May Director's Corner
By: Brad Haskin – Executive Director
Things are starting to ramp up here at the Museum as we run head-on into spring. Our annual Spring Testing session will take place on Lake Washington on Tuesday, May 12 at Stan Sayers Pits, from 10:00-2:00. Four boats are scheduled to take to the water: The Museum’s 1958 “Miss Bardahl” and 1956 “Miss Wahoo” replica, Thunder Valley Racing’s 1962 “Notre Dame” replica, and Dixon Smith’s 1962 “Miss Bardahl”. We will be giving the Museum boats their initial shakedown cruises following off-season overhaul work on the engines, as well as conducting driver qualification and training. The event is open and free to the public, but parking will be restricted to credentialed parking only. Security personnel will be on hand to control parking. If you want to attend, there is plenty of street parking available in the surrounding neighborhood. The Museum will have merchandise for purchase, and there will be a television production crew present filming the event for a future feature on the Museum.
Last month former Museum Director David Williams and I sat down for an interview for David Newton’s “Roostertail Talk” podcast. The three of us spent the better part of 2 1/2 hours sharing boat racing stories, the history and future plans for the Museum. The podcast is scheduled for the upcoming weeks and should be quite entertaining. You can check out David’s “Roostertail Talk” here: Roostertail Talk
The annual GiveBIG fundraising campaign takes place during the first week of May. GiveBIG is a great opportunity to donate to your favorite non-profit organization—with the added benefit that the Washington Gives host organization matches a percentage of the total donations. Its a great way to ‘give +’. We will be sending out information on all of our social media next week, but here is a sneak peek:
I had hoped to lead by example and be the first to donate, but as I am writing this and looking at the GiveBIG website, I see that a donation has already been made! That’s the kind of participation I love to see. Quite literally, every cent counts!
Speaking of fundraising, the Museum recently concluded one of our two annual on-line auctions. 50 items were up for bidding and we raised several thousand dollars to help the Museum continue showing off the sport and history we all love so much. But this is an opportunity for the extended Museum family to give us some feedback. What kind of items draw your interest? What kind of unique things can we offer in the future that would make you get in a bidding war with someone else? Is it experiences? Unique historical items like uniforms or jackets, pieces and parts of old racers? Rare memorabilia? Let us know how we can improve with what we have to offer next time.
Last month I told you that the Museum is going to bring back a favorite event in the form of Hydro Fever. Set aside Saturday, June 20 from 10:00-4:00 at the Museum. Multiple raceboats from the Pacific Northwest Boat Racing Association and the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum will be on display in the parking lot—maybe even some loud noise associated with that as well. Memorabilia dealers and a hydroplane ‘stuff and things’ garage sale inside. Lunch will be available for purchase.
Last month we also discussed the challenge of running our Vintage Unlimited raceboats in the reality of a constantly declining availability of engine parts—especially Rolls Royce Merlin parts. Many people are unaware that after WWII, Rolls Royce produced a normally aspirated, de-tuned version of the Merlin engine that was utilized in eight different types of tanks called the Meteor. This differed from the Merlins that were used in Spifires and Mustangs in the skies over Europe in that there was no supercharger, and they rotated in the opposite direction…at a much slower rpm. Many of the internal parts from the Meteor have been adapted in this day and age to run in existing Merlins: Banks, crankshafts, rods, valves…maybe 60% of the internals of the Meteor. The Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum was recently the recipient of an extremely generous donation of a complete Meteor engine, as well as numerous usable Merlin parts, tools and Rolls Royce parts/assembly manuals. Amazingly, some of the parts in the donation are still wrapped in their original 1943 boxing, wrapped in cosmoline. While we could not survive without the help of Members and volunteers, donations like this are huge and will help us continue running the boats for everyone to enjoy for years to come!
Plans are still being finalized, but as it sits now we will be running the 1973 “Pay’n Pak”, 1977 “Atlas Van Lines”, 1979 “Squire Shop” and 1980 “Miss Budweiser” in daily vintage exhibitions at the Tri-City Water Follies in July. The following weekend in August we will be running a round-nose exhibition at the Seattle Seafair event featuring the 1958 “Miss Bardahl”, 1956 “Miss Wahoo” replica, 1962 “Notre Dame” replica and 1955 “Miss Thriftway” replica. These are great opportunities not only to come out and see these great old hydroplanes from the past stretching their legs and running on the race course, but also to support the H1 races in Washington. We are all in this together and we need to support one another in every way we can. Spend the money to come to the races…sit in the sun, buy merchandise to support the racers, eat some great food, and watch the boats. We are all in this together…so let’s DO it together.
Restoration work continues on the 1960 “Miss Burien” hull in the corner of the Museum. Much of the wood and aluminum have been replaced over the last several months, and when she takes to the water she will be better-preserved than ever. The crew of the 1979 “Miss Circus Circus” reached a visible milestone last week when the aluminum-covered wooden non-trips were screwed and glued onto the hull. Its great when you can actually ‘see’ the progress. As the crew is finishing up installing battens on the bottoms of each of the sponsons, the next step will be adding skins. Then we roll the boat upright and start cutting battens for the top.
Again, I want to thank all of our members for your support. The memberships you renew, merchandise you buy, donations you make…it all counts and we could not function without you. The Museum—your Museum—is not just about the cool boats we get to see. It is also about preserving all the memories that go with them and protecting that legacy from YOUR childhood for generations to come.
Until next month…