Folks Of Interest Barney Navarro Hits The Beach

24 cylinder Allison….either 2 engines or somebody just counted sparkplugs…

 

Oh wow. I knew he was Thee Man but I never knew he did hydro planes, too. So cool!

 

I found some cool information on it. At one point it held the worlds water speed record.
https://thunderboats.ning.com/page/1956-u8-hawaii-kai-iii
https://www.boatingmag.com/go-fast-blast-from-past-hawaii-kai-iii/

 

Correct me if I’m wrong ( incorrect that is) but I believe that hydroplane is here in the PNW at the Hydroplane museum.

 

It's not at the museum. The original boat was sunk.

From the museums website:
"After the Gold Cup, Kaiser retired the Kai and later sold her to Joe Mascari, who raced her for two more years. In 1963 she was leased to George Simon and raced as the Miss U.S. V. In 1965 Kaiser bought the boat again and restored her to her original Kai paint scheme. When Kaiser died the crew gathered one last time at the Kaiser estate on Orcas Island. They decorated a number of small boats with tiki torches, Polynesian masks and grass skirts. They towed the Kai out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and gave her a traditional Polynesian funeral, burning the boat to the water line and sinking her."

https://thunderboats.ning.com/page/1956-u8-hawaii-kai-iii

Quite the timely post as the 75th Anniversary of Seafair in Seattle is this weekend. You haven't lived until you've hung out on the log boom for a Hydro race.

 

Couple pictures of the original.


I do wish there was a website as good as the Jalopy Journal/HAMB for Gold Cup boats.

 

Amen brother, used to watch my buddy an his Tahiti with the 454, fastest local boat on the river at the time! Miss those days and watching the water sking teams with 3 tiers of folks pulled down the river. Also used to have a "Anything that Floats" competition with homemade boats, crazy fun!

 

Allison did build a 24 Cylinder engine (see Ryan's link). It was apparently developed for a long range bomber. Not sure if it ever got to production.

I love vintage hydroplanes. I've been to a bunch of APBA races. All classes, all types. I had thought to get into the fray, but work and $ got in the way. Still love watching the vintage races and the lower class runabouts and hydros.

Thanks for posting the pic!

 

I grew up in Seattle, and since Dad had a boat we saw most of the races from the log boom.

But I remember being up at Orcas one summer and seeing the Kai. The Kaisers had it in a boat house, most of the time (and once went we went past when the doors were open) on a hoist above the water. I remember it leaving the dock, full of grocery bags, headed back to the estate. One of the memories that stuck for a 10 or 12 year old kid.

 

Proof that any hot rod, even a hot rod boat should be used as a grocery getter.