A Tasmanian experience

[hookster]

What's all the fuss about the Windward Bound? I'd love to spend a couple of nights aboard a classic barque or whatever the hell you call her.

[Chivs]

Ahoy All!

Its been a while, so with the talk of shed space and sunny days I thought I would quickly give an update to my activities in a crazy sunny Tasmania? The forecast is for weather hovering between 16 to 18 right through to Monday?

Tomboy is getting a bit of air time, I lifted her off the trailer last weekend to do some trailer work and clean up the hull for entertaining this wooden boat festival in February 2015.

Torea is almost complete with the electrical, steering and windscreen to do.

Back at page 36 I mentioned the acquisition of Quickly Too, with photos added on pages 39 and 40. I have also been doing a bit of tinkering with this with the hope of getting this going soon as well. For those that are interested in boat racing history etc I have sent Greg a scanned copy of a personal letter sent to the original builder and owner of Quickly Too by Sherman Polhamus. Grant Lovell bought one of his race engines, an Oldsmobile 225 ci and it was transported to "down under" from the USA and it came with the letter. Its quite technical but what I love about it is his warning at the end of the letter ...,"The above letter is far more information than anyone else knows about my engines. Please do not tell anyone even down there as it will probably hurt both of us." He also added a handwritten personal note "Excuse errors, I typed in a hurry" All that is left of the original motor is the modified sump which bolted straight on to the Rover V8 I now have. When I took the sump in to have it bathed etc the mechanic knew of the boat and the engine and gave me the engine file history/record that the previous owner had left with him some years ago. Within that file the letter from Sherman Polhamus was found, bloody amazing!

As things go back together I will post up some photos for everyones interest!

I hope everyone is well, happy and being productive!

Chivs.

[DaveD]

Hi Chris, I haven't looked through your previous 41 pages but I found this on Sherman, he mentions the Olds motor.

One of my last races was at St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1977, which I won. Then, I had other drivers to continue racing the boat until the engine got tired and then I sold the boat to Jim Derncourt, who later sold it to Carl Wilson. I sold both of my engines to other competitors. I built one Oldsmobile racing engine that would only turn 7500 so I sold it to a fellow in Australia who later told me he raised the record 10 mph with this engine. I also sold engines to Barbados for a racecar, Italy for a race boat, England for a racecar, and about ten Chevy, Plymouth and Buick engines to fellow racers.

His page.
http://www.vintagehydroplanes.com/album ... hamus.html

Look forward to seeing Torea on the water again.

[Chivs]

Hi Dave and thanks mate, I'm hopeless at doing links!

Sherman Polhamus was a very interesting man, I should of added at the end of my last post that if Greg is able to post the scanned original letter from Sherman then it's done in the knowledge that it will not hurt him as a racing competitor now but add to his fame as being an extraordinary mechanic/engineer back in the day!

I too am looking forward to Torea finally getting wet, in a good way!

Chris.

Chivs 01.jpg (378.04 KiB) Viewed 5685 times

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[Reklaw]

Hi Chivs.
Sunny days huh. We had one one of them yesterday but it was a bit too much so now we're back to rain, rain and more rain. Oh, I forgot to mention the cold.

Good to see you're playing with your toys. There sure is a lot of history tied up in that engine of yours. Looking to seeing it one of these days.

Bob W

[Chivs]

Thanks Greg,

The scanned letter came up well and certainly adds to the story, which will be continued!

Chivs

[hookster]

Wow Chivs you certainly do have a real slice of racing history there, even if it is only the sump. Having now read Dave D's link (great, fascinating read thanks Dave), where your sump medication gets a mention (the extra oil pipe fitting) adds to the authenticity. Your letter from Sherman himself is a real slice of history. Lucky, lucky you.

[fatpigeon]

Chivs
Good to see you have made progress. Geez that bloke you bought Quickly off must feel like a mug , selling all that for a couple of slabs of beer !

Catch up soon.

Stuart

[Chivs]

Well the fattest pigeon of all, based on the scale of values I offer a six pack of light beer for the rocker covers, more than reasonable!

The photos are of Shermans modified sump.

[Chivs]

And now attached to the motor, note the connecting 'U" pipe developed by Sherman and commented upon by the Hookster!