Roostertail Talk
A show dedicated for preserving the history, breaking down the racing and looking to the future of the incredible sport of Unlimited Hydroplane racing. My name is David Newton, and I will be bringing you a weekly show in which we will discuss the boats, drivers, owners, crew members, legends, fans and anything that is involved with the sport that I love; hydroplane racing.
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Roostertail Talk
Episode 144: David Newton, Part 2
David Newton steps back from his host duties as Don Mock from the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum turns the microphone around for part two of an in-depth conversation about David's lifetime in RC hydroplane racing. This fascinating conclusion dives deep into the technical aspects of driving radio-controlled boats from the shore—a completely different challenge than being in the cockpit of a full-sized unlimited.
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Help the podcast by subscribing to our new service, Roostertail Talk+. The podcast is still free to all on our website and through all major podcast platforms (such as Apple Podcast, Spotify, Castbox, etc) but with Roostertail Talk+ there is more you can enjoy ! With this service you will get early links to new episodes, enjoy access to extra content, raffle prizes and more. This is a new service that we will be adding to as we move along. As always your support to make this show grow is very appreciated! https://www.buzzsprout.com/434851/supporters/new
Ruchetel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything about the sport that we all love, hydroplane racing. I am your host, david Newton, and it's time once again, so sit back, relax and welcome. Rooster Tail, talk, tale, talk. Hello Breeze fans, welcome back to the podcast. It's April 15th and this is episode 144, part two and the conclusion of Don Mock taking over the show and interviewing me.
Speaker 1:Well, I hope you liked last week's rendition of the podcast. It was something a little bit different. Don Mock from the Hydroplane Raceboat Museum took over the show and asked me some questions about my life around hydroplane racing. Of course I mean what else this episode? We're going to be focused more towards that radio controlled side of the sport that I have spent my entire life doing and we're going to talk more about RC boats, the background, some of my favorite things and my experience with that in my life. Now, I got to admit that I hated editing this episode because I don't like listening to my own voice and I'm a little critical of myself. But I hope you enjoyed part one and let's jump into part two, the conclusion of Don Mock interviewing me about hydroplanes.
Speaker 2:Okay, david. So David, driving these RC boats. I had a couple more questions because I'm still so fascinated as a fellow competitor yeah, and being beat by guys like you. I'm always trying to figure out why am I getting beat by them? What am I doing, stupid? Well, I've never been known as a great driver. I'm good at the gambit of things and they come together in a win every now and then. You've been a student of the sport way longer than me, in perspective, because since you were a little tiny kid Anything that you remember that your dad pointed out to watch for out on the course what were some of your biggest mistakes that you consistently did and your dad had to slap you around to say quit doing?
Speaker 1:that Well, I mean, I don't want to getlimited. Especially, my dad really preached going out and practice and practice, just doing laps and getting comfortable and staying away from the goddamn buoys. Go out there and don't, don't be around the buoys. But he wanted me to do a hundred laps before I raced. And so I remember I don't know if we actually got to 100 or not, but we we tried to, and he had a friend uh, nick arena lived on lake mcdonald who went out to his house a couple times. I tested the tempest out there, but he would just have me practice and just go half throttle, stay away from the buoys, try to hold a clean arc.
Speaker 2:I did that for a a while. One thing I need to point out to people that are listening that aren't really familiar with RC hydroplanes there's two styles of controllers that we've always used the thing we hold in our hand and drive the boat with, and you and I both grew up or you grew up, I came in as an adult driving what you'd consider to be an airplane radio with sticks yeah, the gold boxed, chicago Exactly, and we didn't know what we were missing. But that's your heritage. I mean, you probably did that 10 years, right, I raced stick radios.
Speaker 1:I remember Jesse Robertson gave me a hard time about it but eventually I think I bought it in 2001 or something like that I went over to a wheel radio. But yeah, we started off with stick radios and yeah, that's airplane technology there Not really as smooth and transition as a wheel radio would be. We didn't write it.
Speaker 2:but your dad was really obviously good but he was part of where it was invented. Essentially His original stick radios were all left, all right. There was no in-between right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Reed radios, they called it. So it was basically on and off switches for the throttle and the and the rudder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but now, yeah, but then they transitioned to the proportional radios, which is what we use now and then we went through that huge period of time with the frequencies and the frequency, the wheel and everybody. You can't have two boats on the same frequency, so we had these little clothespins with the frequency number on them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'd pick a frequency. We were always 75, 510. Well, that was your number, that was our number. It was 66, so we registered as that. So we never raced each other until the final heat, but it was pretty rare that both of us, one of us would make the final decision, but then one of you had to change the crystal in your radio Right.
Speaker 2:So up comes the lid and we all sit around waiting you got it ready yet. You pull it. You got to find the crystal, pull it out, put it in a replacement with a different frequency. That took up a lot of time and thought all that we didn't think much of it then. I look back now how easy it is when you don't even think about it. You just turn your radio on. Who cares it just finds one of 300 or some frequencies out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, frequencies aren't your thing anymore. Now it's what the DSM is what they call it. So it's cell phone technology, so it just finds its own frequency.
Speaker 2:So when you did do a wheel right, did you get to practice on one somebody else's first, or did you just dive in and say I think I had an RC car?
Speaker 1:at the time and I just kind of got that car and then, um, it didn't seem to the throttle was was weird. No, was it, because I was the throttle on the stick radio. You could like set it and forget it to whatever speed you wanted, right, but with the wheel you're constantly had a trigger finger on on on the throttle, so you'd be constantly you have to hold the position of the throttle. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember. And then I remember people started using OS carbs and we started trolling slower and slower. Oh, like the real boats would troll. People started using OS carbs and we started trolling slower and slower, like the real boats would troll. Right, and I remember I got to a point where I'd have to push forward on the throttle to get it to idle down. It's like knit lane one.
Speaker 2:Did you get caught up in all that trolling thing? Oh, yeah, god, that was such a. I hated that and it opposed everything about my racing and my propellers and Dave Brandt and these guys would come up to the line yeah, me and Dave Brandt would and I'd get back there and I'd just try to find a pole to shoot through and if I tried to slow down to that the thing would conk out. I just was so glad that fad sort of went away. It's not so much. And the electrics now.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a problem with electrics because you can just go half a mile an hour.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people probably don't realize driving these things from the shore. It's funny. We've been playing around with these RC sailboats and we got Chip one and he's really enjoying it. These are little, almost four foot long racing sailboats and we got chip one and he's really enjoying it. He's a little, oh yeah, four. You know, almost four foot long racing sailboats or a kit. You buy cheap plastic and they're just fun as hell. I always wanted a large sea sailboat. That just contrast against all the chaos of racing our boats.
Speaker 2:But here's one of the greatest hydroplane drivers of all time trying to drive from the shore a boat that's only going three or four knots. He enjoys the hell out of it, but it's odd for him this steering because he's not used to it. Of course we're using stick radios with those. That's just what they do. He's turning left and the boat's going going right and he's blasting or hacking around, but he has a.
Speaker 2:Chip is a really good friend of RC racers. He has enormous respect for it. He'll stand up for us any time because he knows he's tried and he's driven them a number of times and he understands the perspective of the boat. It's a 360-degree different experience than where you are on the course and I don't know about you, but I have places on the course where I'm glad I am and there are also places on the course where I can't tell I'm not confident what the boat is. You seem to have it all figured out. You seem to go down, especially going into the right turn. You seem to just be there exactly right every time and I'm out in lane 10 because I'm afraid I'm going to hit the buoy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're just always in the right place. Well, I mean, there's so many things over the years I've picked up on. I mean one thing like going to the right turn. Years ago I don't remember where we were, I think over in Rock Island. You could, you could go up on the little hill on the right side. You could see the boats coming at you.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and everyone going on the backstretch was given left. Yes, cause they were worried they're going to be hitting the entrance bin. But with depth perception, all actuality, they're like 20 late, 20 yards off, and then they're going further. Yeah, right, so I figured out. You know, if you're, if the back stretch is lined up properly, you should, you should hold your straight line the whole way right and then and really just hold your arcs in the corners and you should be fine. My hard spot is, if I'm not lean one going into the first turn, I I have a hard time seeing my boat, and there was several heats in the last year. Well, I couldn't see the Atlas at all, and so I've learned over the years it's better just to hold your arc going through the corner than to react and do something stupid.
Speaker 2:That's exactly my downfall. I drove the boat through turns. I'm always correcting, yeah, and it seemed like you and dave brandt learned the arc and you just said turn the wheel and let it, let the boat turn, yeah, and don't try to steer it.
Speaker 1:Let it and that's yeah, because I mean, I mean, if you think about it, this is actually john ruby. I talked with him about this years ago and if you're overreacting in the corners and turning too tight or having to recreate um recorrect, you're scrubbing speed off right and so really you want to hold your perfect arc around the corner. So I try to try to do use as less of the rudder as I can. Yeah, to turn the boat, but there was a couple heats last year where I was like lean three or four and I couldn't see the boat going through the corner and I guess, and each time I came out in the right spot and I just looked for blue and I'd find it.
Speaker 2:You and I together in Chelan we did that. I tried to guess too and I oversteered and I came up and banged into you. Because that is, there's nothing like a first turn, especially in the FEs where everybody's side by side. You hit that turn and there's five boats and it's just water. Yeah, there's no boats, it's just a wall of water and you're just hoping to see. I remember your dad telling me one time he says everybody's tendency is that when they can't see their boat, they subconsciously steer the boat towards themselves, overcorrect, overcorrect. Try to bring it in so they can see it. And I would do that. Of course I'd come flying through the buoys and into the infield. I'd try that. But that takes some driving chops to get through those first turns. Best place is to be the leader, right.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you can get up front and then you can direct everyone else. But my dad would always say it in those situations he came out of it no-transcript, turned and opened them up and there there I was. It worked out, yeah. But one other thing I was like thinking back on it is reading the water, because it's such a different vantage point from the shore. You have to read the water for what you're racing, and there's you. I mean, over the years you go the same places. You know like, yeah, the areas where the wind is a problem, usually like in um, in tri cities, like in finley, the the right side's always gonna be rougher than the left.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're over ellensburg. The left side's gonna be notoriously rough, the right side won't be as bad and there's a little channel where the wind comes down the back stretch. So there's that area you have to watch out for. But you just watch the water and watch the wakes and over time you can read it and be proactive with where you're going with it and trying to read the wind coming off the water, because on the shoreline if you're feeling the wind, it's already passed on the water, so it's not. There's times where people get caught because it's it's not windy on the shoreline, but there's a wind coming across the back stretch and it gets their boats before they can get to it. But you can. You can see the, the ripples of the water. Oh yeah, what's happening there.
Speaker 2:To me that's a big one and you have the wind-caused conditions caused by the weather, but then you have five other boats who have just been trolling around for a start causing all kinds of chaos, and now you've got all those rollers and odd waves. It's like Seattle for the big boats and have to plan ahead for that. I guess that's. One good thing about the FE boats is that we don't go through the left turn ever before the start. It's nice and pristine for the first run down. After the start you get to go through that turn in clean water.
Speaker 1:Then you come back to the right turn and it's roughed up, that's pretty funny.
Speaker 2:Then you also have to watch right turn and it's wrapped up, because everyone's circling and trolling there. Oh geez, yeah, that's pretty funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but then you also got to watch the other people's wakes too. I mean not just the rooster tails, but the wakes that they leave behind, because if you're coming up on lap traffic, even if they're a quarter or half a lap ahead, they leave a wake, yeah, and so anytime you cross that wake, your boat's going to react, so trying to stay on one side of or the other of that wake, yeah that's pretty crucial.
Speaker 2:Your dad talked a lot about that. You know crossing wakes yeah, you're going in that bubbles up water and you lose speed. You can't yeah, you can't run the guy down if you're in his right directly. Same in the full-size boats yeah, you just that's a no-no.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of sponsor modifications we've done over the years to help Russ Nockway. There was a lot of lessons on that, he taught me. So the boat doesn't suck down and spin out or stuff on you, but still you've got to learn to drive through that and survive that.
Speaker 2:So, RCU, I don't know if people around the country this matters to them, but to us our race sites are golden that we have and you've raced on all more than I have, I think and a lot of them are gone that we don't yeah, we don't yeah, can you run us through some of your favorites that you like you enjoyed going to and I mean.
Speaker 1:Well, I remember. One side I don't miss at all is granger. Oh, I never went there. It was halfway between Yakima and Tri-Cities, yes, and it was right next to a water treatment facility and it would smell. The water wasn't clear, it was brown, lots of bugs, and it was a small course. So I'm glad we're never going back there again. But some fun ones that I miss. I miss Spokane. Yeah, we can't go there anymore because of construction. They built where we used to race from. It's now a convention center and they put fencing up around the lake. But that was always fun because that was around Memorial Day weekend and we'd go out there and District 8 would race their boats the same weekend and it would be part of the three-day weekend. They would have a fair in the park and then the big event was your birthday yeah, I was always around my birthday time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then we'd go to the mexican restaurant and wear the hat, yeah they would embarrass me and say yeah, I would duck down under the table and hide from everyone then you know when, actually when I get some other sites that we don't get to go to anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we used to race in Yakima. We don't go there anymore. Spokane, the Dalles that wasn't a great site. I don't think Woodland was great. I loved Woodland. It was a sandy beach area, it was calm. You could spread out. But the one I think I missed the most is actually Rock Island. It was a dirt gravel pit. The little lake or the bigger lake. I had fun racing on both sides, because it was like the short course and the big course, I think.
Speaker 2:I cut you off there on that little course. I set those little courses up. They were tiny, they were tiny. I enjoyed that. I set those little courses up. They were tiny, they were tiny, but it was fun. I enjoyed that. Yeah, I like the little courses, I think I'm. It's funny when we did the 50th anniversary video for RC Unlimited and I have all this old footage of us, especially in Elma, when your dad would set up these. Your dad ran the race and he would set up these. Your dad ran the race and he would set up these enormous courses and they had to be. Our RC courses are from entrance buoy to exit buoy are typically about 350, 375 feet long, and then another 50 out around the apexes. That's about the size that we'd pace off those. Elmer had 500 feet. Oh yeah, easily.
Speaker 1:And he loved it.
Speaker 2:The bigger the better. And the boats you couldn't win. You couldn't drive to win there. You boat won the race. You had to have a fast boat, cause you'd be on this trade away for five minutes. You have enough fuel to survive. He seemed to really enjoy just screwing with everybody with those big courses And'd love to see the hot new guys try to race on one of those things.
Speaker 1:I don't think we could see that far now.
Speaker 2:The six scale guys. They should be on a bigger course. Yeah, they should. Elmo's was pretty fun. We had some good times there. I never won a race there, did you?
Speaker 1:No, I um, I did actually really well in my rookie year 96, because we had the gold cup there, yeah and Elma, and back then you had to qualify to be in that race, yeah, and if you didn't qualify it, so the top 20 would make the Gold Cup and then the rest would be in the Belmont Sea. I think I qualified 19th.
Speaker 2:I was right in the bubble.
Speaker 1:But I was so excited I made it to that because that was the premier class, the premier race. I just finished all my heats and I made the final. I think that was the only final I made in my rookie year and I actually got third behind David Jensen and Jesse Robertson Mm-hmm, because everyone else crashed and flipped or whatever and that was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:To get that there, my rookie year Yep, with Woodland and Portland.
Speaker 2:You remember Forest.
Speaker 1:Lake and Portland, oh yeah. Forest Lake and Portland, yeah. Friday Harbor, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:That was a weird. That was. I don't know what to make of that. How many years did we race up there? I think there was only a couple years, Three or four maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then we used to race near Black Lake in Olympia. Oh yeah, there was a little pond there off the yeah. Percival Cove little pond there off the.
Speaker 2:Percival Cove. Yes, it's a swamp now. It was a swamp then, but now it's really a swamp. Where else have we used to race? We ventured into Oregon. Remember those races in Troutdale and some of those.
Speaker 1:We were in Springfield for a little while. There was some farmer in Malala had a pond, went there once, I think I feel like there's one more on the east side, but I can't think of it. Yeah, yeah, but I would say out of every one that we raced at, I miss.
Speaker 2:Rock Island the most, but you and your dad also ventured off to some national events, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you went to Vegas. Yeah, towards the end of his career he wanted to go out and race with other bigger clubs, so we went down. We went to San Diego a couple times, raced down there. I won both of those. And then the gas class started to grow and had classic Thunderboats which were stock Sonoma engine and they were basically gas scale scale nowadays but a stock motor. And we raced in Vegas at the World Cup. That was in 2007, yeah, and we won that one.
Speaker 1:That was fun, wow, his model, the Hawaii Kai and we actually went the following spring down to Orlando and winter nationals there and we shipped my eight scale and his classic new classic Thunderboat and some sport boat he built and we shipped him down there and won that event down there. That was pretty weird, though, cause the humidity was so high I had to change, like all of my normal things on the motor for it to work, so otherwise it just it would just quit on the stand. That was pretty hard to figure that out. He went down to Arizona a couple times and raced. I can't remember it's where the London Bridge is oh, the Havasu. Havasu, yeah, they have a club that races down there. He ran there a couple times. He was good friends with Ted McKay and Leonard Feeback, don and Dan Ast. Those were the guys down there, some of the founding fathers talked about Leonard Feeback.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is kind of an obvious question, but you're better than anybody to answer it. You've been hearing us talk about these RC boats and they sound fun. How do you do it? How do you get started? Who do you call? I called Roger Newton myself.
Speaker 1:That's how I got into it.
Speaker 2:All it took was one phone call and I had a boat and I was in the club. One phone call to your dad, 1985. Thank God I'd still be a guitar player if I hadn't. I'd still have money is what I'd have.
Speaker 1:But what does someone do? There's a lot of different. I mean it depends on the area you live in. Some areas race 110th scale electric, 108th scale nitro, 108th scale electric, gas class. But there's a lot of options out there. You can go to my website, newtonmarinecom, and there's all the plans are drawn on 1.8 scale. I'm trying to figure out. I think I can do 1.10 scale size now if you let me know ahead of time. I can't blow it up any bigger though. My machine only prints two feet wide so I can't go to the gas class size. But you can get plans to start your build off. Or you can contact your local club and see if they have boats for sale.
Speaker 1:If you live in Washington, the big clubs RC Unlimited. They race around the state of Washington. I think it's rcnlimitedcom or org, probably both yeah, one of those and then ERCU. They do predominantly one scale but they also do a 1, 7th scale electric boat as well and they turn to the left and they race on the western side of Washington and it's ercu-hydrosorg is their website and I'll put these links below in the bio. But then also another classic Thunder. They race as well 110th scale. It's classicthunderus. So there's some options for clubs here.
Speaker 1:But if you want to get fiberglass boats, your best bet is to contact Steve Goltieri out of Florida. It's an RC boat company. He sells gas and 1.8 scale hydroplanes, carbon fiber and fiberglass and a lot of them are your dad's drawings yeah, a lot of them are from my dad's drawings and he has a lot of cowlings that fit a lot of those things For 1-10 scale. You can get some cowlings from Mitch Dillard hydrocreationsus. He's got a lot of 1-10 scale cowlings that he makes them out of plastic but you can beef them up with fiberglass or wood or whatever. And then if you wanted to get a wood frame kit, you can get ML Footworks I think they're out of well, they're back east and you can get wood frame kits in various sizes from him as well. So there's a few options there. I don't know if there's as many as there was when you started, but a few options out there now.
Speaker 2:Well, when I started there was Roger Newton plans. You go to Wagner's Hobby and buy plywood, whatever he told you to build them out of.
Speaker 1:A couple other important websites offshoreelectricscom, that's some great stuff for all electric boats. And then Bill Brandt is supporting the hobby with a lot of things for various Rattlesnake RC yeah, rattlesnake RC, I think it's allrc1.com, I think is his site. So he's got a lot of parts and pieces people need as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard to walk into a hobby store and do this, though, isn't it, if you can find? A hobby store nowadays yeah, it just doesn't work that way. It's always kind of been that way.
Speaker 1:But yeah, but we need an updated video. Back in the 80s you made a video on the construction for 1-8 scale hydros and really showcased RC Unlimiteds and what they did, and the club Need an updated version.
Speaker 2:I know I wanted to do a 40 years later on the 82 Atlas, yeah, you say. By the way, besides the model I built in the video, here's the real one.
Speaker 1:I never thought it would lead to that.
Speaker 2:What are the improvements that you've seen from your dad's days, material-wise and construction-wise? I know like graphics now we can get wonderful detailed graphics. Your dad probably had the hand letter of the slow-mo 5 on the side of his boat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, when he started it was in the early 70s and there were plenty of hobby shops around, so you can get motors and radios, which they're all vastly improved now. I mean, all the radios that we use are all waterproof and you can get away without using a radio box anymore. Um which you? There's no way you could have done that back then. But, um, I mean, everything now is pretty much purchased online. But, um, your materials back then was all probably wood and glue and um, and now people are using carbon fiber, there are various fiberglass materials, some people are using Kevlar in their boats, hysol I mean pretty much all the materials that the real Unlimiteds are using, we're using in our models. Some people are even going as far as honeycomb, yeah, sure, but various exotic metals. I mean metals and aluminum. Some people are using titanium for skid fins yeah, it's been hours and hours crafting a skid fin.
Speaker 1:You know a lot, so I mean, the materials are pretty exotic nowadays. What?
Speaker 2:and spending what you could do it's pretty intimidating for people when they hear all of that about these exotic materials and how to get started in it. But you really can. I've always said this. If you just had a Roger Newton plans and you just methodically substitute some of the recommended materials, instead of a 16-inch plywood, maybe you laminate some 32 inch plywood with a layer of carbon or something, you can make substitutes that are maybe a little slighter, a little stronger, I don't know. But you know, nothing's really changed from when your dad sat down there and drew those, drew those boats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean a lot of the. A lot of the plans he drew were with older technology. But some of the plans he drew were with older technology.
Speaker 2:They build those boats now and they still work great If you could pull a few of the plans out of the hopper, out of your wall, and you could display them. What are the ones you're most proud of your dad's drawings? What do you think are the coolest ones?
Speaker 1:I've got to say the Bubble Bud. I'm partially favorite to that, but he did a great job of drawing that. Uh, it's very beautiful. The one that he like nailed out of the park, which is kind of obscure. One is he made paint scheme for the 88 miller highlife. Oh, the last one, oh geez, uh, the u31. That's a tough one, but he for whatever, like he, he nailed it. I thought it's beautifully done. Another one would be like the slow motion four, because he was such a. That was his favorite boat growing up and he was such a geek with it. He did all these notes about in 54 that had this repair on the sponson. It showed this patch here and they used these different wings throughout the years. And slow motion five too, and slow motion 5, too. He just loved those boats. He has all those notes on those. That's pretty cool, that's some history.
Speaker 2:Well, you know every restoration that's gone on at the museum and some of the replicas from the Vashon guys and the Wahoo. Inevitably I walk in and there's your dad's plans laying there. And the one that stands out to me is the nose cowl on the pay-in pack. Because that cowling nose, which was part of a full cowl in the 74, 75 pay-in pack, came off. They lost it and they put a pointed nose on it. And so when Ken Muscatel, mike, had the boat restored and hired Mike Hansen and the state-of-the-art guys to restore that boat, mike wanted a recreation of that front nose cowl.
Speaker 2:And where do you start? Immediately, there's your dad's plans and the way it was made. It's not molded fiberglass. They build a wooden butt. They call it of cowling a fake wood on the boat. Yeah, plywood, and two-by-fours and nails and everything. And there was the plans, your dad's plans, and I look at it and look at the thing and say, yeah, that looks pretty good. Then he takes it off the boat and takes it to a metal worker. Who, who? Hammers? Wow, the metal. I guess it's aluminum, maybe sheet metal, yeah, over this buck, it's crazy positive plug and makes the part, yeah, and they brought it back and set it on the boat and it's and and mike would have not had a clue where to begin it hadn't been for that. That's wild. Having it your dad's drawing of that thing, yeah, so it's a every time I look at that nose.
Speaker 1:cali, go newton well, my dad was really meticulous about trying to get a lot of those angles and in shapes correct and he used to have a blank wall in the boat shop I have now and he had a projector and he would try to get photos of the boats and try to get profile shots and shots for the graphics and whatnot. He would illustrate the wall with the graphics and try to get them scaled right. He would trace them out. It was very meticulous. He spent hours and hours on this drawing.
Speaker 2:When he would take a boat that was caroled with boats and it's the same boat, just painted different. Could he trace over the top of a light table or something?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, he didn't have a light table but he had an architect's table and he could trace over that. That's how he did that, yeah, yeah, he would just trace the profile of the previous hull and then get all the new paint scheme and graphics and all that Going back to how it's changed. Back, when he started, everything was hand-drawn and hand-painted on the models. There's no graphics. Everything was customly done itself. Now, people are so reliant on the graphics. I know some people have complained that our customers want everything done with graphics. I know some graphic people have complained that they want every. Our customers want everything done with graphics, like all the stripes on the boat, everything Wraps. They just basically want to wrap it. Now, yeah, in which some people have wraps on their models, wow, yeah, I know Greg Roth had one, nelson Holmberg had one, a few others have done that.
Speaker 2:When would your dad be. He's been gone now since 2008. 2008. Yeah, it's getting to be some time. Yeah, what would he be the most proud of if he looked at not unlimited racing, but his RC world? I mean, he had to know the influence that grew from him. Oh yeah, but besides being proud of you, what are some of the clubs, the technology, the interest, I mean, what do you think would blow his mind and he goes?
Speaker 1:I can't believe you guys are. That's a good question. I mean, I'm sure he'd be blown away. How fast the electrics are now is that? I mean, even the technology from when he last raced has grown in leaps and bounds and we're actually restricting what we have. I mean, technology is way far surpassed what we have. I think that would blow him up pretty far away. He really wanted to do an RC turbine, oh yeah, uh. And he got in touch with some people before he passed and, um cause, there was a guy Peter Peter Mueller, I think his name was, maybe out of Florida that dealt one and he really wanted to do one. And there's people in Germany now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've seen some videos and I think that's what he wanted to do. But he knew the cost was prohibited. It was like $2,500 for a motor and gearbox combination back then, but I think he got a kick out of where electrics have gone. I think he'd really like the seventh scale, the big boats, the electrics and the classes that were more geared towards scale and keeping it scale you told me one time how many, how many boats he built.
Speaker 2:What was that number? I?
Speaker 1:don't, I don't remember, I don't know the number.
Speaker 2:You told me that I yeah I've forgotten way over 100, I mean 100.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's way over, because he built boats, not just race boats. People would commission him like the ones hanging in the restaurants, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's got two down at Kid Valley and Rettin' at King's Golden Park. They're not little. Those are one-fifth scale. Yeah, they're monsters and he built those. He was on disability leave from work. He did something with his back and he built those for Kid Valley. And he actually borrowed some Merlin parts I from Ike Keelglass we had part of a Merlin in the shop for a while. He handcrafted the Merlin and the props and everything that was on the boat. Good, yeah, but he built those. But he was also commissioned by, like, bernie Little. I think he built 10 or 15 boats for Bernie and he built some boats for Bill Bennett, bruce McCaw oh yeah, he'd always build a model for the museum gala Sure To auction off and he would build. Some people in the RC world would con him into building boats for him. He was always building boats for me and himself. Yeah, he built well over 100.
Speaker 2:Well over 100, yeah.
Speaker 1:And where are they now? Who knows?
Speaker 2:They're legendary. I was out at their house one time and he was working on something and he didn't even need to look at his own plans. He had the thing in his mind. Oh yeah, He'd just look at the sponsor line and go. I remember him looking at my thriftway Before I had it go. I remember him looking at my thriftway before I had it painted. I just roughed out, I took it to the museum and he gave it to me once over and he goes you're a little deep here and you might want to bring that up and he just spotted this stuff just by eye and I, okay, I went home. So I'm really proud of that thing because that's my sixth scale. Sixth scale, ms thriftway, that I I keep at home. It'll go to the museum to join roger's sixth scale. Fomo 5. Yeah, we ran together and a few others. That a class that never. It was never a racing class, it was just a except or weed whacker, right that's our first attempt, but yeah, and you try to start a newer class.
Speaker 1:That was in the late 90s, right? Yes, and that never took off.
Speaker 2:No, we just had fun as hell running them though, yeah, and I just enjoyed the hell out of building. That was always my favorite boat as a kid and I didn't even know that the Thriftway in 1955 and 1956 was a mahogany boat. I knew it was mahogany with the painted stripes and I'd never done a mahogany wood like John Ernst did.
Speaker 2:Those guys do. I didn't want to mess with that and he said well, then build a 57. I go what's different? It's painted brown. What are you talking about? Painted brown. And my whole life I had no idea that in 57, because of the damage the thing went it happened in Detroit they just painted it brown, repainted the stripes and I go that's for me, I can paint it brown and I always remember being so amazed that I didn't know that history fact. Yeah, and we had a great time with those. What's going to happen with Rooster Tail Talk? What's the next day going to look like? Going video ever.
Speaker 1:Probably should go video, but it's a lot of work. I'm a one-man team. I don't have enough time. I feel like with the audio portion, at least it's something you can listen to on the go and listen to while you're out?
Speaker 2:Have you had any offers, any help from some of the big owners? Because you're doing them a heck of a good thing, yeah.
Speaker 1:I guess I've gotten a few passes, but nothing too big yeah.
Speaker 2:I hope they're listening and appreciate your time and interest in what they're doing, because without guys like you, we've got nothing. You're the one-man savior right now getting people talking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, try to keep. I mean, it's such a short season, right. I mean races start in June and they're over beginning of September and there's a lot of weekends in between. There there's nothing on the water, but this is hopefully something to keep the conversations going in the off season and I'll come back for season 7 in February. So when this is airing this will be past February probably, but I got a few people on the hooks for interviews, trying to get those locked down and just hopefully get some more fun interviews on the way. I want to travel this summer and go to another race, but I haven't been to it before, but I don't know. I really want to go to Valleyfield, but looking at airfare costs, for that, it'd be quite a place, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I want to go to Detroit, but they can't get their act together to get back there. I don't know if that'll happen again or not, so I've never been there. I hope I can go there one day Madison. I've never been to Madison Me neither. That would be cool. I'd love to go to Evansville, but they're not there. A lot of places I wish they would still go to.
Speaker 2:There you go, folks. This is David Newton. This is your real host of uh, rooster tail talk, and I hope you've gotten a little better idea about who he is and what he's about, because he's a he's quite a handful of a guy. He's got a lot going on and I hope you appreciate and listen in on these podcasts when you can and and I'm going to be listening.