked his brain for a while with questions that gradually filled in enough info to build one himself. He said that Jones was a little upset so you will notice that Hugh always said he raced a Jones hydro rather than take the credid for what he built. Entrop did design them, but largely based on "hot" information. Wilbur copied Entrop's hulls and credited Hugh. They both gave the credit to the previous guy. This may be some of the confusion as the name isn't necessarily the builder.

As far as the boats themselves. I sent the dimensions that Hugh asked for and he said that Wilbur built it based on that. Another small detail is that both Jones and Entrop used "Anchorfast" brand nails that have an anchor actually stamped on the head. I think that Jones used stainless and Hugh used bronze, but I'm not fully sure on that as it didn't pertain to my work at the time. Wilbur used ring shank nails, but not anchorfast.

Now I write everything down so it is easy to reference. It is amazing how much stuff you forget!!!

Steve Roskowski