Dayton Testing – May 28th to June 1st, 2009


It was March, at Tavares in Florida, when I last ran my 1960 Jones hydroplane and Dayton, Ohio, was the location of the first run for the boat in “Hydro Country” and so I happily connected her up to our Dodge Ram, threw tools, gas cans and sundry articles of clothing into the back of the truck and drove the 1200 miles up there, stopping off to see an old friend I hadn’t seen in twenty-five years in Kentucky on the way, but that’s another story!

On arriving at the lake, the first thing I noticed was that there were no docks, so once the crane had lowered the boat in the water, us drivers had to wade out to thigh depth, in order to hoist ourselves into the cockpit. This resulted in driving in soggy boots, something that doesn’t feel right so, after the first run, I just left shoes out of the equation and drove in bare feet.

There was a good turnout of hydros, both new and old, in the paddock, belying the current recession/depression, and I’ve included some photos for you to see. My friend Kevin Klosterman had his GNH class hydro there, with a new 454 cubic inch Chevy and, despite teething problems (the crew were working on it all weekend), it came to life on the very last run of the weekend and roared around in very impressive fashion, thus losing money for all the regulars who’d said: “He’ll never get it going”!

Kevin has just sold his F333 “Aqua Flyer” (the sister boat to mine) to a very nice Texan, who lives in the Czech Republic. He plans on flying over from Europe to race the boat and loved his first runs in it. I don’t suppose it’s any coincidence that he races a 1969 Corvette, and so took to the Hydroplane like the proverbial duck to water.

I personally had a great time, am loving driving the hydro now although cornering seems to require a brutal technique to horse it around.

Not much else to tell – drove back 1170 miles in 15 hours on the Monday and I am now back at my desk writing this.