Yeah, a scary ride on the best of days! No safety gear in these old shovel-nose hydroplanes. Have a problem and a driver's best hope of survival is to be thrown overboard.
A good friend of my family lost his son back in the 1970's in one of these boats during competition. Boat went over, he was tossed, and the boat behind him...well it wasn't pretty. The club still holds an annual memorial race in his memory.
Just do me one favor... Enjoy this boat, but don't ever get it wet without a safety / rescue team present. There are a lot of sanctioned vintage race boat events to run these old hydroplanes as expeditions, take advantage of them.
