Harvey's White Heat

[Piston1]

The Knoxville Gang help Harvey Lieberman run his boat yesterday. None of us can hear anything today. Orbit radio system and everything.

 

[brad nichols]

Deffinatly TRUE VINTAGE!!!

Brad

 

[KenOlvis]

Coolbeans

 

[Tom Foley]

Way to go Harvey !!

 

[Grimracer]

I LIKE!

 

[El Zorro]

Holy 1960's, Batman! Been a long time since I saw a reed radio. I never used a reed radio..........I started flying R/C airplanes around 1967 with a "Galloping Ghost" 2 channel system and then went big-time with a PCS proportional 4 channel in a pattern airplane. It was REAL interesting watching my Dad fly with the reed systems. Something like "two bumps on the switch to the right to go right and one bump on the switch to the left to go left"..........or something like that. I'm sure Harvey has an O&R engine in that boat. And yes, they are pretty loud! Pretty cool to see history back in the water. Go Harvey!

Dick Tyndall

 

[rctinman]

Good to see Harvey out and about. Missed him at the races last season. Neat old stuff!

Steve Ball

 

[Terry Keeley]

Awsome!

 

[harvknox]

Didn't know Jose was going to post those pics, but since he did I'd better clarify a few things. I did use that radio in the boat when I built it in 67, however I changed to a more up to date set up about 10 years ago. It's not 21st century yet. It's got a JR R-1 FM radio aboard, but has not missed a beat. Mike, yes it does have a water cooled O&R gas engine with an Octura barrel carb similar to nitro. No tuned pipe, has a megaphone exhaust. Don't think it would pass a sound test. It would probably break the meter. When the rope starter failed a few years ago, Dick Tyndall was kind enough to send me an O&R engine he had that I could use for parts, which was really great since no parts are available for these engines. Relations like this are what makes this sport or hobby so much fun. I painted the boat with rattle can enamel. No clear coat in those days. That's the original paint on the boat. I run it about once a year to shake things up and make everyone appreciate how far we've advanced in technology, also it runs at a speed that I can manage.LOL That transmitter by the way is vacuum tube, and the receiver has each component soldered to a connection board.

 

[harvknox]

Just noticed I gave credit for picking up on the O&R engine to Mike instead of Dick. I don't think Mike goes that far back.

 

[David Bryant]

Didn't know Jose was going to post those pics, but since he did I'd better clarify a few things. I did use that radio in the boat when I built it in 67, however I changed to a more up to date set up about 10 years ago. It's not 21st century yet. It's got a JR R-1 FM radio aboard, but has not missed a beat. Mike, yes it does have a water cooled O&R gas engine with an Octura barrel carb similar to nitro. No tuned pipe, has a megaphone exhaust. Don't think it would pass a sound test. It would probably break the meter. When the rope starter failed a few years ago, Dick Tyndall was kind enough to send me an O&R engine he had that I could use for parts, which was really great since no parts are available for these engines. Relations like this are what makes this sport or hobby so much fun. I painted the boat with rattle can enamel. No clear coat in those days. That's the original paint on the boat. I run it about once a year to shake things up and make everyone appreciate how far we've advanced in technology, also it runs at a speed that I can manage.LOL That transmitter by the way is vacuum tube, and the receiver has each component soldered to a connection board.

the receiver has each component soldered to a connection board.

discrete "solid state" components

 

[bigjohn]

here's some pictures of my White Heat 15, I built it in the late 60's or early 70's, in the 90's I made a fiberglass mold of it and put a modern cowl on it, I still have the original wood boat, the O&R is in a cabin cruiser now, it still has the Octura rotary intake valve in it

John R.

 

[harvknox]

John, I've seen your White Heat and cabin cruiser before on IW. Have never seen the inside of your cabin cruiser. Looks great. I also have a 48" cabin cruiser with a second 3/4 HP O&R engine. This one is water cooled using 2 Octura cool clamps. The O&R engine in my White Heat has the same water jacket as yours. Tom P. told me an interesting history on that jacket. If you have not heard it, I can share. I built my cabin cruiser in the days, 1962, before retrieve boats. I installed two Pittman electric motors that operated from a servo in case the engine died. Did the Walbro carb improve engine performance over the original or the Octura barrel carb?

 

[bigjohn]

Harvey here's a good picture of the Walbro, I'm not sure that it helped the top end performance but it really helped the low end, I can run it at low speed and not make a bow wave and you can see the water coming out the duel exhaust, I still have the sales flier that Tom put out advertising the Sea Queen with the O&R in it, I bought the SQ from Tom, Tom use to come out to our pond quit often and have us try different props so he could take pictures of them running, I still have the original Sea Queen that I built, this is a new one built 15 years ago, I also have one in the box that I used to make copy's of the parts to build this one, no I don't think I heard the story of the water jacket

John R.

 

[harvknox]

John, here is the story on the water jacket as I remember Tom telling it to me. As you know O & R sold the Compact engine for all sorts of industrial and commercial applications. They were used on hedge trimmers, pumps, generators, bicycles, chain saws, and the list goes on. They even had a version with a built in gear reduction. In their efforts to increase sales, somewhere along the line some one came up with the idea of powering a surf board. Being in L.A. on the ocean this could be a big deal. The idea was to use the gas engine to get the surfer out beyond the breakers and then shut it down to wait for the big one. Speed was not a factor. The engine would take the load off the surfer paddling out, and the engine needed to be water cooled. O & R designed the water jacket for the application, which we both have. Unfortunately, the project didn't go or it went poorly. Tom was already doing business with O & R, and added the water cooled version to his inventory. I don't know if he bought the entire inventory or bought them as he sold them.

It's coincidental, but the muffler on my cabin cruiser is similar to yours. The engine cooling water comes out thru the exhaust, however the outlet is at the water line . Whenever the engine is idling, the water and exhaust make a very realistic Chris Craft gurgling sound.

 

[harvknox]

Dick, my first boat was controlled with a single channel transmitter, with a 9 foot antenna and vacuum tube receiver. The transmitter sat on the ground, push button controlled on a cable. No servo. Boat had a rubber band powered escapement for the rudder. These worked just like a wind up watch escapement. the radio signal would unlatch the escapement, which would rotate 90 degrees, powered by the rubber band. Exciting times! Airplane guys used the same system. It was crazy.

 

[Grimracer]

Galloping Ghost...

 

[Tom Foley]

Nice photos guys and great story ! I always wanted a White Heat , thought they were a neat looking hull . Makes me want to build the brand new in box Drag N Fly 60 I have that will be Mac 67 powered . I need to do that !

 

[harvknox]

Mike, my single channel radio predates the galloping ghost by a number of years. I found the manual for my single channel radio. Catch this it was copyrighted in 1953. Bought mine in 1960. Radio installed in a 27" cabin cruiser that I still have. Now that is really vintage! The galloping Ghost was super compared to my radio, even though the galloping ghost gave you a nervous breakdown watching the control surfaces twitch.

 

[Robert Pickard]

Very nice first radio i used was a Kraft