NEW SPEEDBOAT RECORDS SET

Press, Volume C, Issue 29503, 3 May 1961, Page 13

NEW SPEEDBOAT RECORDS SET

•THE New Brighton Power Boat Club ended its 1960-61 season on a very bright note with the establishment of two New Zealand speed records by club members at its flying kilometre time trials.

An outstanding performance was put up by R. Prattley, of Ashburton, in his tiny B class outboard hydroplane. before it overturned at speed while attempting even greater results. On his first two runs over the measured distance he was timed at 82.65 miles an hour —5.66 miles an hour faster than the New Zealand record for the class held by J. Maitland. of Hokitika.

Prattley's craft, “Downbeat” which has a displacement of less than 20 cu. in., is powered by a potent Ger-man-made Konig outboard. The boat was perfectly prepared, never missing a beat

on its record-breaking run and was a credit to its owner. The breaking of the New Zealand B class record by such a substantial margin was a magnificent effort, but even more surprising was that Prattley's speed was greater than the New Zealand record of 82.05 miles an hour for the more powerful C class outboard hydroplanes. Unfortunately he will be unable to claim this as a record because he did not break it by the required margin of 1 per cent. Later to the day, Prattley made another attempt on the record, but was very lucky to escape injury when the craft- lifted off the water and flipped over on its back while travelling at an estimated 70 miles an hour. Had he been able to complete his two-way run there is little doubt that the record would again have risen py four or five miles an hour.

On the same day, R. Calvert succeeded in increasing the existing New Zealand record for 75 cu. in. V-bottom by three miles an hour in "Susie Too.” The new record now stands at 53.26 miles an hour, compared with the old record of 50.26 miles an hour, set by Calvert to the same boat three months ago.

Calvert’s effort was a particularly fine one. especially when it is considered that “Susie Too" is the first boat that he has ever owned. It is of tiie much favoured Grey Nurse design and was built in Christchurch by a member of the club, J. Sager, about three years ago.

The power plant for the craft is a very “hot” Ford 100 E, 10 horsepower motor. Normally a side valve engine, it has been equipped with a Shepherd overhead valve conversion, and develops much greater power than the

production model. At top speed it turns over at about 6500 revolutions a minute. Calvert has done a tremendous amount of work on the boat in the last two years and thoroughly deserves his success.

Another New Zealand record may fall to a member of the club before very much longer. With his Konig outboard motor not running quite as fast as expected, J. W. Keig, of Ashburton, only just missed taking the C class record for outboard hydroplanes. He was timed at 61.4 miles an hour—.6s miles an hour slower than the New Zealand record.

His boat has only just been overhauled and should produce greater power after it has been run for a period. His boat, which is slightly larger than Prattley’s, is less than 30 cu. in. and is in excellent condition.