Surely They’re Not Racing Those Things, Are They?

I've paddled canoes sturdier than many of the boats that will be on display at the Heritage Port in Wheeling next weekend. And the canoes didn't have engines pumping out hundreds of horsepower.

The next time you're in a home improvement store, take a close look at the plywood. Not the good, 3/4-inch stuff - the thinner material. Imagine a sheet of that being the only thing between you and the Ohio River while you're skimming over it at 100 mph-plus.

Next weekend will be an exciting time in Wheeling, with a variety of special events scheduled. One of my favorites, Fort Henry Days, will be held at Oglebay Park. The annual Woodcarvers Show and, on Sunday, a Wheeling Symphony Orchestra concert and fireworks, also will be at the park. Sunday and Monday at Wheeling Island Stadium, the Friends of Coal Prep Classic will feature top high school football teams from throughout the nation. It'll be a good weekend to be in Wheeling, even for those who may want to take a few hours to drive up I-70 to see John McCain on Saturday in Washington.

But if you're in the "need for speed" crowd, you'll want to spend some of the weekend at Heritage Port. The hydroplanes are coming back.

The annual Wheeling Vintage Raceboat Regatta will be held next weekend, with some events kicking off on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, the racers will take to the water.

Boat racing is a major part of our heritage here in the Ohio Valley. As a story in today's newspaper explains, some of the boats you'll see next weekend in Wheeling have been on the Ohio River before, at the old New Martinsville Regatta. They were fast - and dangerous - then.

But they're just antiques now, right?

Yeah. Right. Like one of those old World War II bombs that occasionally are unearthed in Europe. You will notice that when one of them is found, they still call the bomb squad. And they still make large craters when they're detonated.

It is precisely because the vintage raceboats are older that they are more fun to watch. Modern raceboats have a variety of safety features, including closed cockpits and roll cages. The vintage racers don't.

They're open cockpit boats in which the drivers sit (or hang on for dear life) with the wind and spray in their faces. They're not belted in. A good bump at speed, and driver can be separated from boat. I've seen it happen.

And they really are made of thin sheets of plywood and, sometimes, fiberglass. When a craft like that, literally flying over the water, strikes a piece of wood you could pick up with one hand, the results can be catastrophic. Sadly, I've seen that, too.

Men and women driving the old hydroplanes are, in a way, similar to the old barnstorming pilots who flew biplanes. The machinery may be older, but it still has a bite to it.

As a matter of fact, the biplane comparison is a good one: Racing hydroplanes are half boat, half aircraft. Look closely at one being driven at speed and you'll see lots of daylight under the boat.

Boats you'll see here in Wheeling are faster because they use engines from automobiles, not the little outboard motors you may have on your fishing or ski boat. Some of the older boats actually used Rolls-Royce aircraft engines.

Well, that's all well and good, but the old boats are valuable and their drivers aren't going to risk crashing them by pushing too hard. They're not really racing out there.

Uh-huh. Sure they're not racing. That's what they tell their families, so it must be true. Right? It just gets a little hard to believe when you're watching a couple of them who are putting on a really good act of trying to outrun each other at around 100 mph. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain of spray, who's leaning forward in the cockpit to cut wind resistance ...

Several of those folks who aren't really racing are local people, as our story in today's paper explains. They're Ohio Valley residents who have been bitten by the raceboat bug.

There's nothing in the world quite like driving one of the beasts, they'll tell you. And there's nothing like watching them run, either.

Just keep in mind: They're not really racing out there ...

Mike Myer can be reached at: Myer@news-register.net.

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PCGS70
08-29-08 4:23 AM »Report Abuse	I think the racing is sat and sun from 10 to 6

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