I wrote about the unlimied class hydroplane, “Wildroot Charlie”, a boat my grandfather’s company sponsored. That boat was racing when I was a toddler, and it was quite successful under my grandfather’s sponsorship. I’ve always been fascinated with hydroplanes and other fast boats. The sensation of speed is considerably greater on water than on land. When I was a kid, I loved going fast on the water.
As a high school student in Buffalo, NY around 1970, I built a small Glen L design “Minimax” boat in shop class, with considerable help from my shop teacher, Mike O’Connell. I remember almost passing out from paint fumes one afternoon while spray painting it in the basement shop at school. I also remember launching it in the school pool, accompanied by a large crowd of curious onlookers. The problem was, I had not yet mounted the bolts for the motor board, so it started to take on water as soon as we put it in the pool. That was a little embarrassing, but it floated, and I had a lot of fun with that little boat over the years. It wasn’t terribly fast, but it was so low to the water that it felt fast. Of course, I had to experiment with overpowering it, and one day, mounted a friend’s 18HP Evinrude on it. The motor was much too heavy for the boat, and there was approximately 2” of freeboard off the transom. We took it out on a glass calm day, and it was definitely faster than it had been powered by my 5.5HP Johnson. It was a little tricky to drive, especially when coming off plane. The motor was so heavy that it would swamp the boat. Last weekend, I was at our dock on Little Doe Lake, and our next door neighbour Matthew Misler motored by in the same boat I had owned. Imagine my surprise! He called his watercraft a “Sea Flea” but it was the exact same Glen L designed boat. I’m not sure I still have any photos of mine.
Another memorable boat in my fleet was my 13’ Boston Whaler. That boat was bulletproof, but not particularly comfortable to ride in on a rough day. My friend Bob Miller and I used to take our boats “jumping” off Point Abino, near
Crystal Beach Amusement Park, Ontario, Canada
. As I’ve said before, Lake Erie can be a treacherous lake for steep chop, because it is the shallowest of the Great Lakes. The waves off the
Point Abino
lighthouse were notoriously steep and deep. Jumping is a young man’s sport, and especially in a 13’ Boston Whaler. No one ever wanted to go for a boat ride with me when the lake was rough, because those Whaler wooden seats were hard on the back. Bob and I used to joke that the Boston Whaler company should have sponsored me because I proved the unsinkability of their boats. Their ads used to feature one of their boats sawed in half and still floating, but I think they should have demonstrated what the boat can do in rough water. Regrettably, we have no video or photographs of some of our wilder jumping experiences, but let’s just say we both scared ourselves a few times. I remember jumping a freighter wake once and almost flipping my boat backwards. The wind came up under the bow, and for a good 2 or 3 seconds, I did not know which way the boat was going to land. There are moments of sheer terror when one commits to jumping a swell. As well, there is a certain Zen to it. Once you’re in the air, there’s really no turning back. I suppose it’s a rush similar to what a surfer feels when he or she drops off a big swell.
These days, our jumping boats are a little more seaworthy. Bob has a vintage 27’ Magnum Sedan Cruiser with twin V8s and a deep V hull. As I mentioned, I have a 20’ Hydra-Sports boat which puts the Whaler to shame. The last time I went jumping with Bob was several years ago in his Magnum. We were offshore, south of Buffalo, and the swells were perfect for jumping. I (we) probably won’t be doing that much longer. Oh, to be young and immortal again. That’s the myth isn’t it? When we were young, we weren’t immortal; we were just young, stupid, and lucky. I feel truly blessed to have come out of my ill-spent youth relatively unscathed. Every so often, I still get the urge to drive a 3-point racing hydroplane at high speed. Perhaps when I turn 70.
Written by
Jamie Oppenheimer
©2020 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED JamieOppenheimerSongwriter@gmail.com
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