Bill Holland

[Tim Weber]

According to Ralph, the boat was just shy of the APBA record. He thinks it went a 106 and the record was around 108. He told me it was very close but it did hold the NOA record.

Tim

[Ron Hill]

Dave Bryan is coming up to the show tomorrow. We will give Ralph DeSilva a call. The boat looks like quite a few DeSilva Hydros. There was "Top Secret" projects in the old days.

I know that Pep Hubbell and the DeSilvas were very close. I know that Pep was Vice-President of the NOA for many years. I also know that McCullough and Hubbell worked together on projects.

The prop appears to be a Litten Cleaver. I know the handles on this boat were DeSilva handles. Ernie Dawe has th patterns for them today. But, there could have been other handle companies...

Cool pictures!

[Mark75H]

Littons were the standard props supplied on the McCulloch race motors

[Thumper]

I have been in touch with Bills daughter, Danielle today......She was very excited to hear that the Record Boat survived and it will be restored........She will be sending me all the info,photos etc she can find in the near future related to this Hydro

Many thanks Danielle, your info will aid in my restoration


Brad K

[tahawk]

Glad to here that you were able to contact her.if i can help another way please let me know

[Ron Hill]

Dave Bryan and I called Ralph today. He was eating lunch. He'd been working on a new C Service Runabout. I asked Ralph about Bill Holland's McCullough Hydro.

Ralph said he built this boat for McCullough. Bill Holland worked for McCullough Outboards. When McCullough moved to Havasu City, Bill went back to Texas.

Ralph spoke very highly of Bill. Ralph said, "Bill was a smart person and hard worker." Ralph was pretty sure Bill had gone through the kilo at 106 MPH , at the time, it was the outboard world speed record.

He said they'd built the boat in the early 1960's.

[Thumper]

Ron
I have One old color photo of the Holland Boat and Written on the back it reads
Holland boat 106 Mph Claud Fox Knoxville Tn.

additional info

Boat is 14.4 feet long and 6 feet wide at the sponsons ...stern is 4.6 feet wide... Drivers area is 20inch wide and 17 inch tall floor to roof add another 3 inched for the helmet bubble...Evidence shows Mcculloch 590 was mounted on transom.& only 2 height adjustments were ever made
Has Kainer Wheel and quincy throttle

Three different colors were found while stripping White ...cream and Red

[Thumper]

Got a chance to drive to Ralphs house today to discuss the Holland Boat.....Ralph spent about 3 hours talking about Boats..... .....Hollands Boat is the only one DeSilva ever built like that....Ralph told me the serial number is underneath the floor.....Ralph is currently looking for more photos and old NOA books to help me out....Learning that the Boat was built by Desilva was great info
I learned that several different canopies were built during testing and When Holland ran in Knoxville he had to run without the front portion canopy....Ralph told me that When Bill tucked his head down too look thru the windshield he was virtually running blind during the run...
The engine cowling was made by Bill with a gain of about 2 or 3 Mph.....Desilva never saw the Boat run but Holland was constantly communicating with him during testing....
Desilva delivered the Boat to Holland bare wood and Holland did the final finish work

Desilva told me the Boat always performed well but the 590 was not the perfect choice outboard but enough for an F class record

Many Thanks to Tim Weber

[Mark75H]

When Holland ran in Knoxville he had to run without the front portion canopy....Ralph told me that When Bill tucked his head down too look thru the windshield he was virtually running blind during the run...

That agrees with what Bill told me

[Thumper]

Just a few more Photos of Bill Holland