History - Moonshine Baby H-54


This photo was taken when it was brand new just before the parade and its first race in Melbourne, Kentucky 1961. Note that the motor has not been installed. This hydroplane was originally built in 1960-61 by Jim Moore with help by the owner/driver Dallas Kremer, both of Bellevue, Kentucky. The Junior Gold cup boat was started in Jim's basement with the keel bolted to his floor and it was built to a point where they could not add the sponsons and still be able to get it out the door. It was then moved to Dal's auto shop for completion. The hull was designed by Ted Jones as a 280 cubic inch class/16' hydroplane, but the builders modified the existing plans by extending it 3 extra feet and installing the Ford 'big block' motor, to compete in the 7-litre class. This hydroplane competed from 1961 to 1976. Photo by Cliff Wartman

Bellevue Motors Garage
Bellevue, Kentucky 1961

This photo was taken in Dallas & Hazel Kremer's automotive business, Bellevue Motors Garage in Bellevue, Kentucky as the boat was being built. Oddly enough, I found this photo being auctioned on eBay. What luck! I bid and won it.
The seller of the photo had no idea where he got it from.
I sent a scan to Moonshine Baby crewmember, Cliff Wartman who stated it is authentic and recognized the 2 other team members pictured. Funny how things like this seem to find their way 'home'.

Melbourne, Kentucky 1961
The hydro's first race!
Photo by Phil Kunz

After spending many years running the highly successful 280 class, Hallett-built, Moonshine Baby E-54 and the 135 cubic inch class Moonshine Baby A-54, Dallas was excited about running his new 7 Litre hydro, Moonshine Baby H-54.

The 7-litre class hydroplane was the largest of the limited classes racing in the early 1960's. The 7-litre class motors could not exceed 427.161 cubic inches of displacement. Which then, were the 'big block' automotive engines of their day. This hydro raced its first couple of years using a Ford 390 cid "FE" motor from a Daytona race car until 1964 when the 427 engines were introduced.
Click here to read the 1962 American Power Boat Association's 7 Litre class rules.

Charlestown, West Virgina 1962
Dallas Kremer piloting the 7-litre **H-54**
Photo by Phil Kunz
The next summer in 1962, the hull is wearing a new engine cowling. Plenty of racing action is taking place and every year the hull will take on new paint and cowling changes. One of Dallas' goals was to get in the 100 MPH Club and he reached that with H-54 soon after building the hull.

Madison, Indiana 1962
Photo by Phil Kunz

Throughout this hydro's career, this racing hull was seen
competing at the following towns/states:

Melbourne and Newport, KENTUCKY
Ottawa and Kankakee, ILLINOIS
Madison and Jeffersonville, INDIANA
Charlestown, and New Martinsville, WEST VIRGINIA
St. Petersburg, FLORIDA
Celina, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, New Richmond and Zanesville, OHIO
Tonawanda, NEW YORK
Algonac, Monroe and Detroit, MICHIGAN

In the pits - Madison, Indiana 1963
Photo by Phil Kunz
Note the six Stromberg "97" 2-barrel carbs sitting on top of the aluminum intake manifold of 'Dals FABULOUS Ford'
as described from the lettering on yet another set of new cowlings that are now gracing the hull.
Many changes are taking place each year as the Moonshine Baby team are making adjustments and refining the hull.
Next year, the team will switch to the new 427's and a 10% overdrive gearbox and smaller propeller will be installed to help the hydro come out of the turns more efficiently.

The APBA Inboard Nationals in St. Petersburg, Forida
Photo by Phil Kunz
The red hydro in the background, ironically, is Ray Gassner's famous Sunshine Baby. Cliff told me "Dallas was always the one to experiment. Since he owned a body shop, some of the experiments involved using fiberglass for cockpits, etc. We went to Florida for the Orange Bowl Regatta in 1958, with the 280 class Moonshine Baby E-54 having a completely enclosed cockpit. When we stopped in the small towns on the way down, the locals thought it was a rocket ship. The hull did not carry that cowling very long as Dallas said it was a rough ride and the sound was like riding inside a bass drum."


In the early 1960's, most owners were running Chryslers in the 7-litre class. In 1963, Ford was almost ready to introduce the 427 FE engine (which was born from the 406 racing motor) to compete against the Chrysler 426 Hemi. These motors came stock from the factory with Clevite 77 bearings, cap-screw connecting rods and forged-steel crankshaft. The heads were machined combustion chambers and sodium-filled exhaust and hollow stem intake valves. These cross-bolted blocks are reinforced with oil pressure relief in the block and oil pump. They were conservatively rated from the factory at 425 HP. Dallas Kremer and crewman Cliff Wartman, wrote to Ford urging them to get more involved in limited-class hydroplane racing, stating the success they was having with the Ford 390 motor against the Hemi's. As stated by Cliff, " I wrote the original letter to Ford with copies of our newspaper clippings and received the first engine which was a stock 427. All we had to do was run them till they quit and send them back with the records on their performance." Dallas and his crew bolted on the 6 Stromberg 2-barrel carb's and aluminum flywheel to the motor and went racing. 1960's History in autoracing of the FE engine brought a 1-2-3 in the 1966 LeMans in 427 powered GT-40s, Five Daytona 500 wins, the 427 Cobra's 1965 FIA World Championship and a lock on SCCA racing for years, 428CJ Mustangs dominating the Winternationals at their introduction in 1968, etc. Photo by Cliff Wartman

In the pits - Madison, Indiana 1964
Photo by Tom D'Eath

The hydro takes on yet another look this year as a new red deck color replaces the golden stain for the deck skins and new graphics are also added. The cowlings get painted over with red color and a white stripe is added. Dallas Kremer on the left, and his crew are looking over everything before hitting the course. The chief mechanic for the boats was P.T. (Red) Barrington, who is the the gentleman on the right wearing the hat. The person in the gray shirt is crew member Bill Bohart. Other members of the Moonshine Baby team were Bob Hoh from Dayton, Kentucky who also worked on the engines and is a well known Harley mechanic and Cliff Wartman who crewed from 1955-1964.


The start of the 1965 season has Moonshine Baby with sporting a new set of cowlings and exhaust headers. New graphics added this year include carrying the Confederate "Naval Jack" flag painted on the deck. This is the 3rd set of cowlings that Dallas made for this hydro. This set is on the restored hydroplane. Dallas said to me that he liked to work with fiberglass and produced all the different cowlings you see throughout these photos. Photo by Phil Kunz

Prop Riding in this picture is from a 1966 kilo run
Photo by Phil Kunz
Dallas Kremer told me he liked the weekend races that had kilo runs on Saturday and the race on Sunday. His mechanic was very good at tuning and synchronizing the 6 Stromberg carburetors. For the straightaway record runs, Kremer stated he would "burn alcohol, with a little Nitro mixed in, for that extra kick and push the motor to 6,000+ RPM." Dallas told me his best run was 138 MPH at New Martinsville, West Virginia in a 1 kilometer speed trap. The third owner, Steve Mahac told me he was running this hull well into the 140 mark during the early 1970's.

Moonshine Baby on the cover of the 1968 Kentucky Governor's Cup Regatta

Pontiac Lake, Michigan 1969
Photo by Phil Kunz
Dallas Kremer sold the hydro to George "Ray" Reynolds of Detroit, Michigan. The hydro was campaigned by Ray Reynolds under the Moonshine Baby name for a season. The next year it campaigned under Ray's Rebel Rouser. A new paint scheme and graphics again adorned this 7-litre hydroplane along with a tail fin built into the rear cowling. Ray raced the hydro for a few years, then sold it to a fellow Marine Prop Riders club member, Steve Mahac of Harsen's Island, Michigan about 1971. Steve continued to race the hydro under the name Rebel Rouser.

Ford Lake - Ypsilanti, Michigan
Early 1970's photo by Ted Lee

This is the Rebel Rouser H-54 with owner/driver Steve Mahac going up against
Mario Malardo in Baby Doll II on the program cover for this race in Michigan.
circa: August 15, 1976.

After Steve Mahac's last race in the fall of 1976, he advertised it in the APBA Propeller
magazine and sold the hydroplane. Steve was the last person to drive her in competition.

Late in 1976, Richie Dittrich, a hydro driver in Minneapolis, Minnesota bought her from Steve Mahac. His plan was to restore the aging hydroplane and keep racing her. He never got around to the task and eventually received an offer in 1984 from somebody to buy the two Ford 427 motors. A week later, he sold the racing hull and all the parts to somebody else. I do not have any history of H-54 from 1984-1988. In 1988, a gentleman named Tad Colwell bought the hydroplane from a boat junk yard. I saw her for the first time shortly after that. H-54 had a Chevy small block in her, (which was seized) and the entire hull was soaked with oil. The hull had it's plywood skins delaminating and there was two holes in the bottom of the hull. The boat sat destitute in a storage building until 1996.
I wrote a short story about how I 'bought' the hydro and what I was going to do with it - A rescue of This Old Hydroplane

Thanks
I was lucky enough to talk to Dallas Kremer twice before he passed away in 1997. He sent me photos and newspaper clippings from this hull's racing days. His wife, Hazel, is doing great and still lives in the same house in Bellevue, Kentucky. Thanks Hazel, for your continued support. I never met the second owner, George "Ray" Reynolds who passed away in 1998. If any of his children are reading this, please contact me, as I would like to speak to you again. The third owner, Steve Mahac lives in Detroit, Michigan. I appreciate his help he had given me during my restoration of the hydro. The fourth owner, Richie Dittrich, lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I located Richie in 2002 and he visited H-54 and I shortly afterward. Thanks to Cliff Wartman, crewmember with the Moonshine Baby team from 1955-1964, for help with photos and information. Thanks to Jim Moore, original builder of Moonshine Baby. Jim passed away at age 79 in November 2006. Thanks to Tom D'Eath for identifying this hydroplane for me in the first place, photos, information, contact names, and answering my all my questions I had, as I was rebuilding this hull. Thanks to Phil Kunz for allowing me to use pictures of Moonshine Baby/Rebel Rouser.

Restoration of Moonshine Baby H-54

I am still searching for photos or home movies on this hydro.
Please send an email or call 763.444.9622.
©2000-2006 Phil Spruit