H1 Unlimited is an American Unlimited
Hydroplane racing
Hydroplane racing (also known as hydro racing) is a sport involving racing hydroplanes on lakes and rivers. It is a popular spectator sport in several countries.
Racing circuits
International professional outboard hydroplane racing
The Union Int ...
league that is sanctioned by the
American Power Boat Association
The American Power Boat Association (APBA) is an American membership-owned corporation. In 1903, New York's Columbia Yacht Club had formulated a constitution for what ultimately became the APBA. It is the United States sanctioning authority for the ...
(APBA). Until 2009, the series was known as ABRA Unlimited Hydroplane, in turn renamed from APBA Unlimited Hydroplane in 2004. The H1 Unlimited season typically runs from July through September, consisting of five races.
A
hydroplane (or ''hydro'', or ''thunderboat'') is a very specific type of motorboat used exclusively for racing. One of the unique characteristics about hydroplanes is that they only use the water they're on for
propulsion
Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. The term is derived from ...
and
steering
Steering is a system of components, linkages, and other parts that allows a driver to control the direction of the vehicle.
Introduction
The most conventional steering arrangement allows a driver to turn the front wheels of a vehicle using ...
(not for flotation) - when going at full speed they are primarily held aloft by a principle of
fluid dynamics
In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids— liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) an ...
known as "
planing," with only a tiny fraction of their
hull actually touching the water.
History
The unlimited
hydroplane racing
Hydroplane racing (also known as hydro racing) is a sport involving racing hydroplanes on lakes and rivers. It is a popular spectator sport in several countries.
Racing circuits
International professional outboard hydroplane racing
The Union Int ...
series was founded in 1946 when the unlimited class of boats was allowed to compete following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and the subsequent availability of surplus
aircraft engine
An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...
s. It had been disbanded in 1922 in favor of the newly introduced "Gold Cup Class."
The world's first sanctioned unlimited hydroplane race was held in 1903 in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
at
Queenstown, and was very modest by later race standards. That race was won by Dorothy Levitt, driving an boat, powered by a Napier engine, at an average speed of .
The boats were initially restricted to engines of a maximum of , later increased to .
Hulls with "steps" or "
shingles" on the underside were prohibited.
One reason for the rule change was to end the domination of its star driver,
Gar Wood
Garfield Arthur "Gar" Wood (December 4, 1880 – June 19, 1971) was an American inventor, entrepreneur, and championship motorboat builder and racer who held the world water speed record on several occasions. He was the first man to trave ...
, who had won five consecutive Gold Cups from 1917. One win in 1920 in his twin
Liberty L-12
The Liberty L-12 is an American water-cooled 45° V-12 aircraft engine displacing and making designed for a high power-to-weight ratio and ease of mass production. It saw wide use in aero applications, and, once marinized Marinisation (also m ...
powered ''Miss America'', averaged in the race over an course and set a race record that stood until 1946. "King Gar" had entered fifteen Gold Cup heats during those pinnacle years. He finished first twelve times and second three times. Throughout the years, only two boats showed up to challenge Miss America; one of those was piloted by George Wood, Gar's younger brother, in Miss Chicago. Another reason for the rule change was to make racing more affordable.
In 1929, the Class was introduced by the Mississippi Valley Power Boat Association (MVPBA). The majority of these boats were powered by
Hispano-Suiza 8
The Hispano-Suiza 8 was a water-cooled V8 SOHC aero engine introduced by Hispano-Suiza in 1914, and was the most commonly used liquid-cooled engine in the aircraft of the Entente Powers during the First World War. The original Hispano-Suiza ...
aircraft engines or
Curtiss OX-5
The Curtiss OX-5 was an early V-8 American liquid-cooled aircraft engine built by Curtiss. It was the first American-designed aircraft engine to enter mass production, although it was considered obsolete when it did so in 1917.Smith, 1981, pa ...
s. These boats were popular in the Southern and Midwestern US, but did not attract the media attention that the expensive and exotic-looking Gold Cup Class counterparts had.
In 1946 after the hiatus due to the war, the MVPBA was absorbed into the APBA, and as a result the 725s and the Gold Cups merged to become the APBA Unlimited Class.
Following the protest-ridden 1956 APBA Gold Cup at Detroit, which took 85 days to settle, the Unlimited Class severed all but nominal ties with the APBA. In 1957, the Unlimited Racing Commission (URC) was formed. In the 1990s, the URC was renamed the Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Association (UHRA).
In 2001, HYDRO-PROP, Inc., bought the licensing rights to the Unlimited Class from the APBA and managed the unlimited class through the 2004 racing season.
The American Boat Racing Association (ABRA) was formed in 2005
and was renamed H1 Unlimited in 2009.
The turbine engine was first used in competition by the U-95 "Whiz-per" in 1974, which sank that August at
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
.
The next entrant with turbine power was the
Pay 'n Pak
Pay 'n Pak was a home improvement chain that was based out of Kent, Washington. Pay 'n Pak began in 1962 and was founded by Stan Thurman, an electric and plumbing supply retailer from Longview, Washington. In 1969, Pay 'n Pak merged with Eagle E ...
in 1980 on the
Columbia River at Tri-Cities,
[ but it flipped 2½ times in a test run prior to the Sunday heats.] It was the sole turbine again the following year, but through the 1980s, the turbine gradually displaced piston power.
Today
The H1 Unlimited class is sanctioned by APBA
APBA (pronounced "APP-bah") is a game company founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was created in 1951 by trucking firm purchaser J. Richard Seitz (1915-1992). The acronym stands for "American Professional Baseball Association", the name of a b ...
, its governing body in North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
and UIM
uim (short for "universal input method") is a multilingual input method framework. Applications can use it through so-called ''bridges''.
Supported applications
uim supports the X Window System legacy XIM (short for X Input Method) through ...
, its international body.
Unlimited Hydroplanes are fast boats capable of more than on the straights and running average lap speeds of . They are in length and weigh a minimum of .
The modern turbine-powered unlimited hydroplane is derived from the 3-point prop-riding hydroplanes of the 1950s. These were the first boats to ride on a cushion of air trapped between "sponsons" mounted on the sides of the front of the boat, and the bottom half of the propeller, which were all that touched the water.
They were called "Unlimited" because they were the only class of boat racing the APBA
APBA (pronounced "APP-bah") is a game company founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was created in 1951 by trucking firm purchaser J. Richard Seitz (1915-1992). The acronym stands for "American Professional Baseball Association", the name of a b ...
that had no restrictions on the displacement size of their piston engines. The designation Unlimited has stayed with the class in the turbine era, even though there are restrictions on the turbine engine and its fuel.
Almost all the H1 Unlimited hydroplanes are powered by Lycoming T55
The Honeywell T55 (formerly Lycoming; company designation LTC-4) is a turboshaft engine used on American helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft (in turboprop form) since the 1950s, and in unlimited hydroplanes since the 1980s. Today, there have ...
turbine engines, originally used in Chinook helicopters. As of 2015, the U-3 Go3 Racing is the only piston powered boat in the fleet, powered by a dual turbocharged Allison V-12.
Past National High Point Champions
Since 1946, the National High Point Championships are awarded to the team and to the driver with the most points at the end of the season. The Martini & Rossi National Champion Perpetual Trophy was first awarded in 1959, and the Bill Muncey Trophy was first awarded in 2007.
Standing All-Time Competition and Qualifying Speed Records
Source:
References
External links
H1 Unlimited Website
{{H1 Unlimited Series
Racing motorboats
Auto racing organizations
Motorsport in the United States
Hydroplanes
Sports leagues in the United States
Motorboat racing
1946 establishments in the United States
Sports leagues established in 1946