Okay History info! what year and first R/C boat!

[Bill Gibson]

What year did you get your first R/C boat and what boat was it? Im getting old, nosey, and VERY nostalgic ! If you raced, what class did you race in and how did you do your first time out? BE HONEST NOW! lol!
Feel free to post any old pictures if you all have any!

 

[John Beardslee]

1969, scratch (own design) built 40 hydro, K&B 40 pylon engine with a Kool clamp. I don’t remember if I even finished a heat at the Mini Gold Cup. Radio was a Kraft 2 channel brick, what piece of ???? It spent more time in repair than in the boat.

 

[mr_fons]

I think it was 1981/82 Dumas Comp. 21.

 

[Rich Jones]

1988- Prather Lap Cat II. Put it together and painted it but didn’t know about the Cincinnati Model Boat Club and couldn’t find anywhere to run it so it sat on a shelf until 1994. Got heavy into hydros from there after joining the club and raced until 2000 or 2001. Then life got in the way for 20 years. Got back into boats last year with a Blazer Backlash.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

1982-A sport 20 Dumas Pay'N Pak w/Dumas hardware and an HB-20 engine. When completed, it was overweight (over 8 pounds) and underpowered. Ended up wrecking it in Blackfoot Idaho in 1986 due to radio issues. Still have the engine and radio as reminders of what not to do

I'd post a picture, or three, but I haven't figured out how to get a scanned picture to post

 

[Rich Jones]

1982-A sport 20 Dumas Pay'N Pak w/Dumas hardware and an HB-20 engine. When completed, it was overweight (over 8 pounds) and underpowered. Ended up wrecking it in Blackfoot Idaho in 1986 due to radio issues. Still have the engine and radio as reminders of what not to do

I'd post a picture, or three, but I haven't figured out how to get a scanned picture to post

I bet Dumas sold a ton of those little Pay n Paks.

 

[Al Hobbs]

1970ish. Steve Muck SK Daddle with a Merco 60. My radio was a 3 channel Heathkit, with Octura hardware and a JG prop. Ten miles per hour, tops.

 

[James Schmidt]

In 1978, For me it was a Dumas Deep v 10 fiberglass hull with OSMax .10 FSR.
My friends laughed at it when it went dead in the water and sank to the bottom of our pond. I did finely get it running good. But by then no one was watching. Lol.

 

[James Schmidt]

1970ish. Steve Muck SK Daddle with a Merco 60. My radio was a 3 channel Heathkit, with Octura hardware and a JG prop. Ten miles per hour, tops.

Al it had to be faster than that my Deep v 10 did all of 15 or 20

 

[Walt Barney]

1 st boat was a Dumas atlas Van Lines with a 40 airplane engine and a Airplane radio, I ran it on the lake ,
where we lived at that time in Angola, In. I thought it was the fastest boat going, then I saw and add in the paper about a boat race in Ft Wayne In. and meet Steve Ball and he showed just how fast my boat was, the engine blew up
and I was happy, so I could buy a better engine, a 45 marine and it did help with the speed but the boat was built tooooo heavy and it would not finish a race before it ran out of fuel this all started when my wife did not me racing
circle cars on a paved track with my brother and when he got knocked out after being broadsided it was
, me or that Damm car, so the car was sold, but my brother kept racing cars, and the next winter I had nothing to do so my wife bought the boat radio and engine , for me at Christmas that was about 1975 or 1976 or so, and I'm still racing and still love it, and thanks to Steve for all the guidance that I needed to at least finish a race.
Walt Barney

 

[Bill Gibson]

1969, scratch (own design) built 40 hydro, K&B 40 pylon engine with a Kool clamp. I don’t remember if I even finished a heat at the Mini Gold Cup. Radio was a Kraft 2 channel brick, what piece of ???? It spent more time in repair than in the boat.View attachment 303250

Wow John! You got about 9 or 10 years on me! I do remember the Kraft Brick systems! Thats a nice looking hydro! Isnt it amazing how far we've come from those great times??!!

1982-A sport 20 Dumas Pay'N Pak w/Dumas hardware and an HB-20 engine. When completed, it was overweight (over 8 pounds) and underpowered. Ended up wrecking it in Blackfoot Idaho in 1986 due to radio issues. Still have the engine and radio as reminders of what not to do

I'd post a picture, or three, but I haven't figured out how to get a scanned picture to post

HJ would love to see a pic of it if you figure out how to post!

I bet Dumas sold a ton of those little Pay n Paks.

I have several!

 

[Bill Gibson]

1 st boat was a Dumas atlas Van Lines with a 40 airplane engine and a Airplane radio, I ran it on the lake ,
where we lived at that time in Angola, In. I thought it was the fastest boat going, then I saw and add in the paper about a boat race in Ft Wayne In. and meet Steve Ball and he showed just how fast my boat was, the engine blew up
and I was happy, so I could buy a better engine, a 45 marine and it did help with the speed but the boat was built tooooo heavy and it would not finish a race before it ran out of fuel this all started when my wife did not me racing
circle cars on a paved track with my brother and when he got knocked out after being broadsided it was
, me or that Damm car, so the car was sold, but my brother kept racing cars, and the next winter I had nothing to do so my wife bought the boat radio and engine , for me at Christmas that was about 1975 or 1976 or so, and I'm still racing and still love it, and thanks to Steve for all the guidance that I needed to at least finish a race.
Walt Barney

Great story Walt! So i quess if your brother hadn't have gotten his bell rung, we wouldn't have those great fuel tanks you make!

 

[Tom Foley]

1980 - DragN Fly 40 - HB .61 . Larry Szybowski was kind of my mentor on Long Island . First race was with a 3D Ruff Stuff Mono with an OPS 65 in Hagerstown MD . Been hooked ever since !

 

[john v]

lap cat 2 with a red head pro, 1999. spent more time up side down than running. had to have a driver back then so i found a gorilla and that was my driver. any long time member of dist 11 remembers the gorilla boat. my buddy still has the hull with an amps 46 on it. runs about 35mph and that great amps sound

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Sorry Bill, I can upload, just can't upload the pictures themselves. I am able to open them with Adobe Acrobat Reader on my laptop so I'm hoping that will work in the forum as well. Just tried it, they open right up without going to any other programs. The picture is a newer build from 2011. It was patterned on the Dumas Pak but seriously modified. Needless to say, it was built much better than the original from 1982

 

[Daniel's Racing]

1974

 

[Randy Rapedius]

1989. Dumas Sport 40 with a K&B .45 running an exhaust throttle. I was fortunate enough to win my first ever race. I finished all heats in rough conditions. I was hooked.

 

[Gary Girvin]

Hi Guys, My first boat was a 3D Ruff Stuff in 1974. It had a Veco 19 and a Kraft radio. My first race was the Hennecy Cup 1974 in Indianapolis. I got 5th place. Thank you , Gary

 

[Bill Gibson]

1980 - DragN Fly 40 - HB .61 . Larry Szybowski was kind of my mentor on Long Island . First race was with a 3D Ruff Stuff Mono with an OPS 65 in Hagerstown MD . Been hooked ever since ! View attachment 303313

Did you build the boat Tom? It came out super! Hard to believe how long ago 1980 was.....! What radio did you use in it?

 

[John Capps]

1989