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A wonderful thing happened this week at Williamsport, PA. One of those special father-son moments. My 14 year old son and I arrived late afternoon on Thursday and as we’re setting up camp he says, “I think you should let me take your boat out”. He’s never been in any race boat, only watched races from the shore.
Although he’s asked before, it’s always been on a sanctioned race day and this wouldn’t be legal because he’s not a registered driver and he’s not old enough to race my class. But this wasn’t a race day.
So we get everything ready, I put the restrictor plate on the Yamato 302, he gets suited up, and I give him the basics including telling him “DO NOT open it up all the way”.
Including a pit stop for refueling he did about 20 laps on the Susquehanna River. I could hear the engine revving a little more with each lap.
When he finally saw me waving him in and when he stopped the engine someone asked him, “Was it everything you expected?”
“Better”, he said. That was music to my ears.
Now he gets it. Now my son understands why I talk about boat racing the way I do. Now he understands why I came back to a sport I thought I had left behind for good in 1976. And now he understands why since last summer I’ve poured so much time and money into a hobby unlike anything he’s ever seen me do before.
By Saturday afternoon we had purchased his first race boat, a good “starter’” boat.
Special thanks to Harry Danforth for bringing the hydro back to Maryland because I wasn’t prepared to haul a second boat!
And if all goes as planned, Austin’s debut in AXSH will be at Lock Haven, PA Labor Day weekend. And I’ll be there smiling, camera in hand.
Although he’s asked before, it’s always been on a sanctioned race day and this wouldn’t be legal because he’s not a registered driver and he’s not old enough to race my class. But this wasn’t a race day.
So we get everything ready, I put the restrictor plate on the Yamato 302, he gets suited up, and I give him the basics including telling him “DO NOT open it up all the way”.
Including a pit stop for refueling he did about 20 laps on the Susquehanna River. I could hear the engine revving a little more with each lap.
When he finally saw me waving him in and when he stopped the engine someone asked him, “Was it everything you expected?”
“Better”, he said. That was music to my ears.
Now he gets it. Now my son understands why I talk about boat racing the way I do. Now he understands why I came back to a sport I thought I had left behind for good in 1976. And now he understands why since last summer I’ve poured so much time and money into a hobby unlike anything he’s ever seen me do before.
By Saturday afternoon we had purchased his first race boat, a good “starter’” boat.
Special thanks to Harry Danforth for bringing the hydro back to Maryland because I wasn’t prepared to haul a second boat!
And if all goes as planned, Austin’s debut in AXSH will be at Lock Haven, PA Labor Day weekend. And I’ll be there smiling, camera in hand.
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