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Boat racing spans three generations — Robb family brings boat racing back to county with first-ever races at Bishop Lake
By Tim Robinson
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS
HAMBURG TWP. — Jimmy Robb skips across the surface of Appleton Lake as his engine whines at top power, preparing his hydroplane for racing, as his father and grandfather before him.
His boat, a B class modified hydroplane, is much smaller than the boats that race on the Detroit River every June.
The engine is 20 cubic inches, or 350 cc, about the size of a small motorcycle engine and carries him over the water at upwards of 70 mph. The boat, a combination of carbon fiber and wood, weighs about 100 pounds and fits easily into a trailer that has room for it and two other boats, plus nearly two dozen propellers built to specifications based on various lake conditions.
"You ride on your knees," says his father, Jim Robb of Howell. "The boat doesn't touch the water as you go around the corners if it's set up correct. (Jimmy has) a GPS on his back and we'll find out exactly how fast he went today and change our setup accordingly. (The GPS) is a handheld thing that will give me max speed. It's on his back. While he's driving, he has no idea how fast he's going except by feel. It feels good or it doesn't feel good."
After a first three-lap run, Jimmy's boat, which he got for a graduation gift last year, is running at a top speed of 66 miles per hour. Later, after some adjustments, it hits 72 mph.
At that point, the Robbs are done for the day.
After a long hiatus, boat racing returns to Livingston County next month, when the Indiana Outboard Association will hold races at Bishop Lake Sept. 22-24.
"It's the first race ever at Bishop Lake," said Jim Robb, president of the IOA. "I can't get over this facility. The pits, the park, everything."
Robb said about six months of planning went into getting everything in line to hold the race, the first in the county, he says, in about a dozen years.
"There were some stock outboards on Thompson Lake 12-13 years ago," he said. "But nothing since then. My dad (Jim Sr., a Howell native who raced until about a decade ago before retiring) grew up racing boats around Howell."
The boats are set up for speed, not comfort. Jimmy Robb hops into the boat wearing a Kevlar vest and overalls, designed to protect the driver in case he is thrown into the water and is hit by a propeller from another boat.
He's fallen out a few times, but not often. Mostly, he has other things on his mind, like winning. He does that fairly often.
"I really don't think all that much out there," he says. "It's just me and the water and the 11 other boats out there. I'm just trying to get to that first turn first and ahead of everyone. I guess it's just racing is my drug. Every time I come to a race I'm all geeked. I can't sleep the night before. Always tired, but when I get out
there I wake right up."
Jimmy has been racing since he was 12, a relative latecomer to the sport. He played lacrosse at Howell, and football. "For one day," he said of his football career. "It just wasn't my thing."
Neither was racing boats, at first. At nine, when his dad started racing, Jimmy wasn't interested.
"It didn't come to me right away," he said. "We'd watch NASCAR races (on TV) and it would bore me
right away. It finally came to me. When I got my first boat ride by myself, that's what really got me. I thought it was really cool."
Jim Robb Jr. raced for years with a boat called "Mean Red." Jimmy's previous boat was repainted red and named "Mean Red Jr." His current boat is black, because he got it that way and it will stay that way until it needs to be repainted. Then it, too, will be come a Mean Red.
Jimmy Robb works on the Comcast Cable TV crew that tapes high school football games and also attends Specs Howard School of Broadcasting in Southfield, where he is studying to become a video editor. One of his projects, on racing, got him an A-minus as a grade.
The thrill, he says, is A-plus.
"The closest thing (to hydroplane racing) is when you're taking off in an airplane and the wheels are still on the ground, that right-before feeling," Jimmy said. "That's what it feels like that whole time. The boat is just hanging like this."
The idea is to go as fast as you can both on the straightaways and around the turns. Touching the water, called "scrubbing," robs the boat of speed. The less scrubbing, the faster you go.
"It rides on a cushion of air, Jim Robb says. "That's what a hydroplane does. What you want to do is keep it on that cushion on the turns. Every time it comes down it's scrub, scrub, scrub, and you're losing speed, every single time. There's nothing like it. Snowmobiles are fun and motorcycles are fun, but there's nothing like a hydroplane. It's just awesome."
Jim Robb Sr. started racing on Lake Chemung in the late 1950s, then moved to Waterford after getting married in the mid-1960s. He raced on the national circuit and did well at times, but just missed winning a national title.
"He could never put two good runs together," Jim Robb Jr. says. "Something would always happen."
Jimmy, however, loves to hear the stories, including the times Jim Sr. and his fellow racers would run afoul of hotel management the times they decided to test their engines in the hotel's indoor pool.
If the idea of high-RPM motors operating in a pool was scary enough, the noise certainly alerted everyone in the hotel.
The Robbs usually duck over to Appleton Lake for some quick testing, a few laps at most, before going home to work on whatever needs to be done.
They spend much of the summer driving to IOA events throughout the Midwest and will compete in Hillsdale before the Bishop Lake event.
"It's a family oriented sport," Jim Robb said. "We come into the pits with something broken, and five other teams will come down and say, 'What do you need? We'll get it,' and they run to their trailers. They'd rather beat you on the race course, even guys in fierce competition with, they'd rather see you on the water, even if you beat them. They'd much rather see that than see you miss a heat. Same thing when you crash, when it does happen. They come out and get it turned over, get it right, the motor dried out, so maybe he can make the second heat."
Robb said about 100 entries, involving about 70 boats (some in multiple classes), are expected to participate in September's races, which will be open to the public.
"It's a lot easier to get permission to use the park in late September," he said. "And the weather is still pretty good that time of year."
By Tim Robinson
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS
HAMBURG TWP. — Jimmy Robb skips across the surface of Appleton Lake as his engine whines at top power, preparing his hydroplane for racing, as his father and grandfather before him.
His boat, a B class modified hydroplane, is much smaller than the boats that race on the Detroit River every June.
The engine is 20 cubic inches, or 350 cc, about the size of a small motorcycle engine and carries him over the water at upwards of 70 mph. The boat, a combination of carbon fiber and wood, weighs about 100 pounds and fits easily into a trailer that has room for it and two other boats, plus nearly two dozen propellers built to specifications based on various lake conditions.
"You ride on your knees," says his father, Jim Robb of Howell. "The boat doesn't touch the water as you go around the corners if it's set up correct. (Jimmy has) a GPS on his back and we'll find out exactly how fast he went today and change our setup accordingly. (The GPS) is a handheld thing that will give me max speed. It's on his back. While he's driving, he has no idea how fast he's going except by feel. It feels good or it doesn't feel good."
After a first three-lap run, Jimmy's boat, which he got for a graduation gift last year, is running at a top speed of 66 miles per hour. Later, after some adjustments, it hits 72 mph.
At that point, the Robbs are done for the day.
After a long hiatus, boat racing returns to Livingston County next month, when the Indiana Outboard Association will hold races at Bishop Lake Sept. 22-24.
"It's the first race ever at Bishop Lake," said Jim Robb, president of the IOA. "I can't get over this facility. The pits, the park, everything."
Robb said about six months of planning went into getting everything in line to hold the race, the first in the county, he says, in about a dozen years.
"There were some stock outboards on Thompson Lake 12-13 years ago," he said. "But nothing since then. My dad (Jim Sr., a Howell native who raced until about a decade ago before retiring) grew up racing boats around Howell."
The boats are set up for speed, not comfort. Jimmy Robb hops into the boat wearing a Kevlar vest and overalls, designed to protect the driver in case he is thrown into the water and is hit by a propeller from another boat.
He's fallen out a few times, but not often. Mostly, he has other things on his mind, like winning. He does that fairly often.
"I really don't think all that much out there," he says. "It's just me and the water and the 11 other boats out there. I'm just trying to get to that first turn first and ahead of everyone. I guess it's just racing is my drug. Every time I come to a race I'm all geeked. I can't sleep the night before. Always tired, but when I get out
there I wake right up."
Jimmy has been racing since he was 12, a relative latecomer to the sport. He played lacrosse at Howell, and football. "For one day," he said of his football career. "It just wasn't my thing."
Neither was racing boats, at first. At nine, when his dad started racing, Jimmy wasn't interested.
"It didn't come to me right away," he said. "We'd watch NASCAR races (on TV) and it would bore me
right away. It finally came to me. When I got my first boat ride by myself, that's what really got me. I thought it was really cool."
Jim Robb Jr. raced for years with a boat called "Mean Red." Jimmy's previous boat was repainted red and named "Mean Red Jr." His current boat is black, because he got it that way and it will stay that way until it needs to be repainted. Then it, too, will be come a Mean Red.
Jimmy Robb works on the Comcast Cable TV crew that tapes high school football games and also attends Specs Howard School of Broadcasting in Southfield, where he is studying to become a video editor. One of his projects, on racing, got him an A-minus as a grade.
The thrill, he says, is A-plus.
"The closest thing (to hydroplane racing) is when you're taking off in an airplane and the wheels are still on the ground, that right-before feeling," Jimmy said. "That's what it feels like that whole time. The boat is just hanging like this."
The idea is to go as fast as you can both on the straightaways and around the turns. Touching the water, called "scrubbing," robs the boat of speed. The less scrubbing, the faster you go.
"It rides on a cushion of air, Jim Robb says. "That's what a hydroplane does. What you want to do is keep it on that cushion on the turns. Every time it comes down it's scrub, scrub, scrub, and you're losing speed, every single time. There's nothing like it. Snowmobiles are fun and motorcycles are fun, but there's nothing like a hydroplane. It's just awesome."
Jim Robb Sr. started racing on Lake Chemung in the late 1950s, then moved to Waterford after getting married in the mid-1960s. He raced on the national circuit and did well at times, but just missed winning a national title.
"He could never put two good runs together," Jim Robb Jr. says. "Something would always happen."
Jimmy, however, loves to hear the stories, including the times Jim Sr. and his fellow racers would run afoul of hotel management the times they decided to test their engines in the hotel's indoor pool.
If the idea of high-RPM motors operating in a pool was scary enough, the noise certainly alerted everyone in the hotel.
The Robbs usually duck over to Appleton Lake for some quick testing, a few laps at most, before going home to work on whatever needs to be done.
They spend much of the summer driving to IOA events throughout the Midwest and will compete in Hillsdale before the Bishop Lake event.
"It's a family oriented sport," Jim Robb said. "We come into the pits with something broken, and five other teams will come down and say, 'What do you need? We'll get it,' and they run to their trailers. They'd rather beat you on the race course, even guys in fierce competition with, they'd rather see you on the water, even if you beat them. They'd much rather see that than see you miss a heat. Same thing when you crash, when it does happen. They come out and get it turned over, get it right, the motor dried out, so maybe he can make the second heat."
Robb said about 100 entries, involving about 70 boats (some in multiple classes), are expected to participate in September's races, which will be open to the public.
"It's a lot easier to get permission to use the park in late September," he said. "And the weather is still pretty good that time of year."