My Father ,
and the Fireball .

Hello everybody this is another story about father and son.
Well it’s more like father on his own because it was long  before I was born.

Dad was a certified A grade mechanic and he had his own garage on the corner where the Wonthaggi post office is now located , back in the day it was a Shell  branded garage with a residence built on top called booth motors and he worked there as a mechanic and  he and my mum and two older sisters lived upstairs there .

Dad one day ordered himself a brand new inboard configuration boat in the form of a bare  clunker type hull ,
A clinker  hull is like house planks layed on the bottom of the hull instead of it being smooth , he ordered her as both a race and ski multipurpose  boat outfit , so it was  one boat when it arrived he had to fix her out completely out with a high horsepower output engine of his own specifications and he then actually bought the engine plant off of a travelling speed pro parts sales Representative 
Carol Frecan that regularly came to his garage.

He brought the race engine of him secondhand , so it was pre run in ready to race and it was a big V8 Ford side valve it was already a fully maranised engine , which he then fitted that engine into the engine mounting points that were mid mounted into his boat.

A Mid mount engine is quicker off the mark per HP as the weight of the engine is much more evenly spread to make planing the hull a significantly much faster option than a rear mount engine.

There was no clutch
system invented for inboard’s back in those days , so it was just a direct drive connection from the engine rear flywheel  to the propeller via a solid driveshaft, so there’s heaps more usable horsepower at the prop , but unfortunately there’s no reverse gear , and dad then called his new race boat fireball ,
and he raced it in B grade racing all around the countryside .

It had two front forward facing seats for racing and one facing back  just for a skiing observer as he wanted to use the boat for racing and skiing ,
It was direct drive so of course you then lose no horsepower but you have no reverse gear. You have to push it out of the bank or push it out of the sand to get going.

When he raced in those days it was compulsory that they had to have a copilot,  and most of the time that copilot for my dad was Don Ruby  who reluctantly probably was his co pilot and sitting in the by other front  seat with him for every race and he would just go and hang on for the ride ,
I wonder if he did open his eyes ,

so I asked the question on my mind and I asked Dad how do you turn a boat at that sort of speed?

He replied there’s two ways mate you can get to the bouy then you can back it off and slow it down and turn and then speed up again but that’s a really slow way.

The other way is you pick a wave or or a bit of a lip of water just before the boy and hit it at full noise and spin the wheel hard and you launch yourself sideways and jump up into the air then you hopefully land at full noise facing the right way and away you go ,

So I guess this was a bit scary for any of the passengers that had never experienced this type of thing before as they weren’t used to it and boat racing , as it doesn’t even look that fast from the land .

Some races Dad went to Don couldn’t go so he actually asked someone random in the crowd if they want to go for a ride of course they would excitedly say yes and jump at the offer ,

On then goes the white stack hat with the soft leather sided open faced helmets and the necessary goggles ,
allowing you to see as at high speed in a boat you get like blurred vision from the wind in your eyes they begin to water hard at around a speed of 80 kmph and above .

You tell your new copilot to hang on tight .
So it’s over now to the race starter.
And a pistol shot and you are all away at break neck speed  ,
hoping for the hole shot as it’s easier to win from the front position and you see you re all trying so hard to get to the first bouy in first position with your pilots foot pushing the pedal  so hard  down to the floor ,
You launch yourself and your boat sideways in the air .
The co pilot by this time is usually the colour pure white or green .

The race is on , and it’s just for a short time , and then a few quick laps of the circuit in Fireball , with the pilot Cannonball hard on the gas .

But it was always going to the first and last time that the person dad invited would dare again to ride in a fast as boat .
So he would then go and find a new passenger in the crowd for the next race ,

So now I’m building myself a fast boat at the minute called
Dylby Roo  ,
Hope I one day I get to take my old man in it for a blast together from both the future and the past .

Hmm
Maybe I can turn him white or green
It’s yet to be seen

Cheers xxx
Curlyg