Vintage Race Boat Shop

  We maintain vintage wooden boats.

Compulsion

Part 3 - Rigging & Launching Ceremonies ???!!!

A new/replica Gentleman's Racer

Owner/Driver - Bob Mueller

Riding Mechanic - Donnie McLean

Crew Chief - Bill John

Next, the Chevy 383 stroker motor was pulled and hauled back to Larry's Auto Machine in Stonington, Connecticut to complete the detailing and to break the motor in on their dynamometer. These guys are good, and when the motor was run on the dyno, the motor was tuned for ultimate performance, the horsepower and torque were measured as adjustments were made, and a complete printout was produced for documentation. The first pulls with the Edelbrock carb produced strong results, but the switch to a larger Holley brought us up to our goal - 450 HP at 5,400 rpm's ???!!!

 

Click here for video of the 383 stroker motor on the dyno

Steve Rollins then installed the aft cockpit half/round and upholstery trim. Steve is very talented, has a shop just up the street, and does all the upholstery work in our shop. As the photos show, the aft aft cockpit trim work was very tedious, with many steps and layers, including half inch foam to provide a seamless, padded and trimmed cockpit edge.

Nice job Steve !!!

While we were building the varnish coats on the inside of the hatches, we made the aft cockpit seat bottom and back and the side panels, followed by applying several coats of burgundy paint to seal the plywood. Steve Rollins then returned for the final measurements, went back to his shop and completed all the upholstery work. His workmanship is impeccable, everything fit just right and notice that thick, well padded seat - very comfortable ???!!!

 

           

Fast forward to August 5th, time was running out to complete Compulsion in time for the Clayton Vintage Race Boat Regatta. So we pulled out all the stops, put in some very long days, and with the extra help of Jerome Holden on the lettering, Steve Rollins on the upholstery, and Jim Kondrat on the mechanicals, we finished everything except the deck chrome deck hardware, which was still at the chrome shop.

After a very long day/night at the shop, we had most of the running gear ready to go, and on August 9th we displayed Compulsion at our Alton Bay Boat Show.

After the Alton Bay Boat Show, we hauled Compulsion back to the shop for several more hours of thrashing, and then launched Compulsion later that evening. The 383 stroker motor fired right up, everything looked good, and with my trusty riding mechanic, Orlin Johnson by my side working the shifter cables with his bare hands, the shifter lever was not installed yet, we ran Compulsion until darkness shut us down. Then we limped across the street to our beloved Wolfetrap for a gala victory celebration, and consumed vast quantities of food and drink. Barbara Naramore and her crew were awesome ???!!!

Video clip - launching

Video clip - here we go

Video clip - first run

Video clip - this is great ???!!! 

We were very pleased with our Gentleman's Racer project, this boat ran and turned very well right out of the box. Many thanks to Pete Fish, Donnie McLean, and Jim Kondrat for their contributions.

 

The next day we installed the shifter cable, aft cockpit side upholstery, and changed the prop. The 3-blade 14x18 prop was a bit too much for the mighty mouse 383 stroker motor, so we made the change to a special order, Menkens 12½ x 16 high rake prop, to spin the motor up and to get more bow lift. As expected, the new Menkens prop worked extremely well, the motor spun to 5,000 rpm's and the additional bow lift was much better, pushing Compulsion a little over 60 MPH on our GPS. Will need to grind the aft bottom plane to add a little "rocker" to the bottom. This will reduce the "transom lift" at speeds over 60 MPH and will allow the boat to fly - on a reduced wetted surface. The bow angle is controlled by the cavitation plate assembly. Will be fun to experiment with props, but the boat seams to like the current Menkens high rake prop. We will see after we modify the bottom planning surface.

Video clip - Compulsion at speed 1

Video clip - Compulsion at speed 2 

We spent Monday and Tuesday mounting the special Gar Wood cutwater, stainless steel rub rails, the huge hatches, and preparing the boat to run hard at the Clayton vintage regatta. Will did not have the custom Gar Wood deck hardware back from the chrome shop yet, but the boat was made ready to run many hot laps at Clayton !!!

We left for Clayton on Wednesday morning, arriving in plenty of time for Marv Hart’s welcoming celebration at his adult day care center.

 

We also participated in Marv’s Driver/Rider Clinic on Thursday morning and ran hot laps all afternoon long, with Compulsion and Obsession running side by side, burning lots of fuel, gaining lots of "seat time" and having lots of fun. We then ran with the pack during the actual heats on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Compulsion ran very well and very safe, running in lane 2 most of the weekend, with heats of over 5 Gar Wood Speedsters !!!

 

Yup – we have been running hard at every Clayton vintage regatta since it all began in 1992, and we ran hard again at Clayton 2008 ???!!!

 Click here for lots of Clayton photos !!!!

Bill (I love this stuff!!!) John

Vintage Race Boat Shop

603-569-5824 (Shop Phone)

http://www.vintageraceboatshop.com

 

For you locals, please stop by our shop to check out our projects and join our Saturday Morning Gatherings.

 

And if you are interested in joining the fun, or just curious, here are some Websites with more information, to get you deeper involved !!!

 

Some related vintage race boat links:

 

The Vintage Hydroplanes

APBA - American Power Boat Association

Hydroplane & Race Boat Museum

APBA Vintage Race Boat Circuit

APBA Vintage Race Boat Circuit - lots of photos

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