Nostalgic boat from Indy

[BobBonahoom]

This is a pic of a boat I ran in 1973. Who can guess what it is?

 

[Andy Brown]

Ed Hughey. Us old guys should not be allowed to play this "guess what boat game". LOL

Engine is a Supertigre G-40.

Rudder is Marine Specialties.

Prop is a plastic Octura Z55.

Water line is Perfect brand large.

Hobbypoxy paint.

....and whoever has not experienced the JOY of installing 18 radio box screws has not lived. lol

Oh, and the photo is inverted too!

 

[Terry Keeley]

My first hydro! Also about '73-'74.

Mine came with a ss "Dial-a Prop", I sharpened it, had no idea it was supposed to be balanced.

I used a K&B 6.5 on a mini pipe.

Ed was way ahead of the times using flex shafts back then, I tried to convert mine to a hard shaft and ruined it.

No problem, built a Pinkert "Gator" after seeing the article by John Ackerman in Flying Models, finished it at the '78 Indy Unlimited and tried to run it but really didn't have a clue. I remember Don Bilski helping an 18 year old kid get the thing going for one heat...

 

[BobBonahoom]

Wow - you guys are good! Andy got it all right. I think Ed introduced flex shafts to the world about that time also. Remember how we started them with a piece of leather.

 

[BobBonahoom]

I took this boat to Just Add Water Marina and met a young man there (a few years older than me at the time) named Marty Davis. He helped me learn how to make it run. I think we got it up to about 30 mph.

 

[Andy Brown]

I began building my fiirst boat in 1973. I Dragonfly 40. Finished it and ran it for the first time in 1974. I also started it with a leather boot lace. Used the leather up until 1979 when Strobe Lander handed me a belt. I said thank you! Now if I could just afford the starter. LOL

 

[Andy Brown]

Wow - you guys are good! Andy got it all right. I think Ed introduced flex shafts to the world about that time also. Remember how we started them with a piece of leather.

"Andy got it all right."

And it has a Perfect brand metal tank too!

 

[BobBonahoom]

If you had a Dragonfly 40 then you will laugh at this pic:

 

[BobBonahoom]

I built my first boat in 1958. It was a Miss Thriftway with an McCoy 35 engine. I used and escapment on the rudder and a vacuum tube single channel transmitter. It had a single speed with and the rudder moved C-R-C-L-C...etc. You had to remember how many times you hit the button on the TX. Now that was crazy!

 

[Andy Brown]

I built my first boat in 1958. It was a Miss Thriftway with an McCoy 35 engine. I used and escapment on the rudder and a vacuum tube single channel transmitter. It had a single speed with and the rudder moved C-R-C-L-C...etc. You had to remember how many times you hit the button on the TX. Now that was crazy!

Wow! I was still in small diapers in 1958. I probably didn't weigh any more than your Miss Thriftway. I love the photo of your Dragonfly. They are cool looking boats. I would build another one if I had the time. I am frantically looking for the only photo I have of my Dragonfly. It weighed 9 pounds rtr. I later cut it up into an outrigger and installed a Supertigre X-40 with OPS 40 pipe. It weight 5.5 pounds and was FAST. Handled good too. My next boat was a 40 Gator with the same X-40 in it for power. At 7 pounds is was not as fast.

 

[BobBonahoom]

Too bad someone doesn't re-kit those old boats like the Dragonflys and the Wing-Dings. I wonder how well they would run with today's engines and hardware?

Here is a couple shots of my Wing-Dings, from the 70s I think.

 

[Andy Brown]

I saw Dragonfly 40 run with a good powerful OPS 45 sometime around 1990. I was amazed at how well...and fast, it did run.

I last ran a Wing Ding in 1984. It was a .60 size with a .40 in it. Would be interesting to run one again. I wonder how it would do if built with our lighter building methods.

 

[BobBonahoom]

Some sort of "antique nitro hydro" class would be fun, but impossible to regulate unless you specified a hull like the Dragonfly. I wonder if someone like Joe Petro could get the plans and laser cut kits? Probably no market though, since only a handful of old timers would buy them.

Here is another view of my "Fly". I was still using screws for the radio box cover. Later I started using 3 sided brass channel to squeeze the covers against a soft rubber gasket. That was a breakthrough.

 

[charles siler]

Man Amazing going back like this! The Dragon fly was one of

my favoret kit in 1977 . It sure seemed like we put alot more

screws in the radio boxes. Two weeks ago I seen a dragon fly 40

on Ebay and I almost bought it. Very cool you guys later Charlie

 

[John Beardslee]

Ed Hughey. Us old guys should not be allowed to play this "guess what boat game". LOL

Engine is a Supertigre G-40.

Rudder is Marine Specialties.

Prop is a plastic Octura Z55.

Water line is Perfect brand large.

Hobbypoxy paint.

....and whoever has not experienced the JOY of installing 18 radio box screws has not lived. lol

Oh, and the photo is inverted too!

And just how old were you in 73 Andy? I think you were just a baby then! Bob that boat looks like it was never run.

John

 

[John Beardslee]

Hi Bob,

Didn't you have one of the first "Logghe" 40 riggers? Did that Hughey boat have the polyurethane self skinning foam construction? I remember one year maybe 69 or 70 when I was first getting started and Ed was in Detroit for the Mini Gold Cup and was using his flex drive, speedometer cable, and had a 40 mounted in a frame with a flexshaft and prop and actually used the prop like a saw to cut a 2X4 to prove to John Bridge is was safe and strong. Ed's boat had a horseshoe shaped rudder mounted under the hull and props were stamped and solder to a threaded hub and screwed on the shaft. I saw him do a 360 loop with it that year.

John

 

[John Beardslee]

I began building my fiirst boat in 1973. I Dragonfly 40. Finished it and ran it for the first time in 1974. I also started it with a leather boot lace. Used the leather up until 1979 when Strobe Lander handed me a belt. I said thank you! Now if I could just afford the starter. LOL

Hi Andy,

When I visited Mark Sholund (Props4U) this summer I told him the story about Strobe wanting to X472's immediately and I didn't have them and none of our shops in Detroit had any, (Octura wouldn't sell direct to me in those days) so Strobe found 2 in Florida and shipped them next day air UPS red label to me and did them when they arrived and sent them back to him red label and the end cost was about $100 each. Great memories!

John

 

[BobBonahoom]

Hi Bob,

Didn't you have one of the first "Logghe" 40 riggers? Did that Hughey boat have the polyurethane self skinning foam construction? I remember one year maybe 69 or 70 when I was first getting started and Ed was in Detroit for the Mini Gold Cup and was using his flex drive, speedometer cable, and had a 40 mounted in a frame with a flexshaft and prop and actually used the prop like a saw to cut a 2X4 to prove to John Bridge is was safe and strong. Ed's boat had a horseshoe shaped rudder mounted under the hull and props were stamped and solder to a threaded hub and screwed on the shaft. I saw him do a 360 loop with it that year.

John

Hi John, no I never had a Logghe rigger. My first rigger was a Wing Ding I think. Yes, Ed's boat was self skinning foam made in a horseshoe pattern. The center section was wood that fit into the horseshoe foam part. I thing either Ed or his brother Dee sold a product called Dial-a-Prop where you would make your own props as you described. I recall John Bridge starting his Lead Sled (geared together ST 67 engines) using an automobile starter motor applied to the propeller. I don't think I ever saw the Lead Sled lose a race.

 

[BobBonahoom]

Hi Bob,

Didn't you have one of the first "Logghe" 40 riggers? Did that Hughey boat have the polyurethane self skinning foam construction? I remember one year maybe 69 or 70 when I was first getting started and Ed was in Detroit for the Mini Gold Cup and was using his flex drive, speedometer cable, and had a 40 mounted in a frame with a flexshaft and prop and actually used the prop like a saw to cut a 2X4 to prove to John Bridge is was safe and strong. Ed's boat had a horseshoe shaped rudder mounted under the hull and props were stamped and solder to a threaded hub and screwed on the shaft. I saw him do a 360 loop with it that year.

John

Hi Bob,

Didn't you have one of the first "Logghe" 40 riggers? Did that Hughey boat have the polyurethane self skinning foam construction? I remember one year maybe 69 or 70 when I was first getting started and Ed was in Detroit for the Mini Gold Cup and was using his flex drive, speedometer cable, and had a 40 mounted in a frame with a flexshaft and prop and actually used the prop like a saw to cut a 2X4 to prove to John Bridge is was safe and strong. Ed's boat had a horseshoe shaped rudder mounted under the hull and props were stamped and solder to a threaded hub and screwed on the shaft. I saw him do a 360 loop with it that year.

John

Hi John, no I never had a Logghe rigger. My first rigger was a Wing Ding I think. Yes, Ed's boat was self skinning foam made in a horseshoe pattern. The center section was wood that fit into the horseshoe foam part. I thing either Ed or his brother Dee sold a product called Dial-a-Prop where you would make your own props as you described. I recall John Bridge starting his Lead Sled (geared together ST 67 engines) using an automobile starter motor applied to the propeller. I don't think I ever saw the Lead Sled lose a race.

Here are two more pics of the Hughey boat sorry about the poor quality. These were taken a long time ago and scanned recently.

 

[John Finch]

I still have my dial a prop and some of the old hand built props. I have a 8mm film recorded on to video tape of me running my first boat in 1967. I don't know the manufacturer. It was a 1/8th scale with a 60 McKoy red head airplane engine with an octura flywheel and cool klamp. It was fiberglass. Thinking JVS roundnose ? I don't have a photo and you can't tell from the video what boat it is because it only shows the boat running on the water. Too far away to tell. Any guesses?