By Harry Gatjens

Our local unlimited hydroplane, Miss Peters and May, is preparing for the upcoming unlimited hydroplane series after a disastrous start to the year.

Miss Peters and May was severely damaged in the first race of the year in Qatar in February. Our local boat took a hop and ran over another boat, tearing one side of Miss Peters and May.

Fortunately, driver Tom Thompson was not severely injured. He still has some pain in his left arm but that is expected to heal over time. Unfortunately, with the boat needing to be shipped back from Qatar, it did not return to Edmonds until late April. With the first race of the season being the end of May, in Sacramento, this is putting tremendous pressure on the local team to be ready.

While the boat and parts have been in shipment, the crew has been busy readying replacement parts and preparing a new main race engine. The engine came out of the boat in the accident and sank to the bottom of the salt water race course. Salt water causes tremendous corrosion to these turbine engines. In addition, when an engine like this hits the water while running, the metal blades inside go from 1,500 degrees to 50 degrees Celsius in the blink of the eye. This corrupts the metal composition and requires replacement of the turbine blades.

The crew has also been making new spare parts and preparing for a new deck on the race boat. Owners Scott and Shannon Raney are thankful for their hard-working crew and their sponsors who have stepped up both financially and by providing parts and services to help repair the boat. One of the newest sponsors, J & D Hydraulics of Kent, has provided many new parts and special equipment to help with the boat.

In anticipation of the new season, the Raceboat and Hydroplane Museum held a preseason party in Kent Saturday night. Several of the drivers and sponsors attended and talked about their plans for this year.

The Oh Boy Oberto team, defending season champions, are primarily doing some maintenance and searching for ideas for a little more speed. Ellstrom Racing, which ran the Spirit of Qatar –one of the top boats the last two years — is taking the year off to evaluate their plans for the future. All-time top winning driver Dave Villwock has left the team and it is assumed he is retired. A new driver has been hired — Jeff Bernard — but he is on loan to the former Miss Red Dot team as a backup driver and crew member. Ellstrom is also transferring the Qatar sponsorship, the sport’s largest, to the team for this year.

Unfortunately, no new season-long television contract has been signed, although the races in Seattle and Tri-Cities both have their own broadcasts in place. This is also an important year for the hydroplanes as far as Seattle is concerned: Putting on a good show could help make up for the cancellation of the Blue Angels.

We will have more pictures and news at the end of the month as the boat is ready to leave for the first race, and also will provide news throughout the season.