Classic Australian Wooden Power Boat Association

Over the weekend I was down at the historic car raceas at Phillip Island and was shown a very unusual photograph of an early to mid 1960"s hydroplane.

Now this is where the thing gets strange.

The photograph showed a hydroplane with a mid mounted Prince Skyline engine fitted to the boat. The driver was seated in the bow of the boat with the engine fitted fairly high up right behind him/her (PC). I will try to get a copy of the photo and organise to get it posted on the BB.
Would anyone know
1. who it was that raced this boat
2. is it still around and
3 where it might possibly be hiding?

I have in the shed a Prince Skyline GT race car. That is another story

The Prince engine is a 2000cc, 6 cylinder OHC engine, 9.8:1 comp ratio 4 main bearing crank and came fitted with 3 x 40mm DCOE weber carbys from the factory. They produced 127 HP in 1964 so were a fairly healthy engine in their time

Any leads or info woul;d be appreciated
cheers
peter

Hey Peter,

Can you be sure the photo was from the early to mid 60's? From your description, it sounds like a front seater which were probably more common a bit further down the line.
Could you make out a name on the boat?
It's a long shot but one of John Massons boats fits your description regarding the running gear.
Check out his website http://www.johnnyspages.com/speedboats.htm and scroll down to his story on Miss Cindy.

John is a member on the forum and might be able to comment if he see's the thread

Definately try and post the photo up if you can

Cheers

I have just recieved the photos and some more details and it was called Miss Cindy and was in South Australia
I will post what I have recieved late

many thanks for the lead
peter sneddon

piquet95971 wrote:The photograph showed a hydroplane with a mid mounted Prince Skyline engine fitted to the boat. The driver was seated in the bow of the boat with the engine fitted fairly high up right behind him/her (PC). I will try to get a copy of the photo and organise to get it posted on the BB.
Would anyone know

1. who it was that raced this boat
2. is it still around and
3 where it might possibly be hiding?

Any leads or info would be appreciated
cheers
peter

Hello Peter,

First you wrote, "The driver was seated in the bow of the boat with the engine fitted fairly high up right behind him" Here is pic of Miss Cindy before I bought her and I dare say the pic you saw would look bit like this one. I can see why you thought motor was mounted fairly high as the covering made it look big is optical illusion. Had to smile a little at "The driver was seated in the bow of the boat" this is called a CAB OVER hydroplane when seated in front of the engine. I only ever sat on the bow with feet in water to guide the hydro onto the sunken trailer.


Well Miss Cindy was built around late 1960's by Jack Newcoombe of Goolwa. He built 2 CABOVER hulls the same the other one was Tanna. Both Piranna hydroplane hulls I was told. I've driven both hulls and Miss Cindy was the better one at cornering. Jack raced her successfully with the Goolwa Aquatic Club till 1974. I then bought her and the boring story of the rebuild and successes are on my website under "Speedboats"
When I took up 25 HP wingboat racing, Miss Cindy was sold back to Jack Newcoombe of Goolwa for his son who raced it for couple of years. It was then sold to a fellow at present cannot remember his name (old timer's disease ) and he raced it awhile with Goolwa Aquatic Club. I dropped out of racing in mid 1980's , but I did see Miss Cindy being raced in the Valley Lake here in Mt Gambier one weekend all new sign writing. Last I heard of Miss Cindy was that the engine finally dropped a valve big time and apparently stuffed the engine and the Hydro dropped out of sight. I dare say anyone who is involved with the Goolwa Aquatic Club could enlighten you on that one.

Here is pics I took when I last saw and heard of Miss Cindy.

Funny, I was bit disappointed seeing the tail section had been cut off. Was told when Jack's lad was racing her he forgot to clip up the 4 clips of the tail section after refueling and that the wind caught the tail in a corner and pulled it off resulting in the top of tail being damaged. Of course the easy way was CUT the damaged bit off as you can see in picture it was obviously left that way. Oh dear thankfully I not owned it then.

Well hope this sufficient info, and be nice if you can put that picture of her up here.

Regards,

I am sure that i have seen the boat racing at the Adelaide boat club about 5 years ago and it had that motor in it then. Then the next time a saw it it had a V8 stuffed in it.

In the pic that you have posted there is a skiff in parked next to the hydro the boat was called Aqua- Holic i have the boat do you have any more pics of it buy chance.
Paul

I am not sure how to post the pictures that I have so I forwarded them on to Greg and asked him to post them for me
cheers
peter

Paul SA wrote:I am sure that i have seen the boat racing at the Adelaide boat club about 5 years ago and it had that motor in it then. Then the next time a saw it it had a V8 stuffed in it.

In the pic that you have posted there is a skiff in parked next to the hydro the boat was called Aqua- Holic i have the boat do you have any more pics of it buy chance.
Paul

Paul,

WOW, Miss Cindy with a V8 in her, I'd sure like to see a close pic of that.
Maybe that is why Miss Cindy dropped out of sight.

As to Alco-Holic I have a few pics of her. Here below is a good one taken in the Valley Lake in November 1983.
If you'd like the rest of the pics, use the "email me" on my website's home page and I'll scan them and forward them all to you.

piquet95971 wrote:I am not sure how to post the pictures that I have so I forwarded them on to Greg and asked him to post them for me.
cheers
peter

Peter,
When I did my pics in my first posting I used my website, as was not fully aware that the Forum had a picture uploading feature which I have now used for Paul's pic.

Go into the "Main Room" forum
You will see right at top of the postings "UPLOADING PICTURES"
Print it out is bit easier to follow for first try.
Just scan your pic at 800x if going to use the forum feature to upload your pic(s)
Give that go it was pretty easy.

Regards,

John
I own a boat called "Viteau" which was made in Mount Gambier 1965 by Peter Gardiner in his back shed. It's a Len Hedges designed bond wood 16ft twin cockpit. Miss Cindy and Rebound would have been around lake Leake and the Valley lake when my boat was in it's younger days. It has had several onwers over the years and a name change to "Jeffs Joy" in memory of one of the owners who died in a car accident. I bought it from a work collegue for a carton of Strongbow in 2006 and then had it restored in Adelaide. It was finally back in on the water in July 2008 and went for a cruise on the valley lake with Peter before towing it back to NSW where like most boats sits in storage and admired.
Cheers Chris

Chris,

You bought it for a carton of Strongbow, that be the cheapest bought boat I know off. Couldn't do better than that.
Sure your work collegue had not drank some of the Strongbow before the deal.

Seeing "Viteau" was built in 1965 that was some 6 years before I came on the racing scene in 1971 and I cannot actually remember that boat racing, but it sort of rings a bell somewhere but maybe not in the Mount in my time. "Jeffs Joy" not heard of that name either, but there was a "Joe's Joy" of the late 70's early 80's. "Rebound" driven by Edgar MacDonald (the fearless one who would blow you away just watching him ) would certainly have been around then, but Miss Cindy would have only been at Lake Leake from Goolwa on the club's Big Major Days (usually around February) as Jack Newcoombe would have been driving Miss Cindy then. Next time I run into one of the real oldy race members before the 70's, I'll try to remember to query something about that boat out of curiosity.

Regards,

Aqua-Holic was original a Rebound hull Owned by Edger and then it went buy the name of Skippy and then to Aqua-Holic and then to the Gods
Paul