July Director's Corner
I wish I could say that there is grand, new, exciting news for July, but the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum just continues churning along at qualifying speed as we get closer to our multi-boat exhibitions at Tri-Cities and Seattle in a couple weeks. Maybe that in and of itself IS the exciting news!
We had a very successful return of our “Hydro Fever” event at the Museum on June 20th, featuring several Limited, Flatbottom, Drag Boats, Tunnel Hulls, and all of the Museum’s Vintage Unlimiteds. A highlight was BWR Racing bringing their defending 2025 Unlimited driven by Andrew Tate for display as well. Multiple vendors and memorabilia dealers had tables in the Museum, and Seafair had an information booth set up to talk with visitors. All proceeds for the event went to support the Pacific Northwest Boat Racing Association. Thank you for all who attended and participated!
On Saturday, July 11 the Museum will be hosting our annual “Hydros and Hot Rods” event from 9am-2pm. The parking lot will be filled to the brim with classic/sports cars. The Superchargers will be playing music over the course of the day, and the Seafair Pirates will be present with the “Moby Duck”. If you would like to enter a car please contact the Museum at (206)-764-9453, or email teri@thunderboats.org.
Our annual Gala and Auction will be taking place Sunday, August 9th at the Tacoma Yacht Club at 1pm. The TYC has a gorgeous indoor facility out at Point Defiance, in the shadow of the ferry terminal, and we are excited to be working with this new venue with our guest auctioneer, John Curley (who is a former Seafair King Neptune!). This event is one of the Museum’s most important fund-raisers each year, and it is an excellent opportunity to show your support for our organization—for YOUR organization. Tickets are $125 per person but are limited. If you are interested in buying a table for team/friends/family, we offer both 8 and 10 person tables. Contact the Museum at (206)-764-9453, or email teri@thunderboats.org to reserve your place today.
While most of our round-nose fleet was up and running for our Spring Test in May, the Museum’s ‘picklefork navy’ is wrapping up their off-season preparations for the exhibition at the Columbia Cup, July 24-26. Engines are installed, test-firing and systems prep is underway, and we will be showcasing the Atlas Van Lines, Miss Budweiser, Pay’n Pak and Squire Shop for a scheduled four exhibition runs on the river—one Friday, two Saturday and one Sunday afternoon. We are bringing the thunder to the show.
The following weekend at Seafair we will be running the Miss Wahoo, Notre Dame, Miss Thriftway and Miss Bardahl at our annual hometown race. The Museum will have a vendor booth just outside the pit gate at Tri-Cities, and in the Vintage pits at Seafair. Stop by and see the new merchandise for 2026. We at the Museum are both grateful and excited to be working once again with both the Tri City Water Follies and Seattle Seafair organizations! Show your support by coming out and attending!
Last month I mentioned that Jill Andrews had taken over as our social media guru (queen?). If you have noticed an increased presence of the Museum on the various social media platforms, it is because of Jill’s efforts. The number of views over the last several weeks have skyrocketed as we are reaching new audiences on-line. She is working with both the Museum webmaster as well as the family of the late Don Mock to update and push our Thunderboats YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/ThunderboatsVideo) to coordinate our ‘message’ to the media masses. We hope that drives not only awareness of the Museum and the ‘mission’, but increases our membership and physical attendance to the Museum facilities.
The Museum says goodbye to our admin assistant/bookkeeper Patti Robinson, who has decided to spend more time with her grandkids on a regular basis. She will still be around helping with some of our events, but we’ll miss her. Thank you, Patti.
Oh, and stay tuned next month for some interesting news about a unique and seldom seen Unlimited that hopefully will soon become part of the Museum fold.
We will be closed on Saturday, July 4 in observance of the holiday, but will be open for business on our regular schedule on Tuesday, July 7.
Until next month…
Brad Haskin, Executive Director