Life In The Fast Past Lane With Kent..O…HELL YA!
YIKES
We got some exciting vintage race shots from Kent O. Smith yesterday and thought it might get us all jacked up for the weekend. Hopefully everyone is able to go boating this weekend. Hell, I hope everyone is still capable of getting Jacked Up! Hey. Just say’n. Oh boy. Too personal? Let’s just move on to the races.. Okay.. It’s okay about your jack. Really. We will try again later to Jack you up. Unless your name is Jack, and well. Not that Jack.. Not to be confused with the art of these shots, which should not be confused with our Art. Who in no means is related in anyway to Jack. Ya know this is just getting nutso.. Unless your knick name is Nutso.. OH GOD.. Make it end. Hit it Kent!
Lets GO!
Life in the FAST Past Lane: Spring Thunder Regatta
Here are some images from the Spring Thunder Regatta at Lake Dora, held the weekend before the regular antique & vintage boat show (March 18-20) hosted by the Florida Vintage Raceboat Club and sanctioned by the American Power Boat Associate Vintage & Historic Division.
Enjoying some fresh air
With special thanks to Jeff “Nemo” Buckley, chairman of the APBA Vintage & Historic Division, I was able to be on a boat in the center of the race course, a one mile loop set up off the shores of Wooton Park.
While the smaller boats passed by at modest speeds, the larger hydros were doing in excess of 120 mph in the straightaways which made for challenging shooting conditions.
WOW
I keep trying to come up with funny captions. BUT! DANG! These are so cool.
Like frozen in time portraits
All amazing unique designs, Hey.. keep your eyes on the road? Wait, no not the road, the lane?
Close quarters
Thats just cool as hell. mmm a cool Miller
Dang
Hold on there!
In a million years I would not try this
Amazing shot Sir Kent
Have you noticed they are all racing in the same direction?
GO!
WAIT! Hey! There are a ton of boats all headed your way.
Someone brought there Mother in law with them.
OH HELL TO THE YA
Air and spray
cool design
WOW, more cool spray and raw power
If you’ve never been to one of these events, I highly recommend attending.
More info on these organizations:
APBA Vintage: https://www.apba.org/vintage-and-historic-special-event.html
Florida Vintage Raceboat Club: https://fvrc.club/
We got into town on the last day of this event. Was very cool to see and HEAR them out on the lake.
Great shots of a great variety of race boats. This event is on my bucket list. Thanks for sharing.
Just in case you haven’t heard, APBA will be at our Algonac 100 year birthday party in June with a local vintage hydroplane (White Lightning). See you there!
AWESOME shots!
We were there for some of the races. Kent O very graciously offered to get pictures of us being chased by the police boat if we wanted to take a run around the track between races. I thought it would make a GREAT WB story, but not worth the trouble.
I love it all. Some times we just sit at the launch ramp area to hear the rumble and roar of the many different boats and motors as the come in. Paul’s White Lightning is a beautifully restored race boat. He has displayed and ran it at our Presque Isle boat show also in the past. Coming up soon. June 18th 2022.
My neighbor is a active member in that race assn.. Goes to most events.. Knows all about that # 12 MILLER BEER WAGON… Great pics
I’m just blown away at how great these pictures are. Kent O “KAOS” you most definitely found your calling.
Thanks for being there and sharing all the great shots !!!
😎✌🏼
🙏❤️
KAOS overwhelms us repeatedly! Damn nice representation of FVRC’s Spring Thunder and what APBA Vintage & Historic is all about!
Those Raveau outboard hulls have got to be the most beautiful outboard design ever. And is that Teri Hoffman, Jean Hoffman‘s daughter, in A711, the Lauderbach hull? You go girl. Amazing shots Kent with race boats at speed and you’re in a rocking and rolling boat platform yourself, well done.
Great pictures Kent. Reminds me of when my son played with 3 point hydroplanes in High School. He never raced it , but he sure had a lot of fun with it.
Thank you all for the nice comments!
@FloydrTurbo, Teri sold that boat a few years ago to some really nice folks in WV.
@Troy, I’m sure we will get photos of the cops chasing you at some point, either in the Formula or the motor yacht 🙂
Kent O always takes great photos. Thanks for your dedication to the antique and vintage boat world. We’re lucky to have you.
Great photos. They brought to mind a boat that I raced when I was 12. As you might assume , my brother is Art -yes that Art. The shop classes at Algonac HS built these boats and raced them on Sundays. My cousin and mine were made by a local boatbuilder, thanks to our Grandfather, who owned the Molly-O. I am on the left, in the Baby Buzzer. We are in the North Channel of the St. Clair River, and you many recognize the water tower at the Chris Craft plant, in the background.
Photo was taken c.1950.
And my bro’s boat was named Baby Buzzer and our cousins was Hot Bonzo. We have always wondered where they went……..they just disappeared.
1960’s my family had a summer house on the Chesapeake bay in Southern MD. The neighbor, my age had a hydroplane. Essentially two 4×8 sheets of plywood with a 6” tall fence board stern and a 2×12 motor mount. A 9 hp mercury outboard with a broken fuel pump. It would go over 30 mph
Anything more than ripples would flood the cockpit. So it was confined to flat water. Cut bleach bottle on a string to bail. No skeg, so tremendous side sliding, had to lean inboard on the slid so it wouldn’t flip.
Used the fuel line bulb to keep the carburetor full.
If you squeezed too hard, the carburetor would overflow and the motor catch fire
Run into shallow water, jump overboard, hell with the sea nettles, splash water under the cowling to put fire out, jump aboard, rub sand on nettle burns on legs, squeeze fuel bulb, start motor again and go. Boy was it fun!!!
I forgot to include, no helmets not life preserver ahh freedom of the 1960’s amazing I made it to my 60’s