Episode 197: Carl Joslin

You can learn a lot about hydroplane racing from results sheets, but you learn the soul of the sport from the people who kept the boats alive between heats. We went back into the Rooster Tail Talk archives and found a short, candid Bayfair interview from 2019 with Carl Joslin, a Budweiser hydroplane crewman who was there in the earliest days of Miss Budweiser and stayed connected to the team across decades. The audio is rougher than what we run today, but the stories are the kind you don’t get a second chance to capture.

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Welcome To Rooster Tail Talk

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Rooster Tale 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 to sit back, relax, and welcome Rooster Tale Talk. Hello, listeners. Once again, welcome back to the podcast. Today is Tuesday, September 8th, 2026, and this is episode 197.

Why This Archive Interview Matters

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Now, for today's episode, this is uh one I pulled out of the archives, and I'll be honest, this is one I forgot about and kind of fell through the cracks for my first year of doing the podcast back in 2019. That's when I started doing this podcast. And I actually traveled down to San Diego for the races down at Bayfair that year. And God, I wish I was going again this year. It's such a beautiful race, such a beautiful location for the perfect weekend getaway for the last weekend of racing. I'm jealous if you're going. I hope you have a great time, and I think I'm gonna make some plans to go next year because it's just that fantastic down there. Anyways, back in 2019 I had many interviews I did down at San Diego Bay Fair, and it was a different approach I had to the podcast. And listening back on this interview, there's um I could tell there's some things have changed over the years, my audio equipment wasn't as good, and I was pretty fresh at doing a lot of this.

Who Carl Jocelyn Was

SPEAKER_02 2:07

But back on Bayfair Sunday, I was actually walking out out of the pits, and Owen Blauman stopped me uh because in a golf cart right next to him was Carl Jocelyn. And Carl, for those you may not know, he actually was a crew member on the first year that Miss Budweiser raced. He was on the first crew for Bernie Little, and he crewed for him on and off throughout the years and and was there in the 90s up until Budweiser stopped sponsoring Hydroplane Racing. Carl was one of those charismatic gentlemen that was always talking with the crowds and interacting with many fans, especially the female fans, and he always had a way with the words and had a way with the ladies. And you'll actually notice on the thumbnail for the episode there's a button that says, I know Carl. There's gotta be some inside joke behind those buttons, but those were uh some popular buttons in the 90s and uh early 2000s that that came out that uh the button collectors sought after. Unfortunately, Carl did pass away though several years ago, uh late in 2022. Unfortunately, wasn't able to expand on this interview, but got to chat with him for a few minutes. Um he was I think we just saw a race and he was going to uh a VIP area to relax for a little while. And so caught him on on his way out to that area. But for those that know Carl, I'm sure you'll enjoy listening to his voice once again. And he had a couple of funny stories about his time as crew chief for the Budweiser Hydroplane and his time around the sport. Again, this is my during my first year of doing interviews, so audio equipment wasn't as good. And wish I could change a few of the questions or add some more questions there. But this is my interview with Carl Jocelyn back at San Diego Bayfair in 2019.

Meeting Carl At Bayfair

SPEAKER_02 4:19

All right, it's Sunday afternoon at Bayfair, and I've met a meeting with uh Carl Jocelyn. Carl, how are you today?

SPEAKER_00 4:26

I'm doing good. I'm getting getting a little aged on here and I'm out of breath, but other than that, I'm okay. Yeah, are you enjoying Bayfair this year? Oh yeah, I come out here every year. My birthday is a couple more days, and I come out for the boat race and my birthday. All right, it's a good place to spend your birthday. And uh but anyway, uh Buddy Miss made me up some rhubuts from 1964 to 2004. That's the last year we raced at Budweiser. Yeah. And I was with Bernie all those years. You were on his first crew, right? Yeah, I screwed you on the first Budweiser in 64 and 65. I said, Chuck Hicklin raced our boat out here and lost a sponsor, and he drove up on the bank over on the other side. But anyway, the next year we raced the uh Budweiser, the fourth eater,

Early Budweiser Years And Gold Cup Deal

SPEAKER_00 5:17

the old tempo boat. And uh it was uh we were racing against Bardal and Xide and all the boats, and we were about a fourth fourth late boat. The only thing we had to go in, I had the boat always running. Wasn't a fast boat, but it had a big old fourth eight and a mahogany deck on it. And I'd take it up one engine out, which had had a six-cylinder Mercedes with the water jet drive. Well, I took that out before we went racing. We were about a fourth but fourth place boat up all the time. We didn't have the power and lobster trucks in there with the free. But anyway, a little story about how we got uh Chuck Hickman driving. Bob Schroeder was driving until we got to uh Seattle for the Gold Cup. And Schroeder couldn't get the Budweiser. We had the best boat, but Budweiser couldn't get the boat going. Schroeder couldn't get the boat going, so he went and I bought Peter Wicks uh boat driver, 25 engines, boat truck driver, and everything for $25,000, borrowed the money from Bill Harrow, and had uh Chuck Hicklin drive in his a bush boat in a gold cup. The next day the other brother came out and wanted the boat back. Bernie had sold it back to him for $15,000, kept the 25 engines off. Sold them to Lee Shada and gave Bill Hare back the $25,000 that he paid for in the first place. But that's the way Bernie wanted it.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Bernie was a good businessman, wasn't he? Oh man. So with that four-seater, did you get a get a ride in there?

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Oh yeah, well, I drove it a couple of times. Yeah. Down in my not in a racer and then down in Miami. Oh.

The Skid Fin Story Begins

SPEAKER_00 7:20

The one other thing, too, uh getting back to the last race here, I mean the race here in 64, where we're over at SeaWorld, talking our boats over there. And our boat, we had an old Tahoe boat, had an off-stage supercharger on it. We had more power than anybody. Except Harrow. I think they run the same thing, but it wouldn't turn. It had so much power, but the boats wouldn't turn. And I put a skid pin on the side of the boat there. It's about uh two foot, two and a half foot long and about a foot and a half wide. I got a grinder down and made a sharp edge on it and bolted on the side of the boat. And uh Chuck Hickling took it out the first turn out here. He turned and and the aluminum was soft, I guess it just ripped into this went sideways. But anyway, that was after that, Chuck Hicklin went home, raced himself, and uh started, made it a good skid fin on the boat. So that's when the skid fin started, I thought. Okay, all right. But I thought I I I don't know for sure if I had the first one, but well, we'll give you credit for being uh one of the first. I love that. Yeah, so it's Chuck Heckling's the one that developed it, though, yeah and put it on his boat. Yeah. But at that time, these boats had that big propeller on there, and it when it go around the turn, they had to reverse drive it, steer it. It was kind of like a dirt track feel, right? Because the propeller was going clockwise and it was pulling the tail of the boat around. And had to have reverse steering, kind of going around the turn. But anyway, I I worked on and off with Budweiser for 40 years. I went on all the time. When I quit in uh after the two races, I quit. Went back in the Air Force and retired six years, and uh Bernie had bought the Xide crew, and Bill Bow bowed a drive. And uh that's why uh the shop has always been up in Seattle since then. And uh what else?

SPEAKER_02 9:35

So you you're crewed for almost all the years, or most of the years.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

No, no, well, the first two years. First two years. And then I went back to work for him. I was a manic on some of them. And the last ten years, when Dave came in, I I got devoted to a janitor. So that wasn't too bad. But you're still on the team, and you have to say about making a thousand a week and I wasn't doing anything. So Bernie kept me on there.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

All right, all right. Well, what what are some of the the more memorable times for you more the more the fun times, uh maybe fun victories you were with?

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Or well, that's in the second year. We when I run the fourth eater, uh Bill Cantrell ran over a boat in the uh the first turn uh in Madison, run over the top of uh Chuck Hitler was driving it then. Rome over to the top of it. I had to take the boat back up to uh Les Donnacher to get it get it fixed up. And then uh getting back to the first year in 1964, our second race after Gunnersville.

Detroit River Crash And Sunk Boat

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Uh we were running Detroit River and we were down to the pits were down at the Whittier Hotel. I think it was the Whittier Hotel, the pits were down there, down from Roostertale. And uh Sunday morning we blew an engine. We had to change it right quick. We put it in there, and Schroeder went out at the one-minute gun. All the rest of the boats were on the other side of the course racing, I mean, for the start. And Schroeder caught up with them. The second heat, I mean the second lap. And he's coming around the rooster tail turned and jumped the boat in. Schroeder went flying out of the boat. The boat idled up, went over to the uh rooster tail. Once again, went up on the rock still running because he forgot to hook up the safety switch on the mag. And uh Leo Makusa with the crew chief on the uh Mirno boat, then the gale boat, he went down and shut the engine off. Rescue came down and got the boat, pulled it off the rock. Nothing was wrong with it. Pulled it back down to the pit error to wit ear and they pulled it underwater and sunk our boat. So that was into the Droider I said here.

Drivers, Danger, And Hard Years

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Well, being around the Budweiser crew for so many years, you got to uh be around a lot of different drivers. Uh a lot of great names for racing for the Budweiser organization. Chip Hanower, Dave Velock, uh Dean Chenowith, Jim Cropfeld. Did you have some favorite drivers that you uh maybe made some connections with?

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah, I used to go. Well, I'll tell you what, when I first went to work for Bernie, he'd he'd take all the drivers out. Like on uh Friday night or something, and he'd take me along with him, you know. So I got to go out party with him and have dinner with him. So I used to know all the drivers and everything. And uh I was uh I said I went back in the Air Force in uh let's see, '66 or uh '65, '66. They raced in uh Washington, D.C. That's when uh uh uh Ron Munson got killed on Saturday the next day. Uh what did it die? Jones and uh Rex Manchester. They got killed the next day. And uh uh well uh Bill Bryan hurt himself, I think, in uh uh Tampa. They had a race in Tampa and he broke his arm or something. They had to get Don Wilson to drive it. No two drivers. The next race, which I wasn't there now. Uh Warner Gardner got killed up in Detroit. That was a bad year for everybody. And then I remember one year that uh Bernie uh got uh natural light and he painted up the uh Notre Dame boat and brought it down and uh brought

Natural Light Boat And Life On The Road

SPEAKER_00 13:42

it down there. It was silver and blue instead of gold and red. It was silver boat trimmed in blue, and the Budweiser was a gold boat trimmed in red, which was uh the uh original boat color anyway. And uh but anyway, we went racing that with Tom Sheehy was driving it. And I forget who was driving the other boat, uh the Budweiser then, but Bernie put me on to make the uh natural light boat, and we didn't have any problem, but he couldn't he had to run in second place. He couldn't ever pass up. Bernie said, Oh, stay behind Budweiser was bonson every. But he probably could have passed him. Yeah. And uh but I went through a lot of stuff within that. Then Bernie got his distributor in 74 down in uh Lakeland, Florida. He called one of me to work there, and so I've been down there in Lakeland, Florida living now, and I still live in Florida. Okay, and uh, but I remember in 1994, pulling a boat through the Christmas parade in Lakeland, and he asked me to take uh a boat out that uh Howard Arneston he had a little six-seater turbine boat, take it back out to Howard and San Francisco. And I just went on up to uh Seattle to see what was going on in the winter time. And uh I was working uh I think I was retired then. But anyway, he called me up and put me to work up there. But uh right, Ron Brown that just bought 10 engines, went over and bit now, bought 10 engines from an engine from Vietnam.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

And uh support coming up here, schedule starting.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

So uh we should be able to count down I stayed up there for 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

All right, so you I kept my home in part. Yeah, we went up there in '94 and stayed there for another ten years until until the end. Well,

What Working For Bernie Was Like

SPEAKER_02 15:39

what was it like working for Bernie? I've heard he uh really took care of his employees.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Well I uh no, I it was we had five or six guys full-time, you know. Uh Lauren Sawyer, uh uh uh uh John Reinberger, Mark Smith, uh John Rice, uh uh Mike Campbell, and uh Jeff was there. And uh we were all full time there a lot of time, Bernie. They kept us uh going there, and uh I don't know how these other books were. I don't think anybody else had a full time like we did, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

And uh but anyway, that's my story. I got a couple more, but I gotta hard for me to remember people. Oh, that's all right. Anyway, that's all right.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

A couple of more days, 17th. All right. Well, wish you happy birthday. It was good talking with you, Carl. Yeah, really appreciate it. Yeah.

Remembering Carl And Closing Notes

SPEAKER_02 16:36

But unfortunately, that was the end of the interview, and that's all we had for my interview with Carl Jocelyn. Hope you got to enjoy some of his stories. Uh, like you said at the end of the interview, he was 89 years old at that point, so some of the years and dates might not have been as accurate, but you could get the sense of the pride he had for what he had done for the sport and his time working for Bernie and in the Hydroplanes, Inc. I didn't get to know Carl very well, but I feel like he was one of those individuals in the pits that was loved by all and had countless stories of shenanigans around him. Uh he has messed with many others in the sport. And after I found this clip, I I like I said earlier in the episode, I forgot I I had this clip. I actually went to Chris Denzlo's smug mode picture page and I was looking for some pictures because I thought he had some pictures of Carl, and I actually forgot as well that he took a picture of me interviewing Carl from the back of his golf cart. So we can see that on the thumbnail for this episode as well. Hopefully I'm not losing my mind, forgetting all these things, but another fun episode for you all. We'll be back next week with another episode. Don't worry, don't you fret. And in the meantime, check us out on social media. We're on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Don't forget we're online as well, with our website, www.roostertailtalk.com. Well, that's all I got for you today, knuckleheads. So until next time, I hope to see you at the races.