New Old Guys

[AquaCraft]

Greetings,

Introducing two new old guys to the list; Aqua-Craft and Donald Duck 31E; almost 60 and over 60 years old. 'Just a couple of boat nuts who have had a few boats and have one or two now.

Aqua-Craft just moved out of a Crackerbox into a Wickens Whirlwind style '66 Aqua-Craft. The boat was orginal but rough when brought back to life in 2006-2007, complete with original '66 425 CID Buick and square top Casale.

Donald Duck 31E's boat is a late 1940's 16' wood Mandella made former E boat racer with an extensive race history. Donald Duck has belonged to it's current owner about 30 years and has been restored and repowered.

In one of it's former racing configurations, Donald Duck was powered by a Red Ram Dodge that turned two surface props mounted straight through the transom. In that configuration the boat was fast, turning was a thrill and the rooster tail was hated by all who were behind it.

Our boats currently prowl Shasta. I have been on the board a month or two and just coaxed Donald Duck 31E on board. He has built a male plug and is currently working towards laying up some 'glass "Donalds".

I'm just a run-of-the-mill backyard restorer; I know Donald Duck 31E can not only learn here but can contribute some good history if we can get him going on the site.

The photo below is from our "younger days" when we actually water skied behind Donald.

Thanks for a great site!

Aqua-Craft & Donald Duck 31E

[Flatmvn]

Welcome to the site guys. There are a bunch of great people on here and it is always nice to have new/old guys as this builds the knowledge base up.

Cool Pic

Louis

http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/attachment.php?attachmentid=92&d=1207496480

[BradP]

Welcome! You'll enjoy everyone here..........until they get to know you and mercilessly bust your balls.:D:D

[TonkaDriver]

Welcome! You'll enjoy everyone here..........until they get to know you and mercilessly bust your balls.:D:D
They mostly only do that to you Brad.

[babybeze]

I have an old powerboat from the 70's I think with an extensive write up on the Donald Duck boat. Man that thing looked scary with twin surface props. Cool boat and welcome to the site.

[dry]

Welcome, I am a new member as well those are some nice old pics! those boats are nice from back in the day.

[BradP]

They mostly only do that to you Brad.

:confused::p:D

[poncho]

Whats up with all the apologies,u some kinda candy ass,i am dyin to hear all of youre stories hope youre not sceered,so kidding i live for the stories of the past,please pass on youre knowledge its so kewl,i mean that

[tunnelrunner]

Welcome guys! I'd sure love to see some fotos of that surface prop deal! Sounds wild!

[AquaCraft]

Welcome guys! I'd sure love to see some fotos of that surface prop deal! Sounds wild!

In February 1956, Speed and Spray magazine did a write up on Donald Duck with it's twin surface prop set-up.

Here are a couple pictures from their article and here is a link to the Speed and Spray magazines on line. If interested; just go to issue #19 and the article starts on page 8.

http://boatsport.org/SANDS.html

Aqua-Craft

[hm66Howard]

That boat just looks waaay ahead of its time for '56! :cool:

[RiverRacer]

Welcome aboard it's great to have ya here!. I remember that name just never seen the boat!. Rick Weimer built a Cracker with a surface drive and set a Kilo record, and I do believe it still stands today!..

[tunnelrunner]

You guys ROCK! That thing is INSANE considering it all happened 50 years ago!

What happened in the end?... I'm guessing that the twin-prop deal wasnt the magic bullet they thought it might have been.

[poncho]

Thats a really cool article,how did the boat do racing in the final configuration?i imagine if it did well there must of been some grumbling from the other racers,thats really cool the boat is still around and being enjoyed as a playboat,is it still the dual prop setup?

[AquaCraft]

There were two Donald Duck boats. The original was wood; it was always a v-drive and was a record setter in it's day. After racing hard for years and going over too many times it was retired a broken mess. That's the boat that was meticulously brought back to life and is pictured at the beginning of this thread. Donald Duck II was an exact replica built with a 'glass hull and this rig was the one set-up with the surface props. Donald Duck II did not end-up a successful racer with the surface props. The drive system was removed and despite the best efforts of many, the location of the hull is a mystery. As life is short and time stops for no one; my partner with the original Donald Duck; like the original owners; has faithfully duplicated the boat again with a plan to make a mold and lay-up another 'glass Donald Duck II.

[poncho]

cool thanks for answering,i have an old outboard racer friend who was always triyng new things some good some not so good fun guys to hang with cant look at something mechanical without an eye to improvement

[Terrible toy]

WOW! that is tight (as my son would say):cool:. I thought I'd seen everything...wrong again for the nth time. How fast did the "Duck" finally go?

OH! and welcome "New Old Guys", looks like you'll fit right in with all the "prop nuts" littering up the place.:D

[AquaCraft]

"Donald Duck 31E's boat is a late 1940's 16' wood Mandella made former E boat racer with an extensive race history. Donald Duck has belonged to it's current owner about 30 years and has been restored and repowered."

...I just got a message from Donald Duck 31E's owner; he needed to remind me that he has had the boat 43 years, not "just" 30...

So there, there is my "quacktion" (correction) on Donald.

That's what I get for doing him a favor and including him in an introduction.

Maybe he will start writing his own 'stuff now...?

He needs to tell the story himself of the 70 MPH pass past "Ports of Call" in Los Angeles Harbor; you know; in the 5 MPH zone? An off-and-on the trailer drill and half-track pass before the harbor police got there when he worked at Norm's Landing?

...Quack!

[Donald Duck 31E]

Thanks to Aquacraft and this site- didn't know my boat could be that interesting to others besides myself. I first saw it when I was 13 and had to have it-got it in torn up shape at 19 and have now had it for 43 years. A couple "Quactions"- My boat (the original wood one) did originally have a flathead with a v.drive, owned and driven by Paul Terheggen, but was modified by Paul and friends to the twin prop configuration with the small injected hemi. This is the transom shot in the Dec. 1976 Powerboat article. A fiberglass hull was then built from the wood original, and the same twin prop chain driven drive was installed-creating Donald Duck II. If you compare the picture in the '76 Powerboat article with the '56 Speed and Spray transom shot you can see the slight transom difference between the 2 hulls. After that, Paul Terheggen got out of it and his partner Ted Peterson took over, and the trail goes cold. Paul Terheggen told me that the original was quite successful-both in the v-drive configuration and with the twin props-he said that the 80 mph speedometer(still in the boat) would peg as soon as you nailed it and anybody behind couldn't get by because of the roostertail. Thanks to all

[FC-Pilot]

Donald Duck, it is boats like yours that helped make this sport so great. It is a combination of the past, present and what the future holds that makes this sport so great. Thank you for taking the time to share the info as I have enjoyed it very much. I am sure others on the site have also. Feel free to share pictures and info as we love it all.

Paul

[RiverRacer]

He needs to tell the story himself of the 70 MPH pass past "Ports of Call" in Los Angeles Harbor; you know; in the 5 MPH zone? An off-and-on the trailer drill and half-track pass before the harbor police got there when he worked at Norm's Landing?

I want to hear this story in "DETAIL"...:D

[Donald Duck 31E]

Iwas 19 or 20 and had just got the boat together. It was a slow day at the hoist at Norm's Landing and my boss Bill Kemper let me go pick up my boat at Long Beach and bring it down to the hoist. We launched it and I took the boss for a ride. We didn't see any harbor patrol so I nailed it for a short burst up channel on the wrong (west) side. Idropped it back to idle and started back down channel. About the time I was gonna nail it again, the Harbor Police boat poked it's nose out from their slip up by the old ferry building. I don't think they ever saw us, but just heard the noise. They sat there for a bit then backed back into their slip. We gave them enough time to get tied up and back to lunch, then nailed it again back to the slings which we had left in the water. About the time I was heading back through the parking lot for Long Beach The Police boat went by Norms Landing on plane heading towards the outer harbor. We presumed they were looking for us. That's the last time my boat's ever been in salt water. That's all there was to it-thanks for the interest-it brings back memories from those fun times

[RiverRacer]

That is a cool story, if that would have been me I'd a got busted for sure, LOL..:D

[FC-Pilot]

Me too. I never get lucky like that.:mad:

Paul

[Donald Duck 31E]

Just want to let you know that I just put some pictures of Donald in the photo section.

[AquaCraft]

http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=80&pictureid=406

Thanks for putting your photos in the photo section, awesome!

[AquaCraft]

http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=80&pictureid=404Just want to let you know that I just put some pictures of Donald in the photo section.


...what a history; how long have I been a Donald Duck fan and never saw these vintage photos...thanks for sharing!

[Donald Duck 31E]

There's more where those came from-

[Stickman]

Why is it 31E and not E31?

[E-boat racer]

In that era, APBA gave racing numbers with the letter first for boats
east of the Mississippi and with the number ahead of the class letter
for all of the western boats. 31-E was correct.

Rob

[RiverRacer]

http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=80&pictureid=406

Thanks for putting your photos in the photo section, awesome!

Shit, I've seen that boat before that's at Buena Vista, that was our second home back then, along with the river, lol...

[shooter2]

Man does that thing ever look short. It must have been quite interesting to drive. The onlyt thing that I can compare to that in length was a 16 ft J-Craft with a bbc. The nose on that boat did a strange circular motion, kind of a clock wise rotation. Guess you had to be there. So what was that boat like to drive?

Brian

[Donald Duck 31E]

I can't speak for the guys that raced the boat years ago, but in its present configuration (I'm running off the rear of the engine instead of the front) it turns quite well even to the left. The biggest problem I've encountered is torque while accelerating in a straight line. The boat is only 15'9" long and only 70" wide at the widest point and 52" wide at the transom. Even with quite dissimilar plate adjustments from corner to corner to compensate for torque, it can be an unpredictable ride out of the hole. Once past that hurdle it takes a not too uncomfortable set until around 6000 r.p.m. Anything above that and the left side starts to lift and the right chine has a tendency to dig in- making any steering correction chancy. From my research I believe the boat has been flipped 12 times, one of which times Paul Terheggen was very seriously injured by going through the deck with his head. According to Paul, the boat was lost for 28 days until it showed up a mile downriver. I've never flipped the boat, but have come close numerous times in my younger "stupid" years. It is quite "quick" out the hole (in my estimation) and very fun to drive in the right conditions. Thanks for the interest.

[RiverRacer]

Short boat and tons of prop torque to the right, what size prop and gear you running and what is the shaft angle???..

[Donald Duck 31E]

Menkens built the prop specifically for this boat (he was familiar with it). It's an 11/14 3-blade with much smaller ears than your usual out of the box 11/14 to compensate for the bite vs. the narrow hull. The gear is 14% overdrive. When rebuilding the hull at Bud Lebel's shop way long ago I remember we decided to use the old strut but he decided we should sink the strut slightly into the bottom at a slightly different angle, reducing the shaft angle. That change plus moving the prop up close to the strut necessitated going down to an 11" diameter prop. I'm not sure what the exact prop angle is, but if my memory serves me right, I believe it ended up being around 9 degrees. I have to stress that at that time I was new to the v-drive scene, and Bud Lebel was the cornerstone of me realizing my dream.

[Terrible toy]

Really cool stuff, took some nerve to drive a boat awarded the most likely to flip trophy.:D Any pics of the trans or v-drive?

[RiverRacer]

Menkens built the prop specifically for this boat (he was familiar with it). It's an 11/14 3-blade with much smaller ears than your usual out of the box 11/14 to compensate for the bite vs. the narrow hull. The gear is 14% overdrive. When rebuilding the hull at Bud Lebel's shop way long ago I remember we decided to use the old strut but he decided we should sink the strut slightly into the bottom at a slightly different angle, reducing the shaft angle. That change plus moving the prop up close to the strut necessitated going down to an 11" diameter prop. I'm not sure what the exact prop angle is, but if my memory serves me right, I believe it ended up being around 9 degrees. I have to stress that at that time I was new to the v-drive scene, and Bud Lebel was the cornerstone of me realizing my dream.

Well, moving the prop up and dropping the angle is going in the right direction, a 2 blade will take some of that torque away also!..

[Donald Duck 31E]

Terrible Toy- There's a pretty good picture of the chain-driven twin prop drive in the photo section. The present v-drive is an old square top casale directly driven(no neutral)

[Donald Duck 31E]

RiverRacer- Thanks for the info on the prop.

[RiverRacer]

RiverRacer- Thanks for the info on the prop.

You're quite welcome!.. Remember, small prop tall gear easier to drive!..

[Donald Duck 31E]

RiverRacer- I'd like to see some more of your Stevens- I'm kind of hung up on the older stuff, and I always liked the lines of the Stevens. I went by the shop a couple times around the time I was first putting mine together. I believe I still have a brochure. If you have the time, I'd really like to have the way he laid up the hulls explained to me in detail(the vertical hull /mold seam)- I was never clear on that at the time. Thanks

[RiverRacer]

I'll see if I can dig some up for ya, never did get to watch him lay one up, only been in there a few times just before he closed up the shop!..