©
Editor’s note Great to see that the UK powerboat clubs have finally been allowed to put boats back on the water and the general public can return to watch the spectacle. A safe and fun season to all those taking part. We are still in a holding pattern here at Fast On Water but we hope to be able to report our future plans over the next few months. Next year sees the 50th anniversary of the very first race in Bristol’s Floating Harbour and it is hoped that we can celebrate this during 2022.
Published by Fast On Water Publications 2021 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 Kevin Desmond Roy Cooper
Contents 2. The Johnson Brothers
Cover photo: Bert Savidge, Oulton Broad, c1949. Photo Daily Mirror
6. 1979 Rouen 24 Hours 14. The Future of Motor Boat Racing 1945 16. Percy Pritchard 21. The Whippet Class
1
The Johnson Brothers The outboard motor industry saw more than just the rise of Elto in the early 1920s. Other players had also entered the marketplace. The newly formed Johnson Motors Company burst onto the scene with a twin-cylinder motor, quickly taking leadership away from Evinrude Motors. Much like Evinrude, Johnson Motors began as a family owned and operated business. In 1908, with just the bare basics for parts, the brothers Johnson crafted their first marine engine in a barn in Terre Haute, Indiana.
powered by the Johnson ‘V’ engine was the ‘Black Demon III.’ It was never beaten in a race and set many speed records. It was powered by two 2-cycle V-12s, each having 180 hp.
The sons of a railroad blacksmith, the boys made their own patterns and castings, and the engine worked. There were four Johnson brothers whose interest turned to the internal combustion engine. They were; Julius (born in 1886), who was a machinist; Louis (1881), the designer; Harry (1884), the thinker and planner; and Clarence (1895), the mechanic.
While marine engines were the main focus of the Johnson brothers, they also developed an aircraft motor. The lightweight V-4, two-cycle motor produced 60-hp. Since the Johnsons had no aircraft on which to test the motor, they decided to build one. In 1910, seven years after the flight of Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Johnson brothers built the first American monoplane to actually take flight.
Louis was the oldest of seven children born to Soren and Bertha Johnson. Lou was described as a natural leader and an innovator. Like Ole Evinrude, Lou Johnson conceived of the idea for a motor one hot day in 1903 when he had to row his 18-foot boat, the Arrow, ten miles upstream to harvest walnuts. Lou’s first engine was a single-cylinder, two-cycle, 3-hp monster, weighing in at 150 pounds. By 1905, the Johnson brothers, Lou, Harry and Clarence, had perfected their creation to a single-cylinder, 3-hp engine weighing only 65 pounds. With an interest in speed, the brothers expanded to both two and fourcylinder inline models and tested them in the Black Demon, a 26-foot displacement boat. The Black Demon raced down the Wabash River at speeds of up to 18 mph. Among the most famous racing boats to be 2
The plane weighed 750 pounds, had a 36-foot wingspan and measured 34 feet from propeller to tail and was flown by Lou. The monoplane quickly gave the brothers celebrity status, drawing invitations to attend county fairs and carnivals throughout the state. Visitors paid 25 cents to take a look at the machine. In addition, Lou piloted the plane in contests, once winning $1000.
Wheel Company was founded. Because the motor wheel was very hard on magnetos, burning them out as quickly as they could be replaced, the Johnsons began to discuss possible solutions with Warren Ripple, owner of the Quick-Action Ignition Company in South Bend, Indiana. Ripple took a special interest in the manufacture of the motors and helped facilitate a move of the company to South Bend in March 1918. The motor wheel was very successful, selling more than 17,000 units during the years it was manufactured. However, the Johnson Motor Wheel Company went out of business in 1921 with the introduction of the low-cost Ford Model T and the onset of the recession.
The Johnson brothers continued to handcraft airplane and seaplane motors while building and selling marine motors and racing motorboats. Business was good, with the brothers selling products just as fast as they could make them. Then on Easter Sunday 1913 disaster struck as a tornado tore the Johnson factory from its foundations, destroying everything within. The Johnsons had no insurance, so rebuilding was out of the question. Recovering from that disaster, the Johnsons next designed a small engine to power bicycles. Thus, the Johnson Motor
Coming off this recent disappointment, the Johnson brothers began to look again at the marine industry. The first prototype outboard motor was tested in the spring of 1921 in a lightweight boat built by Warren Conover. The test was successful, and the Johnson Motor Company was incorporated 3
one month later in South Bend, Indiana. Warren Ripple was named as the company’s first president. The first Johnson outboard motor was produced on December 19, 1921. The 2-hp opposed twin engine was made largely of aluminium alloys, weighed only 35 lbs (when other motors weighed in at 60 lbs) and featured a full-pivot reverse, could be tilted for beaching and swiveled 360 degrees on its bracket. It was also reliable and easy to start. By 1923 Johnson sold 7,000 motors. An even lighter, 27 lb model was introduced for 1925.
Marine and Manufacturing Company. By 1937 Johnson sales exceeded those of Evinrude and Elto, and the 1 millionth Johnson outboard was produced in 1952. This article is compiled from a variety of sources.
In 1922, the Johnson brothers purchased a license from the Hult brothers of the Pentaverken company in Skovde, Sweden to use one of their patented inventions for outboard motors on the Johnson outboards. In that same year, Johnson introduced the Light Twin and the Waterbug. Both designs won recognition in the National Motor Boat Show that year and the company received orders for 3,429 units. Each unit sold for $140. The following year, orders reached 7,000 units. As the Johnson Motor Company began to win acclaim and market share, other companies such as Evinrude began to feel the pressure. Johnson built its business on performance. Its 1926 P-30 Big Twin made 6 hp and could push a light boat to 23 mph, an astounding speed at the time. Johnson moved from South Bend to a new waterfront plant on Lake Michigan in Waukegan, Illinois. In the late 1920s an ad agency coined the name Johnson Sea Horse. The Johnson brothers held over two hundred patents and revolutionized the American outboard motor. In 1935, Ralph Evinrude and Steve Briggs bought the company and made it the third leg, with Elto and Evinrude, of Outboard 4
Johnson 2.5 Twin
5
6
Rouen 1979 By Kevin Desmond (written in 1979)
Imagine, if you will, competing in a race around an island on a river, not only full of driftwood but subject to a tidal change of 1.5 metres every six hours, causing waves of 3 to 5ft. Add to that some ten hours of night-time driving with headlights, which are often ineffective because the bow of your boat is bouncing up and down so much. Add to that the necessity of completing anything between 100 and 150 laps in an unconventional clockwise direction – and you have something of a challenge of the 24-hour endurance race as has been contested at Rouen, every 30th April/1st May for the past sixteen years.
This year’s battle on the Seine will be remembered for a long time to come for a number of reasons. There were 42 boats (30 French, 3 British, 3 Argentine, 2 Swedish, 2 Dutch, 1 Belgian, 1 Swiss and 1 Italian) and the emphasis was on the OE and SEN classes – 18 Johnsons, 10 Mercurys, 5 Evinrudes, 5 Volvos – as well as Yamaha, Carniti, Renault and Fiat-Abarth could be heard. France had as bad a winter and early spring as we had. The weather was cold but sunny as 42 boats milled around between William the Conqueror and Joan of Arc bridges for the 4.00 pm start. Just two minutes before, thanks to the previous weeks rains, a tree some 30 to 40ft in length was hoisted out of the water onto the pits by mobile crane. If it had remained out in the Seine, halfsubmerged, unnoticed, it could have put at least half a dozen boats out of the race in the first minute. But all the boats got away and completed their first 3.6km clockwise circuit, averaging the two minutes it takes, with Renato Molinari in the lead.
However, motorboat racing at Rouen goes back further than that – much further! In 1903, a 230-mile race was organised for ‘automobile-canoes’ – both cruisers and racers, from Paris to the sea, mapped out in six stages, on succeeding days – taking in Rouen. Twenty-nine of fifty entries crossed the line, eighteen entries finishing at Trouville. The winning boat, a 35hp Daimler engined Mercedes took 101/2 hours, whilst the slowest took over 25 hours! ‘Paris-to-thesea was contested for the next ten years. In 1905, the ‘Rouen Cup’ race was instituted for automobile canoes to develop their robustness, seaworthiness, practicability and economy. The course ran from Rouen Docks to Le Havre – but this was only a reliability trial open to the French.
A word about the two boats competing in the R2 Catamaran Class. Both Renault and Fiat motors were used for powerboat racing some 75-years ago – before Evinrude, Johnson or Mercury had ever been heard of – and they won prizes even then. Fiat racing engines were successfully used in the 1920s and 1930s as well, particularly by Count Theo Rossi (Martini and Rossi).
The French are famous for their ‘Double Twelve’ endurance contests. the Le Mans 24hour race was first established for sports cars in 1923 and has been going ever since. Only days before this year’s powerboat race the French newspapers were reporting on the 24hour races for both motorcycling and walking. 7
Bur Rouen ’79 was the first re-appearance of these ‘grandpa’ companies since the war. As might be expected, both engines experienced teething troubles. The Renault 20TS/Cormorant rig, piloted by Messieurs Jaubertie, Thurel and Garnier met with ignition trouble and oil leakage, whilst the Fiat-Abarth/ Molinari rig piloted by Signori Molinari, Vassena and Panzeri suffered oil problems and overheating from insufficient water-cooling so that by the 6th hour (10 o’clock at night), the Renault boat was almost 100 laps behind the leading boat, and the Fiat some 43 laps behind.
The above Molinari was auctioned as the boat that won in 1979
As for the rest, for the first 6 hours, Barbot, Barbot and Garcia Montes kept the lead in their Argentine Mercury-engined OE rig, Messieurs Mohamedi and Izard of France taking over at nightfall for the next five hours, to be overtaken by the Italians. As for the English boats – Rouen ’78 had been won against a pack of cats by Messrs Covill, Hedge and Rowe in a Johnson-engined Vbottomed OE rig. Now Mr and Mrs Covill and Alex Rodrigues had returned with the Johnson SE Bluefin Barracuda, Forresters, whilst Messrs Roger Hedge, Tony Rowe and Jon Knight had turned up 50 yards away at the pits with their Ron Wolbold-built Johnson Bluefin, Wildfire – both V-hulls. The third English boat was Drurypowder Five, an Evinrude Barracuda SE cat to be piloted by Messrs Bob Andrews, Malcolm Burnapp and Garner.
After his 1976 Mercury-engined victory in this race, Molinari had said he would never \return to Rouen. But here he was, with the biggest workshop lorry in the pits, two spare engines, a twelve-man back-up team, and his fully experienced co-pilot Angelo Vassena. Thus over the next 18 hours, whilst the Renault dropped out of the race, the Fiat planed around the base of Pierre Corneille’s bridge as if on underwater rails and proceeded to a nocturnal come-back, steadily lowering the lap distance so that by the 12th hour they were in 1st place and beginning to build up their lap advantage over the second boat. By the end of the race, their blue and yellow striped ‘wasp-tiger’ was roaring round some 41 laps ahead of the second boat. They had also broken the lap speed record of 114kph by the Jousseaume brothers, up to 119.447kph (or 1min 48.8 secs). But his 80.4kph average for the 24 hours was lower than that of his 1976 victory. 8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Pritchard’s Doretta
Bullo Pill, Newnham 1938. Percy Pritchard leaves the BHRC clubhouse.
Boat under construction, Southampton 17
Steve Kerton testing the restored Percy Pritchard’s Berylla II at Wyboston, 2018
18
19
20
21
22
The History of Championship Motorboat Racing It all started in 1986 when the UIM published a list of world and European champions in one of their monthly newsletters. However, this was incomplete and did not include any of the many obsolete classes. So I started my quest to compile a list of every championship result since the 1930’s, and it soon became apparent that this was not going to be an easy task. This was illustrated on my first visit to the UIM archives when it became apparent that most of the pre-1980 results were missing. A phone call to the previous secretary confirmed that when the UIM relocated from Belgium to Monaco the archive did not make the trip. This scenario would be repeated with many other federations around the world after they either moved office or were taken over by another faction which had little interest in motorboat racing. So, after 30 years of research, I have finally decided to publish the various volumes which are as complete as I could possibly achieve. The photos of the champions were a late addition. However, if anybody is able to fill in any missing information or supply an obscure photo, I would be glad to hear from them. Mike Ward
23
24
25
26
