Stampede's our new Cup hope |
By
Ted Madden |
A
huge new hydroplane is taking shape in boat builder Dave Gill's Croydon
workshop.
It has a dual mission - to hold the Griffiths Cup for Victoria, and to
represent Australia on the big-time power boat circuit in the United States. Not only was the hull
nearing the end of its useful life: it was too short to take the full
thrust of the V-12 Rolls Royce Merlin aircraft engine. Called Turning Point. She didn't produce the revolutionary results hoped for. So, at the beginning of this season, the word went out that Stampede was finished, and Stan Jones had given the game away. Just before Christmas, I learned the best-kept secret in the sport. Far from giving the game away.
Jones had been planning and building a new hydroplane - a hull which,
based on the years of trial and error with the old Stampede - could take
the full thrust of a Rolls-Royce Merlin. The starting point for this design is the big American hydroplane, Myr’s Special. Unsinkable The hull is crammed with 200 one-gallon plastic cordial bottles, making the huge machine unsinkable. When I saw her, the Rolls Royce Merlin had been installed, and the deck was about to go on. The motor is positioned amidships; but unlike the old Stampede, which had a two-man cockpit up forward, the cockpit is behind the motor. The new Stampede is a one-man boat. Jones expects the big hydroplane to be ready for her first trials in a fortnight. This will give him two weeks to get the bugs out before the Griffiths Cup. But he expects no trouble with the motor – a going concern, with which he and his pit crew are thoroughly familiar. He’s confident that the detailed care and engineering know-how that had gone into the construction of the new boat will mean that little will have to be done by the way of pre-race adjustments. |
Madden,
T., 1972, ‘Stampede’s our new Cup hope,’ Sporting
Globe, Dec., 30, p., 14 |