History
The boat was first owned and raced by Lou Butler from Zainesville Ohio. Lou raced the Barracuda in the late 1940's to the early 1950's. Lou and Barracuda held the competition (10 mile) speed record in New Martinsville, West Virginia set on October 3, 1948. (Documentation is below)

In 1953, the boat was then sold to Ray Smith of Eaton, Ohio. Ray removed the Mercury Flathead in 1955 and installed a 265 Chevrolet V8 with three two-barrel Strombergs running on alcohol. Ray raced the boat into the late 1950's. Ray was forced to quit boat racing after a micro midget racing accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. 

In the early 1960s, my dad, Glenn Settle, bought the hydroplane but did not race it. Skipping 40 years or so, I am the current owner of the hydroplane. The boat still has the 265 Chevy that Ray Smith installed (including the three deuces) and all the original hardware that Fred Wickens cast for his boats. I even have the trailer that Mr. Wickens built for the boat.
 

The man standing on the deck is the boat's mechanic, Herman "Bob" Vore from Dayton, Ohio.  The owner and driver was Lou Butler, from Zainesville, Ohio. The year is around 1948.  (Photo © Jim Davies collection)

This photo is Lou Butler catching some air. The boat was running a Mercury Flathead at the time.  (Photo by © John Culver)

Phil Kunz found the documentation of the 10 mile competion world speed record of 68.648 mph,  that the Barracuda set on Oct 3, 1948.

Lou Butler at the helm of Barracuda F-77.  (Photo by © John Culver)

Ray Smith from Eaton, Ohio bought the boat in 1953. Ray ran the Mercury Flathead until 1955.  A 265 Chevrolet was installed with three deuces running on alcohol.  In this photo, Ray Smith is working on the engine. The man holding the boat is Ray's mechanic Gary Vore,  "Bob" Vore's son. By the way, Herman "Bob" Vore was Merlin Culvers mechanic on the Yankee Doodle.  (Photo by Smith Speed Shop)

This photograph, and the following one, show Ray Smith racing in the H class.  Ray was able to compete the F-77 in the H class by adding a tail fin to the rear of the boat to meet the boat length requirements at that time. (Photo © Fred Benzinger collection)

If you look close on the sponson, you can see that for this race, Ray changes the F-77 to H-77.  The hydroplane in the background is Miss Desoto H-33.  (Photo by Smith Speed Shop)

Racing at ? circa ?  (Photo by Smith Speed Shop) As stated above, there were other hydros known to be built by Fred Wickens from 1946-47 before lawyers for the Ventnor Boat Company told Fred Wickens to stop building 3-point hydroplanes or pay a licensing fee, too read more on these Wickens hulls, click Yankee Doodle & Texan and Rudy Toot.

My dad, Glenn Settle bought the boat in the early 1960s. This picture was taken at Lake Cumberland after dad                        repainted it and used it as a toy. That is my dad's brother sitting on the deck and that is me (about 7 years old) leaning up against the side of the boat.

Thirty eight years later, Phil Kunz stopped in and told me what I had.  A month later, I moved it to my shop and pushed a few car projects aside to start the restoration which is almost complete. Everything was in fairly good shape considering the age.  This boat has a good racing history. Click here to view the restoration pages of Barracuda. I have been taking pictures from the start and the webmaster updates those pages as I progress.   I am trying to document more of her history and would be very interested in talking to anybody who may be able to help me out. If you have any knowledge of mine, or any other Fred Wickens hulls, I would like to hear from you. ©2003-2004 Tim Settle