Roostertails Unlimited:
[1973]
Introduction
Imagine a three ton beast hurtling across the water at speeds of about 180
miles per hour -- half flying!
Imagine the throaty scream of powerful airplane engines that generate close
to 2500 horsepower and can be heard for miles around.
Suppose you were in the cockpit, comfy in your padded driver's seat, as you
take the thirty foot long hull careening through a turn ...with little or no
power steering!
This is an Unlimited Hydroplane! Smoothly gliding over the surface of the
water, a high plume of spray arching into the air like a geyser marking her
path. But when the water is rough she bounces from side to side, up and down,
shaking and rattling her driver until his bones ache and his body is bruised
from being tossed about in his seat.
It is a dangerous sport. Many brave men have been killed at its expense;
millions of dollars have been spent in the pursuit of, perhaps, a few thousand
in prize winnings.
But they still go on ...the drivers, the owners, the crews, the promoters
-they still put their hydros into the lion's den, they continue to spend their
money to go fastest. It's a contagious thing - seemingly meaningless at first
glance but when one has seen them, touched one, sensed the excitement of race
day, appreciated the hours of labor to make a competitor or have simply
witnessed a roostertail, they will thank those that made the thrill possible.
Few sports can draw upwards of 200,000 spectators for a single event, but
Unlimiteds do so in every section of the nation. It has everything ...the speed
of hockey, the excitement of a football game, or the danger of auto racing, the
pageantry of a horse race and, of course, disappointment.
It is a technical sport. Mechanics that are experts on a thousand things, all
having to do with engines. Builders who can construct to withstand the high
strains of fierce competition and heavy seas. Designers that have the ideas of
how to get that proverbial extra mile an hour on the opponent. And with
technology comes confusion and misunderstanding or a wondrous appreciation of
how those things ever work.
Some call them "thunderboats", others refer to them as the
"big boats", and still others lovingly call them "the
hydroplane", the queen of the hydro classes ...the epitome. Nearly every
driver who has climbed into the seat of a racing runabout, a little outboard
hydro or a larger inboard, has dreamed of someday piloting an Unlimited.
(Reprinted from Roostertails Unlimited by Andy Muntz, 1973)
Hydroplane
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