Fast On Water Magazine Issue 28 by Roy Cooper

Published by Fast On Water Publications 2021

Editor’s note There is still much uncertainty around what this year will be like, regarding events and fundraising. The vaccine roll-out will, hopefully, allow things to get back to a degree of normality and it is possible that there could be an event in some shape or form later in the year. Once again, we have to say goodbye to another of our powerboat family. It was with sadness that we heard of the passing of Wilf Gregory. This issue contains Wilf’s race career in his own words. There is also a new section on ex-racer’s hobbies. If you have a hobby you would like to share, please let us know.

All articles and photographs are copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission. Editor Roy Cooper

Contributors Bob Williams Dave and Chris Steer Roy Cooper

Contents

Cover photo: Michael Werner From the John Walker archive

In Memory of Wilf Gregory

11.

The Iver Icicle

13.

The Bert Savidge Collection

20.

My Hobby – Bob Williams

22.

Racing at Thrapston in the 1960s

In Memory of Wilf Gregory 1930 - 2021 The following piece was kindly written for Fast On Water by Wilf Gregory on the 21st October 2010

I completed my National Service in the Royal Navy from 1948 to 1951 and was demobbed with qualifications in the repair and maintenance of marine engines. It was in 1958 that I started driving ‘fast’ boats in a 12foot clinker built wooden hull with an 18hp Perkins outboard motor on the River Trent at Burton; achieving the ‘breakneck’ speeds of 32 mph. That was it – I’d got the ‘bug’.

stuff! Unfortunately, Ron hit a turn buoy in the darkness and we lost two hours repairing the damage, but we still got a finishers award. Later that year I won a National Invitation Race at Carr Mill, home of the Lancashire Power Boat Racing Club. In 1966, I got Ron Wolbold to build me a 16foot Blu Fin single seat monohull. I broke the bank to buy a new 100hp Merc and went serious racing. I entered the second Chasewater 24 Hour Race with Ron as copilot. The boat performed very well and we won the IU Class. I also won the Cyril Benstead Memorial Trophy that year.

In 1961 I bought a new 14ft Yarecraft from their Yarmouth boatyard for the princely sum of £495. A lot of lolly in those days. I attached a second-hand 850 Merc (they were painted white in those days). This boat I named Fancy Pants because the young females were always leaning over the gunwhales when it was on the trailer and partially exposing their frillies. I joined Chasewater Power Boat Club that same year.

Early 1967 saw me working for Fred Miles Marine just before Dave Burgess was tempted to leave Bill Shakespeare’s yard in Tewkesbury to build race boats under the Milesmaster banner. I didn’t get a drive in any of Fred’s boats until later. That same year, I raced my Blu Fin in a number of National races and won the Daily Express Trophy at Iver, beating several ‘celebrities’ including Lady Fiona Arran. I also entered the boat in the Duchess of York Trophy at Chasewater, winning the UI Class but having to be content with 3rd overall.

Over the 1963/64 seasons I ‘learnt the trade’, competing in as many National and Club races that I could possibly get to. In 1964 I won the Express and Star Regent Oil Trophy and then shared the drive in the first Chasewater 24 Hour Race with Ron Burchell (I think he was an Oulton Broad Club member), using his Levi hull. The lake was floodlit, and the marker buoys illuminated. All exciting

In 1968 I took the boat, now named Blu Fin Volante, to race in Stockholm Harbour accompanied by Ron Wolbold, Roy Parks (and 2

my Uncle Harold). We had a very eventful journey hauling the boat and trailer onto the ferry at Harwich to Rotterdam, overland to Lubeck, another ferry to Copenhagen, then a change of ferries to Gothenburg, followed by a hair-raising drive through the night (each of us taking a turn at the wheel) across Sweden to Stockholm. I raced against almost every make and type of boat one could imagine, including a handful of 28-foot Cigarette Boats, for 3 solid hours. I eventually came third out of 92 (yes, 92) starters. After the race, the organisers accused me of using an ‘illegal’ engine despite the lead Mercury Marine crankcase seals being still intact. They just could not believe that a puny little outfit like mine could humiliate their mighty inboard/outboard monsters. Ron Masterman, who was one of the Mercury Engine specialists from South Western Marine of Poole, Dorset, threatened to sue the race organisers on behalf of Mercury so they very quickly backed down. The sponsors of the race presented me and the team with a small silver cup, an equally small glass goblet and just £250 for all that effort; and to crown it all, we got nailed by the Swedish ‘Stasi’ on the motorway back to Gothenburg for using the outside lane of a 2-lane highway, because anything towing a trailer in Sweden was confined to the inside lane. That cost us £25 of the winnings before they would allow us onto the ferry for Hull!

That same year, Dave Burgess built his first catamaran for Fred Miles. After a very brief run in the pitch darkness on Chasewater to check power trim function etc., Fred and I set off for Liege to take part in their first attempt at staging a 3-hour race on the River Meuse. During practice, despite being warned of a very dangerous barrage across the river at the bottom end of the course and marked by two extremely large red buoys, Bill Shakespeare and Jeremy James approached this hazard at high speed. Jeremy plunged over the steep drop and was killed. Bill managed to avoid the edge by just a few feet and was able to recover and alert the course marshals of the disaster.

Later in 1969, I drove a Shakespeare monohull for Fred Miles Marine in a race at Oulton Broad just prior to setting off for Amsterdam for the 3-hour race there. (see front cover of Powerboat and Watersport Magazine, November 1969 opposite, I am the driver of boat no.2). I took pole position for the start of this race in Holland, but as I recall, this was a very rough race with many capsizes and incidents and I can’t now remember where we finished.

The Miles/Burgess boat that I drove in that race was quite quick and I managed to pull out a good lead in the first hour, practically a whole lap ahead of the field. I handed the boat over to the co-driver (someone who was a friend of Fred Miles and whose name I cannot recall), but after a few laps the motor blew and he had to be towed in from way down the course. We were unable to repair 3

the damaged motor so that was the end of that race for the team.

This entire trip, towing the rig from the Midlands through Europe and return, some 1,970 miles, was completed in my well worn Jaguar 3.4 saloon, which never missed a beat throughout the whole journey.

Towing the boat, Fred Miles and I then drove on from Liege to Berlin and I was excited to pilot this excellent hull in the first Berlin 6 Hour Race on the Wansee. After four hours (all of which I drove incidentally) we were fed contaminated fuel from an ancient petrol bowser that had been resurrected for just this occasion. We subsequently came to a stop on the course and it took forever for a tiny, slow, marshal’s runabout to get me back to the pits. After flushing out the fuel lines we rejoined the race but abandoned any hope of a place. We did manage to complete the last few laps to qualify for a finisher’s award and although the result was disappointing, the experience was good.

1970 was the year I got married – no racing for a while, and no prizes for guessing why!! Back to racing in 1971, and Fred Miles entered one of the next generation of Burgess cats in Paris in October (see photo below of boat, No. 33). This one was smooth and quick and with one of the early T3 Mercury motors, I was timed through the Measured Kilometre on the Seine at 128 mph, which was pretty quick in those days against stiff American and Italian opposition. I seem to recall that we came 4th but I’m not sure.

After Paris I started my own business called Solihull Boats. This was a small retail ski boat and engine workshop on Oulton Boulevard in Solihull so therefore, due to business commitments; I was unable to do much racing of note for a while. During this period I did manage an occasional club blowout with the Blu Fin but because I was unable to spare the time (or the cash) to race, with a heavy heart, I sold the Blu Fin to Peter Balmford.

Fred and I then drove South West from Berlin, through the Black Forest (staying overnight in Baden Baden) towing the boat to Lake Como in Italy where we again took part in a 3-hour marathon but were unsuccessful. Renato Molinari and Cesar Scotti were also in that race. After Como we drove up through France to take part in the Paris 6 Hours in October but we weren’t allowed to race due to ‘paperwork irregularities’ (entry not received in time). The Paris race was always oversubscribed and the French organisers insisted on restricting the entries to the number allowed by the Seine river authority.

In 1973 I co-drove with Alf Bullen in one of the early Windermere races with his Cougar cat and V4 Johnson motor. I think we got a finisher’s award in this race. In order to get back into serious racing, I bought a lightly used ‘pickle fork’ Burgess cat from Bill Kendrick and then the much-raced Johnson V4 from Alf that we used at Windermere in 4

’73. I entered and ran this outfit in several National races including Windermere in ’74 or ’75; I can’t remember which as I have no records and only a few photographs of my racing during this period. What I can remember, was that this was my first encounter with the American OMC Wankel Rotary outboard engines. Absolutely awesome!

a finisher’s award. I ran the Peverell boat in the 1978 Duchess of York race at Chasewater and picked up the 3rd place ON prize. I also ran this boat in the Embassy Grand Prix at Bristol and had another breathless battle with John Nicholson; again picking up the 3rd place ON prize and the Duckhams Oil Special Award after again repairing a damaged hull to finish.

This old Burgess boat performed extremely well in the 1976 Embassy Grand Prix meeting at Bristol and I was presented with the Champion Spark Plug Special Award in ON Class and the Strand Glass Fibre Award for outstanding performance. I completed this race with a stellated fracture of the left kneecap after I’d tripped in the pits trying to carry three props, a life jacket and my helmet before the race had even started. After the race I had to be manhandled out of the cockpit in an exhausted and pain wracked state. The St. John Ambulance team took me to Bristol Royal Infirmary and my left leg was in plaster for several weeks. Later in ’76 I got Jim Peverelle to build me an ON hull (I couldn’t afford a new Burgess). Between us we got this boat travelling quite quickly and I had a few ding dong battles with John Nicholson’s Hodges at Bristol and Chasewater.

Peverelle hull, Bristol 1978

A short while later I was approached by Valentine Paints to run a sponsored Burgess boat in their colours. This was the golden opportunity to get into the big time although Valentine stressed that it was only a trial venture into powerboat racing in order to promote their Marine Paints Division. I raced this new Valentine/Burgess hull, and other subsequent hulls, with Dave Burgess running the team. We entered the Embassy meeting at Bristol and won the first heat convincingly. The

In 1977 I entered the Peverelle boat in the Marlboro Jubilee Cup on the Thames. We were running a comfortable 2nd when I hit a submerged log under Chelsea Bridge and almost sank. A quick sticking plaster repair and we were up and running again; receiving

second heat looked like going the same way but the sheer speed of this flier carried me into the SS Great Britain turn so fast that I barrel rolled whilst leading by a street and,

Chasewater 1978 5

I’m afraid, that was that for my Bristol weekend.

In 1980 with the engine rebuilt, we continued to race this hull with further success, winning the Champion of Champions at Fairford in preparation for the Embassy Gold Cup race. Putting up a good show (being televised by the BBC) we finally had to give way to Roger Jenkins. We also came a creditable second in the British Grand Prix at Chasewater. After that, we again went to Bristol for the Embassy meeting in the docks and did reasonably well, picking up the Duke of York Special Award in ON Class. It was whilst setting up the boat for a crack at the European Sprint Championships at Holme Pierrepont that my racing world came literally crashing down.

Dave Burgess then built a light sprint boat with which I won the 1979 British Grand Prix at Chasewater. We took this hull to Paris for the 6 Hour and it just screamed up the river during practise. This was the year that OMC of America brought their V8 3litre monsters to show everybody how it was done. In the race,

It was August Bank Holiday weekend. I had driven several laps of the course at speeds that allowed the Valentine cameramen to take action footage for a promotional film and some still shots for their following year’s calendar. There was a slight breezy headwind blowing down the course that rippled the water but this had not unduly troubled me; so in order to ‘clear the gases’ out of the motor that had been idled for a few laps I opened the taps wide and let the boat fly. I believe that Dave Burgess had clocked an unofficial time of just over the lap record prior to my flip so I knew that the rig was really ‘hot’. The boat was travelling very fast nearing the 1500 metre mark on the upwind stretch and I remember the hull just lifting on the breeze moments before it finally let go. The boat somersaulted in the air and I was unable to ‘bail out’. The rest is history.

got away so fast that I was the second boat round the Statue of Liberty turn behind Barry Woods with a V8 Johnson. There were 7 or 8 other 3litre boats behind me and none of them caught me before the Pont d’Iena turn. Unfortunately, after 3 laps, the water got so rough being churned up by the V8s that my engine was revving way over the red line despite me constantly easing the throttle. I was still heading a number of the big boys when my engine decided it had had enough and let go finally popping a con rod through the side of the block and that, one can say, was the end of story.

my business and everything I had worked for for ten years. After such a disaster my sanity and my quality of life has always been unselfishly supported by a dedicated and loving wife and family. This has shielded me from mental torture and suicidal thoughts. But that’s another very long story. Footnote. I tried to get involved with fringe activities at Chasewater, even to being a race boat scrutineer but because of my disability I found it impossible to fulfil the requirements of this important task. I counted dozens of fellow powerboat racing adrenaline junkies and their pit crews as friends during my many years of circuit racing both in England and in Europe; it would be ungrateful of me at this point, not to thank them for the happier memories of my racing days.

Past the point of no return

I was hospitalised with several broken bones, the worst of which was a right leg femur in 5 pieces! That was the end of my racing career but the beginning of 30 years of abject misery after suffering the most disastrous medical negligence blunder imaginable; culminating in the almost total loss of my right leg. I spent a whole year in a hospital bed and was then discharged by a grossly incompetent orthopaedic surgeon whose refusal to accept liability resulted in 9 years of heartbreaking litigation to try and gain recompense. I lost

WG.

Wilf with wife Ann, son, Ian and daughter Elizabeth

The Bert Savidge Collection The Bert Savidge Collection came to us in 2016. It was kindly donated by Bert’s youngest son, John Savidge, who lives in Canada. We thank John, his sister, Chris Steer and husband Dave, for what is a very special collection. It comprises of Bert’s Jacoby hydroplane hull ‘Antelope I’ (named after the public house in Poole that he and other powerboat racers frequented) and twentythree outboard engines.

cylinder Lycoming engine, set several national and international speed records. Attracted by the speed and excitement, Bert began racing for himself. He purchased a 250cc hydroplane. Besides competing in the Poole area, he raced at other venues around London, Oulton Broad and Lake Windermere. In 1947 he came third in the Daily Mirror Trophy National Championship on Oulton Broad; coming second the following year and winning in 1949.

Bert was a member of the Lowestoft and Oulton Broad Motor Boat Club and the high point of his race career was the winning the 1949 Daily Mirror Trophy.

Bert holding the Daily Mirror Trophy

In 1950 he was the East Coast champion. In 1961 Bert was asked to be the engineer on board a catamaran cabin cruiser taking part in the Cowes-Torquay offshore powerboat race. The boat was powered by twin 75hp Johnson outboards. During the race they had to retire after hitting a large piece of driftwood at speed which holed the boat just off The Needles. As it was sinking fast, they

Bert winning the 1949 Daily Mirror Trophy

A race that got him into trouble with his employers, as he had told them he was off sick! As the winner of the race, the next day he found himself in a double page spread in the Daily Mirror. What could he say? – the photos said it all. Bert was born in Norwood, London and became a mechanic and then Technical Sales Representative for E P Barrus, the sole UK concessionaires for Johnson Outboard Motors. It was soon after the war that Bert became interested in hydroplanes, acting as the mechanic for Howard Notley. In the 1930s, Notley, piloting a 17ft 9inch Barrus Seahawk Blue Ace, fitted with a 150hp, 6-

beached the boat at speed on Alum Bay. Quite an adventure, but sadly no victory.

States to visit their factory. A trip that Bert and Ellen extended into a six-week vacation to tour the country.

Bert also featured in the United Kingdom team taking part in the European Championships on Lake Geneva, that, unfortunately didn’t show in the rankings.

Towards the end of his working career Bert started to collect and restore outboard engines. These included one of the first 25 engines ever built by Ole Evinrude and a 1915 detachable rowboat motor. The oldest Johnson in the collection is a 1929 Elto Service Speedster. The collection also includes a British Anzani and a Marston.

Bert in action

There were other memorable occasions including a publicity stunt in which Bert drove a small speedboat lying on the floor while singer and actress, Petula Clark, was filmed sitting in the cockpit. He also encouraged Jon Pertwee (he who played the third Doctor Who) to take up the sport.

The display at the Basildon Museum

In 1992, two years after Bert’s death, the National Boat Show at Earl’s Court, London, created a display in his memory. Following Ellen’s death in 1997, the collection of 23 engines and Bert’s hydroplane, Antelope 1, became the property of youngest son, John.

Unfortunately, the physical toll of kneeling in a racing hydroplane in invariably wet conditions led to Bert getting arthritis. On his doctor’s advice, the increasing financial cost, due to the meagre prize money and having a young family, Bert decided to retire from racing. Bert had three children; William, Christine and John.

John thought it appropriate to loan the collection to the National Motor Boat Museum in Basildon, which Bert had once visited with a friend. At an emotional ceremony, John told the gathering, which included some of Bert’s old friends and colleagues, ‘Our father started racing before the era of commercial sponsorship. His collection of outboards was acquired through friends and acquaintances and representing the technical benchmarks of their day…I’m sure it would have given him great pleasure and pride to know that through this display he will continue to share his interest with future generations.’

Bert on the left

On his retirement in 1976, Johnson Outboards showed their appreciation for his services by sending Bert and his wife, Ellen to the United 14 Bert on the left

The closure of the National Motor Boat Museum meant another home needed to be found for the collection. Initially Bert’s hydroplane and all the outboard engines, found a home in the unlikely location of an ex Cold War bunker at Bolt Point, Devon. In 2014, the bunker was sold and in 2015 Fast On Water took on the stewardship of the Bert Savidge Collection. Bert held shoulder high, August 1st 1949

1949,

The First Daily Mirror Trophy Race - 1936

My hobby by retired ex powerboat racer Bob Williams I suppose my first insight into Scalextric slot car racing came, when my father and mother bought me a set for a Christmas present when I was 11 years old. The sets in those days consisted of a basic oval track layout, some basic crash barriers and my set had 2 Vanwall F1 cars in British racing green. In my very early childhood, I took great interest in racing drivers like Peter Collins, Tony Brooks, Mike Hawthorn, and Sterling Moss, just to mention a few. In those days, rooms in our house were limited for size, so every time I wanted to play slot racing I had to bring the box out, assemble the track and then take it apart when I’d finished. After some time, I managed to save up my pocket money to buy some extra track and 2 more cars. One was a Cooper and the other a Lotus both powered by Coventry Climax engines.

good size layout was created. We then had a lot of interest from other people who wanted to come along and race their cars. We would meet up a couple of times a week and everyone would bring along their different cars to race. I remember one of the guys having a Carrol Shelby AC Cobra that was very quick. As the years passed my interest went from model slot car racing to learning to water ski and kart racing and then moving on to club powerboat racing with a Derry boat using a 35 HP Merc. As time rolled on, 2016 came and the day when my wife and I took retirement. After a while, I thought it would be nice to have a hobby to take me through the long winters when you can’t get outside. So I decided to build a permanent slot racing circuit in one of our spare rooms. Using ply cut to the required shape, the base board was then fixed to the walls using special brackets. Then the track was put down and the circuit took shape. The track buildings I constructed myself using balsa wood of different sizes; the various people I bought plain then hand painted them which was time consuming but very enjoyable. After a while I decided to install working track floodlights, to give a realistic impression of night-time racing. The start grid has a working gantry that houses the series of red lights that come on, then go out with green flashing lights to go. At present my car collection is small. I have a Mini Countryman WRC, a Ford RS 200 Rally, and a classic Ford Escort RS 1600 rally spec (very fast on track); a Lotus Type 49 (with the late Graham Hill behind the wheel) and 2 Audi TTS. This collection is of course ongoing as I hope to add to this with more classic cars. I must admit it is an enjoyable pastime when it’s cold and raining outside and it does bring back fond memories of my youth.

A couple of friends I knew at school were talking one day and it turned out they had the same interest in slot car racing as I did. It so happened that one of the boy’s parents owned a hotel in Torquay that had a large basement room that was not used, so after asking nicely we were told that we could use it to set up a large permanent slot track. We then went about getting ply boards cut to support the track around the edge of the room. Then by using large amounts of track, a 20

Bob’s Scalextric Layout

Are you an ex-racer and want to tell us about your hobby? Contact us at fastonwater@live.co.uk 21

Biography of Art Asbury by Doug Cunnington Available by email order from Doug Cunnington, Kimberley, BC dcchowie@hotmail .com The kick start to Art’s racing success was his driving of Miss Supertest II to a world record and still standing Canadian water speed record on November 1, 1957 at Picton, Ontario. The formation of the Canadiana RacingTeam that dominated limited class racing for a number of years was another of Art’s achievements. This book not only highlights his racing career and accomplishments, (which Art would probably say was just all in a day’s work), but also includes information on his family history and relationship to other hall of fame speed racers, his service in the Royal Canadian Airforce as part of a B-24 Liberator Bomber crew that had several successful missions against the enemy, and a look at Art as just a “regular” community minded guy. More than 300 photos,many from Art’s personal files, compliments of Chuck Boothby, plus information and photos from a multitude of others, complement his story. A great read and well researched record for anyone who is interested in hydroplane racing and especially for those who knew Art. 24