1988 Miller High Life Transom

[sport hydro]

I'm looking at the 88 miller high life pictures. I know this boat became the Circus Circus. That hull has extensions beyond the transom. I can't find any pictures of the high life transom and want to know if it also had the extensions or not.

 

[Greg Hahn]

Sport hydro,

They both had the extentions, actually the Circus became the Miller, when the Miller crashed they patched it up with the old Circus cowl and wing partial. I have a photo of the half and half boat. Looks like someone doctored the photo, the 88 Miller dressed in drag

I have a couple of Miller photos that show the extentions I'll post as soon as I can get them on. It also shows the rear shoes.

gh

 

[Mike McKnight]

Actually only one had canoe extensions. The 88 open cockpit was a flat transom with small little fairings under the vertical wings where they hung over the transom slightly. That is the original '84 Atlas MHR 8401. The other boat which started as the "Star Wars" Miller American MHR 8700 had the canoe extensions, actually it's an inset transom, in 1988 as the all pink Circus. The hulls were swapped between Seattle and San Diego and since they had a month between races they put a canopy on the Miller and it became the U-00 Circus. The Miller became the U-31 for the last two races in San Diego and Las Vegas. The U-00 Circus is the one that flipped and is in all the ESPN crash highlights. It had the flat transom with the small fairings still while the Miller retained the extensions. That 8401 hull remained flat until at the very least '94 Exide and maybe til it was retired as the U-9 in 1999. There are two structural distinctions between the hulls. The inset transom on the U-31 and the nose on the U-00. The U-00 is considerably longer and wider than the U-31 past the canard wing. They simply built over the existing nose of the original open cockpit. Both have rear shoes inside the airtrap as well.

The half and half boat you speak of is when Chip Hanauer won the Gold Cup with Miller wings on the Circus and cowl was missing an airscoop. The Miller was hit in an early heat with transom damage and had to scratch. The Circus had wing damage and cowl damage from previous crashed with Prevost in the seat. John Prevost gave up the seat of the Circus to Chip as he was originally driving the Miller. There were two reasons they did that. One Chip was trying to keep his consecutive Gold Cup streak alive and two Miller was the bigger sponsor Fran Muncey had and she was trying not to lose them. She ultimately did at the end of the season anyway.

I had posted pics of both on here some time ago but I think the galleries have changed and they aren't there anymore. Send me your email and I will send a few to you.

 

[Mike McKnight]

I pulled the ESPN footage of the U-31. I'm assuming that's the one you are talking about. I got a brief shot of the boat on the crane being lowered in next to the dock. It's blurry but you can make out the canoe extensions. It's not as deep an inset as the other boats but it is there. Check your email.

BTW David Newton has a really good shot of the U-31 Circus in 88 at the shop being worked on. There is a dead on shot showing good detail at http://newtonmarine.smugmug.com/gallery/95..._XAFqQ#61343657

 

[catxtreme]

Mike forgive me for being dumb but in Davids pics of the U-31 Miller ( Miller 0043- 0045)is that the cowling from the later ie. 89 Circus that is on that boat? With the proof across the pic it is difficult for me to tell but it appears to have the scoop moved further foward and an opening in the rear instead of being solid like the previous cowling was but still appears to have the shorter nose on it

As a side note I am glad this topic came up as I was about to start one very similar as I had been quite confused as to which configuration was which. The one thing I am still a little blurry on is why the 89-90 Circus is listed in the MHR as both the 8700 and 8401 designations. Thanks for the help

Jeff lee

 

[sport hydro]

Mike,

Thanks for the pic and the help. I just want the boat to look like the real one. I'll keep you updated n the progress. I am just now getting the frame pieces cutout and dry fitted.

 

[Mike McKnight]

Jeff your not dumb. 88 was a very confusing year for those boats. It took me a while to get the whole story. The 88 was smooth and no vent when it was all pink. Both the Miller and the Circus had rear vent with a vertical vane down the center for the last two races. In fact there was a weird bonnet that they had that attached over that vent that extended back almost to the back of the fairing where it meets the turbine tube. They built those to protect against salt water ingestion. There was also an airdam that they could control from the cockpit to close off the the airscoop while getting on plane. The U-00 (blue sided) Circus ran with that bonnet while testing but it was not on during the race when it flipped. The Miller which had a string of DNS's all day at San Diego did run, or try to, with it on which covered that vent. It ran with it off and won in Vegas which was the following race.

In 1989 both boats became Circus boats with identical paint jobs but they made the rear vent larger and put in a flat section all the way from the vent to the end of the fairing on the 8700 boat. You're right though the airscoop was pushed back farther off the back of the cockpit and it was shorter on the back end as well in 89. They also radiused the sponsons on that boat but not the older 8401 hull. It kept the same cowl from 88. On that boat the airscoop was up further and the back was longer with the same vent as in 88. It had the flat transom with small supports under the verts. There's good shot of that on the Miller 0032. It had the longer nose but the paint jobs were identical. In fact Chip won Seafair with that boat, which was known as the School Bus, because he broke the newer boat twice that year.

Trust me 88 was such a wierd year for those two boats. Lots of stuff changed. If you look as all of pics from the open cockpit Miller...the decals changed, mainly in size and some placement. It also was repainted after a fire and the paint patterns and striping changed slightly too. The HIGH LIFE lettering changed from one boat to the other too. Miller was frustrated with all of the problems all season and pulled the sponsorship at the end of the 88 season and Fran Muncey sold the team to Bill Bennett from Circus Hotels for the 89-90 seasons.

The 8401 was eventually sold to Jones racing and you see that same long nose on the 91 American Spirit and the '93 Circus backup hull.

Anytime you need help shoot me a PM or an email. If I don't have the answer right off the top of my head I'll find it for you.

 

[Bob Morton]

The Dumas kit I have ,the sponson are extened past the transom

Bob

 

[sport hydro]

Thanks everyone for the info. This will help alot in building the hull correctly. I have another issue that I may need to resolve. The plastic cowl halfs that come in the Dumas kit seem to be of poor quality. I am going to try to make them work but the alignment of the two halfs is not looking good and looks likey to need alot of filling and reshaping to get it looking correct. If I can't get it to work out without having it weigh alot from fillers, does anybody make a fiberglass cowl for this hull?

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Logan Unlimiteds has one, made of epoxy glass. It's of really good quality but is also spendy at $165 plus shipping. This is for the 8401 hull, which I think is what you are building