Tweet
Hello from New Brunswick Canada,
When I was a child some years ago my father stopped on a highway bridge in Cocagne to watch some real fast boats go in circles. The year after he brought me and my older brother at the time to spend the day there and watch the madness. It’s a really early and spotty memory for me, but I remember him telling me that some local guys used to race as well.
Fast forward a few years to middle school and I started hanging out with a really good group of guys who I’m fortunate to be friends with to this day. One of whom had the last name Carruthers. As the years went by you would occasionally hear a story about hydros, and my friend would tell me about going up to Valleyfield every summer to watch the gp boats run.
Fast forward ten more years, same good friends and now one is getting married. What better bachelor party than to pack up and go watch the hydros in Quebec.
Once there I found pits filled with blown alcohol big blocks, zoomiez and vintage boats running mechical fuel injection that I had only ever seen in magazines or on the web. This was so engaging as someone who’s Interests had varied from turbocharging cars, to snowmobiles, motorcycles , drag racing and all kinds of other weird motorized stuff.
Fast forward to this past spring. When “Carruthers” on this site offered to sell me a y80 with a spun crank bearing. Having looked through the manual I thought this doesn’t look to complicated. This combined with not having worked on a 2 stroke made it an easy decision. If I had been smarter I would have realized that once you have a motor you pretty much need to start shopping for boats.
Over the course of the summer I have been able to try a few Carruthers built hydroplanes, with Yamato 80 and 302 power. The first time in a boat I was hooked, such a unique driving experience.
Now join me in the present as I was part of a gathering of boats last week near Rexton NB. Perhaps some of the elder statesmen of this site may remember racing there in the 1980s.
After a great day on the water with half a dozen hydros in attendance and a few runabouts I was taken out behind “the shop” and shown a boat. It looked as though it had been stores outside for a decade and sadly it was.
Fortunately removal of some of the decking showed that internally it was in decent shape. The resident experts informed me it was a Bezoats and that when built it was a top of the line machine. Unfortunately for me while I’m a passable welder my experience with woodwork is non existent. But a deal was stuck hands were not shaken, libations may have been had and the next morning we picked up the boat with a trailer. Tag along as we keep digging and find out if this boat is really worth saving.
When I was a child some years ago my father stopped on a highway bridge in Cocagne to watch some real fast boats go in circles. The year after he brought me and my older brother at the time to spend the day there and watch the madness. It’s a really early and spotty memory for me, but I remember him telling me that some local guys used to race as well.
Fast forward a few years to middle school and I started hanging out with a really good group of guys who I’m fortunate to be friends with to this day. One of whom had the last name Carruthers. As the years went by you would occasionally hear a story about hydros, and my friend would tell me about going up to Valleyfield every summer to watch the gp boats run.
Fast forward ten more years, same good friends and now one is getting married. What better bachelor party than to pack up and go watch the hydros in Quebec.
Once there I found pits filled with blown alcohol big blocks, zoomiez and vintage boats running mechical fuel injection that I had only ever seen in magazines or on the web. This was so engaging as someone who’s Interests had varied from turbocharging cars, to snowmobiles, motorcycles , drag racing and all kinds of other weird motorized stuff.
Fast forward to this past spring. When “Carruthers” on this site offered to sell me a y80 with a spun crank bearing. Having looked through the manual I thought this doesn’t look to complicated. This combined with not having worked on a 2 stroke made it an easy decision. If I had been smarter I would have realized that once you have a motor you pretty much need to start shopping for boats.
Over the course of the summer I have been able to try a few Carruthers built hydroplanes, with Yamato 80 and 302 power. The first time in a boat I was hooked, such a unique driving experience.
Now join me in the present as I was part of a gathering of boats last week near Rexton NB. Perhaps some of the elder statesmen of this site may remember racing there in the 1980s.
After a great day on the water with half a dozen hydros in attendance and a few runabouts I was taken out behind “the shop” and shown a boat. It looked as though it had been stores outside for a decade and sadly it was.
Fortunately removal of some of the decking showed that internally it was in decent shape. The resident experts informed me it was a Bezoats and that when built it was a top of the line machine. Unfortunately for me while I’m a passable welder my experience with woodwork is non existent. But a deal was stuck hands were not shaken, libations may have been had and the next morning we picked up the boat with a trailer. Tag along as we keep digging and find out if this boat is really worth saving.
Comment