I've been looking for information on a vintage hydroplane
hull my day fielded in 1970-71 out of St. Petersburg, Florida. I was about
5 or 6 when my dad got the boat and it has been the inspiration of many
entertaining stories from him over the years.
The boat was originally named Porky and owned by Burt Davidson
and was passed on to my father to bolster the number of local 91ci - L
Class boats. Burt held the 91ci closed course record in 1956 with this
boat before retiring it for a period. The hull was pattern built along
with two other sister hulls by Virgil Elders from a Dick Sooy design and
powered by a "Dragon" 8 cylinder inline motor (two Crosleys in back-to-back
configuration) running alcohol. Even after 14 years, the boat was competitive
in its class. |
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As the story goes, Jim Aid (850cc Instigator and later 91ci
Obdurate
and recently 2.5L Modified In-Cahoots Again) helped broker the deal
with Burt Davidson. Burt freshened up the top end of the Crosley/Dragon
and Jim helped my dad do some hull repair and repaint the boat Maverick
Grabber blue on Ford off white. The engine cowling was supposedly cut from
the wing tank of an old fighter plane.
I believe John Peek originated the back to back Crosley configuration
and built a set for Sammy Crooks' L-Class Dragon (maybe the reason
they've been referred to as "Dragon" motors). Burt Davidson did some machine
work on Sammy's Dragon motor, he still has a pair of Crooks' Crosley
camshafts laying about, and decided to built a set for himself. Burt built
several pairs of these straight eights and he has the original restored
pair out of the Porky. He actually fired them up on a test stand
for me (I last heard them when I was about 5). Burt showed me some of his
original hand machined jigs and tools used to align and set up the motors
including a 2xlong main shaft that spans both sets of main journals for
ensuring a square mating of the blocks (avoiding having to line-bore the
whole mess). |
My dad campaigned this boat under the name Hummbug L-7 at the
33rd Southland (Lake Maggorie) and a few other races, eventually loosing
the bottom end in the front Crosley (the one that ran backwards) at Stuart
ending his short stint at the throttle. The boat went back to Burt, who
repowered it with an Alpha and sent it southward to West Palm or Miami
where it got beat it up pretty bad. Burt scrapped the hull some time in
'72 or '73. Any information on the sister hulls or original plans would
be much appreciated.
© 2003 Rob Felton |
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