Agitator
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Agitator
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Charlie Lloyd was as master carpenter/cabinet maker from Pennsylvania who drove a friend’s hydroplane in the early 1950’s and because of the damage he inflicted on it became the immediate owner. He raced it for the next year but was so disappointed with its performance he purchased a ‘better’ boat to race competitively. Still unsatisfied he figured he could take the best ideas from both boats along with his skill and produce a really outstanding hull. His first boat was so successful that in the mid 1950’s people began calling Charlie to design and build boats for them. Charlie, realizing the birth of a new business, commissioned his son Mike to perform some of the monotonous grunt work/machining, his wife to sew/upholster the seats and keep the books…….and the business was off and rolling. Charlie also commissioned a casting house in Reading, PA to produce his custom hardware (shaft log, rudder, mid strut, etc.). is parts are typically identified by his name ‘Charles-Lloyd’ and/or a 3 digit cast number (102, 104, 108, etc.). |
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Charlie built many boats (possibly 150-200) from the late 1950’s until
1970. At any one point, Charlie was said to have at least three
boats going at a time at various stages of completion.Eventually, Charlie
could no longer perform all of the manual planing associated with building
his boats and focused his efforts on sprint car design - a passion of his
son. Charlie’s boats are very distinctive from the rear tail
fin with a kick-up (rumored to have been taken from a 50’s Cadillac) as
well as a very aggressively tapered transom. Charlie was known to
be a guy that if you had enough time and money.........could do practically
anything.
Photos ofsome of Charlie’s early boats.
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The hydroplane has been identified as a very early 280 Charlie Lloyd
hull (possibly the 2nd 280 he ever built). It was built in the fall
of 1955 for two brothers who owned a Marina (Smitty’s Marina) in Lake Hopatcong,
NJ - Frank and Ronald Smith. After seeing the first 280 that Charlie built
for himself. They just had to have one. This was by no means their first
race boat, they held many records and titles in the smaller 48 class, but
it was the largest class race boat they ever had. For a fee of 200 dollars,
they commissioned Charlie Lloyd to build a partial hull (frames, sides,
and bottom) and they fabricated the rest. Frank was responsible for designing
and having Stan Warner (a good friend) custom weld the ‘one of kind’ stainless
steel ‘S’ shaped exhaust headers that remained a trademark of the hull
all the way until the mid 1970’s. The final step was to purchase Lloyd
hardware and install it in place. It took them the better part of a year
to completely finish the hull and she was up and running in the middle
of 1956 with her name and numbers in place - Too Much Jr. E-199.
This photo is Frank (standing in the cockpit) along with his ‘school chums’ at the davit at Smitty’s marina. |
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It was named after a service runabout they had previously worked on
called Too Much. The first test run proved to be quite an
exciting event. They had their friend Paul Flohn (an experienced
135 driver) take the first run with her. After a bumpy ride Paul was actually
pitched out of the boat and the boat literally drove away. Realizing the
need for a kill switch a little too late…….they were unable to catch the
boat and it ending up driving out of site and carefully pulling up on a
nearby sandy beach - without any damage whatsoever! A slight push off and
the boat was racing once again!
This photo is Frank motoring the boat in from a successful outing on Lake Hopatcong (notice the interesting cowlings - still not sure where they came from!). |
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The boat started its official racing career in 1956 (when the 280 class was first organized) and the following is a picture of her in Florida with Paul Flohn driving in early 1957 (note the more familiar Lloyd cowlings). After a few years of racing the Smith brother’s marina business was beginning to increase..this forced them to make a difficult decision…race full time or plug away at the family business. |
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The decision was eventually made to sell the boat and a gentlemen named
Jim Burnham of Conneaut, Ohio purchased her in 1960.
Jim raced the boat under the Too Much Jr. name and numbers for the 1960 season and this photo depicts Jim (in the center) battling it out in Madison, Indiana. |
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In 1961, Jim dropped the 1 from E-199 and raced her as E-99 as shown in the next photo taken in New Martinsville, W.VA. |
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In the off season, Jim stripped down the entire hull and gave the cowlings
a fresh coat of paint. Jim added the now infamous 'deck bumps' on
either side of the engine cowling because he was not happy the way the
deck seams took to the new varnish. The 1962 season was met with
a fresh looking boat renamed Ji-Mar (after Jim and his wife Margaret)
and a new number was selected, E-172. At one point, Jim was injured during
his job on the railroad and he had his good friend Jim Brewster pilot the
hull.
This picture depicts Jim Brewster in New Martinsville, West Virginia
(the deck bumps can be clearly seen in this photo!).
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Jim eventually sold the hull in 1965 to Allen Reid in Denver, Colorado.
Jim actually packed up his entire family and trailered the boat all the
way out to Colorado from Conneaut, Ohio. It is unclear how long Allen
owned it or if it was ever raced, but it was sold to Roy Kuhnhoffer in
Littleton, Colorado. Roy renamed the boat Toot Sweet E-100 and eventually
moved to a small town south of Chicago. Roy was a one-legged hydroplane
racer and actually had a prosthetic leg fabricated to simulate himself
sitting in this hydroplane so he could race with two legs! I learned
of a hilarious story about Roy - after flipping out of the hydroplane
during a race…but before he climbed into the rescue boat…handing his leg
first to the closest rescue crewman who promptly fainted on the spot -
he obviously thought Roy was handing him his severed leg!
I have no information on Roy’s career (or Allen Reid) but do have a photo of Roy from 1966 shown here. |
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In 1969, a young Ron Snyder (of unlimited fame - Budweiser, Madison, Kentukiana Paving, North Tool, etc.) purchased her from Roy as his very first hydroplane from a small town located just south of Chicago. During his first season of racing he couldn’t make a race in Pontiac, Michigan and the boat was driven by a 22-year-old youngster named Bill Whitlock. This was Bill’s first time in competition in a three pointer and the following photo captures him in 1969 coming down the infamous ‘channel’ in Pontiac (If you look real close you can still make out the ‘E100’ under the ‘E-173’ from the previous owner along with the ‘deck bumps’ and ‘S’ shaped headers).Phil Kunz Photography |
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In 1970, the boat was said to been in very poor shape at this point (much of the wood was rotted which makes sense with a boat from 1955 - 15 years old) and needed to be completely re-built over the winter. Ron had been saving for a new kitchen for his wife Susan, and as many racing stories go, utilized the entire savings for the new kitchen to rebuild his boat (I'm not sure how he pulled that one off!). As you would probably guess, the boat was very quickly named Suzies Kitchen as some type of recovery for the damage done. |
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Here is a photo of Ron Snyder in 1971 battling in the newly restored Suzies Kitchen. |
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In 1973 Ted Williams helped put the boat back together for Ron and actually took his driver’s test in it. The following photo is Ted Williams piloting the recently assembled Suzie's Kitchen. |
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In 1973, Ron sold the boat to Ted Williams and it was raced for almost
three years as Scruluce E39. At one point it had a pony keg
as a gas tank and was nicknamed the ‘Stop & Go Race Team’ because
of recurring problems which made for some hilarious stories - none of which
were probably funny at the time!
This is a picture of Sculuce in September of 1973 just after being painted and ready to race in New Martinsville W. VA. (I actually have the sling shown in the photo!) It only ran this race as E-10 and the number was given back to a friend and was then assigned E-39. |
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A very interesting fact is Ted did pilot the hull to
its only known victory to date - The Dukes Cup Regatta in Paducah, Kentucky August 4, 1974. Ted is now known as the WORLD FAMOUS Paducah Champion in my book!. Phil Kunz Photography |
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Another great shot of Ted in Scruluce with a picture perfect
start at Columbus, Ohio on the Scioto River during the 1974 Griggs Dam
race.
Also in the picture is Stover Hire driving Hire Voltage E-37 (right) and Dave Sutton driving Yankee Doodle E-51 (left). |
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In 1976 Ted sold the hull to Chick Langford who raced it as Agitator E39 from 1976 to 1980. Even though the boat was built and rebuilt many times, I believe it was Chick’s re-build that kept her in great shape for the last 20 years. Chick said it was very difficult to keep up with the cab-overs so he was always trying to push it. One time Chick was so violently tossed out of the boat after he hooked it in a turn, they pulled him from the river and he was actually missing both of his shoes! One shoe was never recovered……the other shoe still remained perfectly positioned on the foot shaped gas pedal! Here is Chick ‘The Pilot’ literally flying down the Ohio River to keep up with those darn cab-overs! The boat was raced in the 80’s but little is known about it from 1980 to 1987. I have been told it was still racing in the mid 1980’s but am unable to find any information on it (go figure. Tons of information from 45 years ago. Nothing from 15 years ago - the search continues!) It was not competitively raced from 1987 to 2000 when I purchased her from Dave Kryk out of Rochester, NY. |