Byers' race boats

[Tomtall]

Richard Byers race boats of Paw Paw Michigan held many records as this news article explains from 1968.

Article courtesy of Jerry Oberlin II. Thanks Jerry.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Thanks to Jerry for sending that newspaper article to you Tom, and thank you for posting it. Besides those mentioned in the article Marshall Grant also had some Byers hydros. I never looked closely but "A BOAT NAMED SUE" was probably a Byers. I never knew that Byers first name was Richard and certainly didn't know what he looked like. Thanks again for posting that info.

[epugh66]

Nice piece of history. As I was reading, I was thinking you could change some names, dates and speeds and the story would apply to just everyone that ever nailed a boat together.

[Composite Specialties]

I totally agree with you Eric. If it were not for Tim Butts, John Yale, Carig Selvedge, Marchetti and others, I would have never been able to learn the history and evolution of the hydroplane and learn what if took to create my designs today and going forward. I think the most important part is the fact that everyone takes something from everyone and no one individual is responsible for any designs out there today. Those that choose to deny this are only fooling themselves.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

There were a couple of Byers class D pickelfork hydros here that proved to be sweet handling in their day. Their construction was first class, the building materials were quality. There is still one here where the other one went isn't known. There was a Byers conventional here earlier that went down the straights with a kind of a "tick" to it but none the less it handled well as a conventional. Some tell me that "tick" was a trait those Byers conventionals were known to have.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I don't know how to cut and paste snippets of that newspaper article, but I was really thrilled at his comment on the fact that hydros use an airfoil principal to get the hydros off the water. I had never seen a comment like that before dating back to the late 60's. According to the rule book all modern hydros were illegal for utilizing aerodynamics. When Tim Butts built SHADOWFAX for us in 1976, he utilized 45 degree airfoils at the transom which he had to disguise as braces for the thin portion of the boat. A number of us racing commissioners had been pushing to eliminate that outdated rule. It was finally gotten rid of in 1978 or 79. Byers was obviously knowledgeble with what he had to build according to the power of the engines and the speeds they would achieve.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

When I first saw those transom braces I thought it was to stabilize some twisting at the transom of the hydros I saw them on because their design was flawed so it was said. Not a flaw at all, it was part of a plan all along!

There have been a couple of hydros sold on Ebay at recent times that had those braces though some were bigger than others area wise but placement was pretty much the same. They were part of the scheme to get more airfoil aerodynamics into hydros too?