Any info on 25Y hydro?

[Lsrhokie]

Hi Everyone,

I recently picked up a hydro and I've been curious about it's history. Thanks to some lucky info from Steve R, finally figured out it was one of Ron Whittaker's old boats.



The best i was told was that it was raced in the 80's, won some races, etc. Mainly curious what classes it was in, how it faired, etc. Overall still in pretty decent condition with only a few things that need to be refreshed. Haven't had it in the water yet- hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll be able to take it out for some creek testing. If all fairs well, I'll probably take it to the local vintage regatta in southern MD (Leonardtown) at the end of October. Looking forward to having some fun with it.

Blake

[runabout333]

Ron and his son raced A & B hydro with Hot Rods. Also AOF-B-1 and APBA 25 mod with Mercurys and I heard they switched to the OMC engine.

[Lsrhokie]

Thanks! great stuff!

[ZUL8TR]

Looks in great shape for the years. That was back in time when pointy pickles were allowed. With that low cut transom it ran with really short tower engines like in mod. Don't know what engines you have but if you want to use different engines like a Yamato 80, 102 ,302 you will need to build it up so it is a lot higher from transom top back to the rear bottom. More info available if you go this route.

[Lsrhokie]

Thanks for that. There was actually a riser on the top portion of the transom that I knocked off, but it will be going back on. All the hardware and some aluminum plates holding it on were coroded/rusted out and it was fairly loose. I'm filling in all the old holes with epoxy and reattaching the riser block to fit a 15" motor. I have a mark 20/ H tower and a/b quickie lower that will go on it for now. Might try a merc 250 with 20h tower but it might be a bit too much for this.

Here's a better picture of how the transom was setup before i removed all the aluminum and bolts:

[runabout333]

Knowing from experience,,, the transom was not cut down by Ron or Ricky. They ran long tower Hot Rods and their Mercs. When they acquired the
OMC's from Bob Viola,, they would have been on long Bayer towers.

[ZUL8TR]

That answers my inquiry. To run a 20H with the A/B quicky the transom height needs to be at least 16-1/4" measuring vertical from outer top transom edge to the bottom rear edge to get good performance from the props. I use a roofers square but a straight edge placed on the bottom sticking out to measure down to works. Once the engine is mounted and the prop shaft is adjusted level (with that kick out) to the bottom to start shoot for the center of the rear of the prop shaft to be about 1/2" below the bottom, adjusted with shims.

Do you have the adjustment part for that kick out bolted to the transom?

You should be ok with the 250 on the 20H tower.

Once on the water the engine height and prop shaft angle can be fine tuned. I find level prop shaft best for my hydros, others can be different!

Do you have props, what diameter, number of blades and average pitch?

What is the length of the boat from the bottom rear to the middle peak of the front deck, not including the sponson tips?

Do you know the weight as it sits in the first pic?

[Lsrhokie]

Let me see if i can answer it all

No, I dont have the adjuster/bracket for the kick out. Find/ build one of those is on my to-do. Worst case ill just get another setup from Brown tool

Yup i have a hand full of 2 blade props. Should be between 5-1/2" at about a 7p and 6-3/4" and 12p. I have one 4 blade- I think that is a 6.5x12p. I'd have to go look and see what i wrote on them in sharpie.

As for weight and length- I'll have to go check those. I do remember the transom to sponson tip was about 9'9" with 33" bottom width. I imagine weight is in the low 100lb range. I'll see if i can hoist it up on the hanging scale.

[Mrs blueskyracer]

Blake, check your private messages please I have sent you one.

[champhotrod]

Tracy Graham's boat ???

[mark40h]

Need to ask Larry McAfee he is from mo. he will know who ran the number Y25 Ron Whittaker sounds right.

[Team B&H]

It is an older boat that I built.

[Lsrhokie]

Thanks for the info everyone. I was actually able to get a hold of Ron and he shared some good info about the boat. Posting here for a bit of reminiscing for you guys.

I bought the boat from Red Rousch at a race in Burlington WI. Red had rarely ran the boat. The boat was very fast and a load to handle depending which engine we ran on the boat. We ran mostly A Mod Hot Rod and won many races plus second twice at the APBA nations plus winning the AOF, NBRA national and several top 3 finishes in the AOF and NBRA. We ran A Hot Rod (15 cu/in), B Hot Rod (20 cu/in), B1 Mercury 25SS, OMC B1 (22 cu/in), A stock OMC, and even one time ran a 24XS to fill out the class so they could have the class. Placed 2nd but because of the weight of that engine and the tall tower it was a real load to drive. Never in a wreck and only over 1 time to avoid a collision. A real rocket with the B Hot Rod Modified by Tom Moulder in MN and the OMC 25 MOd. We went to the short towers later and it really improved the handling. We cut the transoms when we went to the short towers. When I had the boat it was always in the garage, never sat outside except at the races and travel. The 33” bottom really helped plus I spent a lot of time making sure the bottom was flat and not concave.

Seems like Ron did apparently cut down the transom. Glad I can finally put a builder to it. Thanks Sam.

Thanks for all the help,
Blake

[Lsrhokie]

My update to the post didnt seem to catch- Glad to see I can finally put a builder to the boat. Thanks for that, Sam.

[runabout333]

I stand corrected on the transom cut-down.. My apologies.
Had to be after I quit racing in 1994.