Nitro Twisted

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Many may know that in the beginning (my beginning) there were boats. Nitro Boats. I don't know any other life without them. Don't even think my dad has missed a single race season since 1967 or somewhere around there, so for me boats have been around for a long time so much so there are some funny things that were twisted reality in my mind because of them. Here are a few.

When I think back to as far back as I can remember anything, I do remember that I don't think I had ever been to a lake without boats running. That was so much so that I remember thinking that the sweet smell of nitro was what flowers smelled like at a lake. I had experienced the scent so much and so often, but only at lake sites that it was a seemingly natrural smell to me. It wasn't until I started racing and I was closer to running boats that it clicked in my mind that it came from the boats at the lake not the flowers. Before that the noise of those nitro engines unmuffled frightened me to tears as a toddler.

But get this...

That noise that brought me to tears as a toddler eventually turned to a sound of comfort as I remember that the zipping sound of hyrdos was my lullaby for my afternoon nap in the back of the car. When the boats "Stopped" running is when I woke up.

How's that for twisted.

Any twisted boating stories of your own?

One other thing... I just recently learned that "running" boats is an awkrard phrase for some. I was talking one day about running boats and one guy said to me with a straight face What do you mean by running boats. Don't they go in the water? How can you run on water? True Story.

 

[Michael Costanzo]

hi roger, i got my first smell of nitro at 12 years ol when i passed a local flying field near my house in NY and stopped to watch the guys flying control line planes and from that first sight and smell and the noise was awesome!! it was off to the races from there.the boating started the year after and then the real insanity started. as far as twisted, this whole friggin hobby is twisted and the best addiction anybody could get !!! as far as the flower sitsuation with you i think is waayy to many paint fumes getting past the filters!! :blink: ps, keep thoses airbrushes flow'n..you the man! mike.

 

[Bill Gibson]

Because im old, it started for me 40+ years ago with a Cox .049 Thimble Drome engine on a C/L model airplane engine........Imagine 40+ years of smelling, feeling, and tasting nitro in all sorts of models.....and i love it as much now as I did then......NOW THATS "TWISTED"! ive tried electric, got nothin against gasoline (Raced dirt bikes, Go karts, and even an old "C" Stock Outboard hyro.....lots of premix!) but nothin, and i mean nothing still gets its done for me like nitro powered model boats......when i think of the time and money ive put into this hobby, i feel that i should be the poster child for TWISTED!

 

[NITROSNIFER]

My boating started off with a MRP cat. and I used it at our cabin to pass the time. Fast enough at first but got boring real quick as the little side exhaust .12 was not a powerhouse. I then got me a 3.5 outboard and was really impressed with the speed. I happened by the local boat club as they were having a race. Learned a ton that day and never looked back. Have been burning up the lake and a lot of nitro ever sine. First year racing was a K+B 45 with a exhaust throttle in a Spider and a Cobra with a OPS .67. Now I run 9 different classes, A mono A through X hydro SP40 and a few too many scales. I would not have it any other way.

 

[Ron Olson]

Roger, you're getting deep here!

Being the son of a shade tree wrench thrower I've been around everything that's gas or Diesel powered all my life. I had my first taste of nitro back when I was a kid also kind of like Bill, starting with CL planes and cars. A friend back in the very early `70's turned me on to this thing called RC and had to get me some of those!

I can understand the thing with the sounds. After my son was born and we couldn't get him to go to sleep, a ride in my 1/2-ton Chevy pick-up around the block would knock him out. It was loud 350 with headers and 'glas-packs. Still today he's got a "fetish" with loud cars and trick exhaust systems. It must have been something that he related to while still in the womb. It's easy ot get him to do yardwork now as long as it's a power tool that's gas powered.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

My twisted tale starts in a similar way to Bill Gibson's, with an R/C aircraft. Unlike Bill, mine was a 9 foot span ducted fan F-16 in Thunderbird livery doing touch and go's on the main runway at the Navy training base in Millington TN. After seeing the owner fly this piece of art, I had to have one. The next day, I was off to the base hobby shop to obtain an airplane for my first project. My enthusiasm was quickly dashed as there wasn't a single plane in stock except a 27" Guillow's Mustang, which I eventually purchased. Looking around the store, the only engine available was an HB 20 marine, AKA a 20 sized airplane engine witha cooling jacket

With a little more searching, I found my first project. On a back shelf was a Dumas 30" Pay'N Pak kit behind some other non-R/C kits. This was quickly taken to the front of the store and, along with the Mustang, purchased. The next day, both kits were openned and I was totally shocked at the complexity of the Mustang, while the Pak seemed fairly easy. The next payday, I was back at the hobby shop buying Devcon epoxy, Exacto knives and the running gear kit. The results of that shopping trip started a nightly build ritual that lasted for the next four months. I never did get that first Pak to run right and it was eventually wrecked. I found that by working on the boat, it was a great stress reliever and started an activity that has lasted ever since. To this day, if I start to feel stressed in any way, it's off to the garage and a boat to work on.

 

[Mark Poole ModVP]

I got into RC nitro boats in a rather unusual way, quite different than most of the above posts. Well, I built a wood Dragon Fly 20 when I was 16 but soon I had "other" interests and the little hydro never was finished or ran.

I raced lifesize boats at age 20 (E class V bottom). When I got that out of my system I went looking for an RC boat again. By 1985, OPC Mod-VP class was in full swing and was my favorite class to watch at the IOGP races.The racing wars between STV, Stoker, Mirage, Allison and Hydrostream boats really held my interest. After a lot of searching it was clear that Mod-VP had not found its way into RC. This sparked an interest for me to see if I could design and build my own boat. I was now 24 years old and knew just enough about fiberglass (and everything else) to be dangerous. I built a plug and mold and put the first boat together and rigged it with an International Hobbies motor. It blew up on the first crank! Disgusted but not about to quit, I got a regular old K&B 7.5 motor for it. So, the very first boat that I ever drove was my own hull. It was a real pig, built way to big and wide for a 7.5 boat but it did not matter. I was hooked! I kept on refining the hulls and built a 3.5 boat too. I also started racing tunnels and still do.

 

[TUNLBOTR]

It all started with my older brother Ken, he and a group of buddies had Merc fever in the early '70's. they were always switching motors and stuff under the light on the side of the house. A buddy had a 17' Critchfield, and they put a 125 Merc shorty on the back.

When he got the urge to build his first boat, a 13' Piclkefork, I got paid a nickel a screw to put the deck screws in after he started them, I was only 7 or 8, but would stay up until mom would make me quit to go to bed, usually midnight. He finished the boat, and bought a brand new 135 Short Shaft Merc to put on it, and I helped rig it. That boat was cool as hell, but i was too young to even ride.

I had a Cox 3 wheel chopper .049. But it didn't float very well. We built a 18" long tunnel from balsa and covered it in Butyl (DOPE) and took the chopper motor and mounted it on a pod and put a pusher prop on it. My first Tunnel boat would run in big circles, heathkit was the only R/c stuff I ever had seen, in a catalog.

In 1973 my family, dad was retired Navy, opened a Mercury franchise, Brandon Marine, in Brandon, Fl and Ken pursued his racing as a APBA Sports J tunnel racer. I can remember going to Eufaula,AL to the Nationals, and got to sit on top of the Mercury World Racing Team hauler, Watching Seebold, Molinari, VanDeVelden, Sirois, and my brothers future boss, Team captain Earl Bentz..

He raced all over the Southeast, Jax Outboard Club, (JOC) which at the time was run by Tony and Mitch's Dad, Hazelhurst, GA and down in Miami and BellGlade. I never raced big boats, but the love was there.

Fast forward to 1988, and I saw a group of guys racing in a pond near my home in Riverview, and a year later joined the Brandon Model boaters. I had a flashback of that old balsa wood Tunnel with the smell of cox glow fuel in my head, like it was yesterday. 22 years of racing and one ex-wife later...............

Man what a ride its been.......... Sorry, Angie. The ultimatum"It's the boats or me" didn't cut it.

 

[Joe Warren]

Funny Topic........... My 1st Experience with Nitro was a Airplane engine quickly mounted to a King Edward Cigar Box( Lightweight) that had a pair of make shift axles & wheels.( Air Powered Cigar Box??) With a Supe bee .049 with Prop Wizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing Full TILT...... Whoa Momma..... When I fired it up in the apartment parking lot behind the house. Set the Needle & Turned it loose....... You were lucky If you could find it when it ran out of fuel!!!!!! Several O` Sxit Moments with that little toy........ Many years later finally got a Nitro engine bolted into a Boat Hull & Gave up on the Cigar Boxs....... Got into R/C boating on a BAD LOAN with a Co Worker.

 

[Tom Foley]

Because im old, it started for me 40+ years ago with a Cox .049 Thimble Drome engine on a C/L model airplane engine........Imagine 40+ years of smelling, feeling, and tasting nitro in all sorts of models.....and i love it as much now as I did then......NOW THATS "TWISTED"! ive tried electric, got nothin against gasoline (Raced dirt bikes, Go karts, and even an old "C" Stock Outboard hyro.....lots of premix!) but nothin, and i mean nothing still gets its done for me like nitro powered model boats......when i think of the time and money ive put into this hobby, i feel that i should be the poster child for TWISTED!

But saying all that you are not racing this weekend ???? Lightweight Garage Racer !!!!!

 

[Bill Gibson]

Because im old, it started for me 40+ years ago with a Cox .049 Thimble Drome engine on a C/L model airplane engine........Imagine 40+ years of smelling, feeling, and tasting nitro in all sorts of models.....and i love it as much now as I did then......NOW THATS "TWISTED"! ive tried electric, got nothin against gasoline (Raced dirt bikes, Go karts, and even an old "C" Stock Outboard hyro.....lots of premix!) but nothin, and i mean nothing still gets its done for me like nitro powered model boats......when i think of the time and money ive put into this hobby, i feel that i should be the poster child for TWISTED!

But saying all that you are not racing this weekend ???? Lightweight Garage Racer !!!!!

Well, its kinda what i call FOLEYITIS.... in that its not the ONLY thing i like to do! (i kinda got bit by the rocket bug...remember?)and there's a launch tommorrow AND because im not among the WEALTHY, ive gotta save all the money i can to go to the Winternats.......by the way...i DID enter the STORM race at Brandon (im gonna get my azz kicked SO BAD!)........DID YOU?.....or are you SKEERD those little tunnel boats will KICK YOUR AZZ?? :lol: :lol: love ya man!