They are names from the golden age of unlimited hydroplane racing.
Boats like Slo-Mo-Shun, Miss Bardahl, Miss Budweiser and Miss Thriftway. Drivers like Lou Fageol, Mira Slovak, Bill Schumacher, Ron Musson and, of course, the great Bill Muncey.
Long before there were Mariners, Seahawks, SuperSonics and Sounders, Seattle had the thunderboats. And for one glorious week in August, those boats and those drivers churned the waters of Lake Washington and stirred the hearts of racing fans throughout the region.
To Doug Whitley of Marysville, they are all part of a sports history that needs to be preserved and remembered.
The 71-year-old Whitley, an owner and former driver of limited hydroplanes, is the new chairman of the American Power Boat Association’s Vintage and Historic Division. Appointed in March, Whitley will oversee the division that provides owners of classic hydros the chance to display and drive their boats in demonstration runs at APBA regattas.
For Whitley and others who love the sport, it is thrilling to see old boats on the water, just as they were a half-century ago.
“I guess you would’ve had to have been there to know some of the guys who ran those boats,” Whitley said. “We had a real camaraderie. Because although racing was dangerous, it was really a club.”
Whitley grew up in Everett and graduated from Arlington High School in 1957, a year before he started racing limited hydros. He competed at events around the Pacific Northwest, including Lake Goodwin in Snohomish County, driving a boat he named the Miss Goodwin.
Along the way, Whitley befriended Muncey, who was on his way to becoming the superstar of unlimited hydros. Muncey began his rise in 1956, when he won the APBA Gold Cup driving the Miss Thriftway, and over the next 25 years he won 62 unlimited races, more than any driver in history.
Muncey died in a blowover accident while driving the Atlas Van Lines at a race in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1981.
“I knew Bill fairly well,” Whitley said. “He was a pretty dynamic guy. He was like a rock star in those days. And he was always promoting the sport. I think he did more for the sport than anybody.”
Years ago, Muncey had a limited hydro designed by Seattle’s Ted Jones and built by his son Ron Jones, both notable names in hydros. Today Whitley owns that same boat — named Best Wishes, which was how Muncey signed his autograph — and has restored it with help from friends.
Owning a boat once belonging to Bill Muncey is a little like having a bat used by Babe Ruth.
“The first time I sat in the cockpit, sitting in Bill’s seat, it was a very eerie feeling,” Whitley said. But the boat also reached a speed upward of 150 mph, so it was “really a thrill. You get a real adrenaline rush out of it. … It’s just a fun thing to own and drive because of Bill.”
Many old hydros fall into disuse and disrepair, but they can also be restored nearly to their original condition if an owner is willing to invest the time and money to do it properly.
“It’s the whole thing of living through that time, and then seeing some of the old boats coming back,” Whitley said. “You remember the real good times we had, and you just want to recapture some of that for a while.”
Many old hydros, including two Miss Bardahls and two Miss Thriftways, are at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent, though the boats are rotated to the display floor, where there is limited space.
According to museum executive director David Williams, “the hydros are to Seattle what the Dodgers are to Brooklyn. They’re part of the fabric of the community.”
All the boats at the museum have been restored to running condition, Williams said, and it’s a genuine treat for longtime enthusiasts and novices alike to see one of those classic hydros — not a replica, but the original boat — skimming the water with a long roostertail trailing behind.
“When you see the Miss Thriftway running by you at 150 mph, you can’t tell that it’s really not Bill Muncey in there,” Williams said. “So we have a chance to recreate childhood memories and allow people to relive that past.”
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