25% off all Newton Marine Purchases through June!

I would like to thank everyone one that has followed the Newton Marine blog with a 25% off special that will last through the end of June. Simply place the code "blogspecial" in the promotional code box that is in your cart, and you will receive 25% off your entire order. If you have any questions regarding the sale, please feel free to post on this blog or email me at newtonmarine@gmail.com. Once again thank you to everyone!

Video of New Zealand 1/8th scale Seafair Trophy Race

Many thanks to Merv (from the other side of the world) for providing videos of SUHA's last event, which was held for their 2010 Seafair Trophy race. For a link for videos of all the days racing, please click here. The following is video of their winner take all final. It looks like it was Merv's race to win, until he rolled his boat in the left corner. Always next time though!

2010 SUHA Seafair Trophy Race Final Heat:

Last stop: 2010 UNW Seafair Trophy Race

Another terrific weekend of racing has come to an end. This Saturday I made the hour trek up to Monore to race with the northwest's other 1/8th scale club, Unlimiteds Northwest. The club put on a great race with about 25 drivers that showed up. After last weekends crash with my 1993 Miss Budweiser, I decided to pull out my 1986 Miss Budweiser Griffon and see what she could do. This was actually the first time I got a good chance to do some testing with this model as in the previous two times I was unable due to extreme conditions and motor problems.

Needless to say I was able to get in some much needed testing. I tried several prop combinations and learned a lot about the hull. Some sponson work needs to be done along with a long list of ideas with it. Right now the boat is sitting upside down in the shop for some "updates". I hope to have it ready for the next event out that I can make in June, hopefully with a better and faster ride.

I unfortunately was unable to take any video of the final heats as the battery died on my camera. John Olson was there however with his new model of the 1975 Weisfields. He was able to get a video of one of his races:




Kirk Maupin again showed dominance as he won for a third time this year with his new 1975 Atlas Van Lines. Paul Jackson however did give Kirk a run for his money, but ended up blowing his boat over on the last lap.

All in all it was a good day. I would have posted sooner, but I had to go straight from the race to work that night.

The next race for Newton Marine looks to be RCU's Rose Cup on the 13th of June. In between now and then I hope to get some work done on the Bubble Bud, and upload more photos to my smugmug site, which I will post updates for on here.











Damage to Paul Jackson's 1976 Olympia Beer after a tangle in the corner.

Dean Chenoweth Memorial Videos:

Final Heat:


1st Connie:


2nd Connie:

2010 Dean Chenoweth in the books!

Twenty-nine boats graced the shores of Twin Lakes in Marysville Washington for the 2010 Dean Chenoweth Memorial. I again developed motor problems in the morning, as I attempted to test the "problem" motor without success. After many runs with poor performance, the backup motor made its way into the Miss Budweiser. This time I had enough time to make a few good runs, and with 15 minutes left in the morning test session, I was all tuned up and ready to run!

I again made the final by virtue of points along with; Kirk Maupin (duh), Bill Brandt, Paul Jackson, Steve Schmitz and John Hruby (winner of the first connie). I decided today to try the flying start that won me the first race, as I know my boat is heavy and can not troll down on tight race courses. Coming down for the line, the first 4 lanes were occupied, so I opted out for lane 5 and raced for the first corner. Going around the first corner I lost sight of my boat behind a few roostertails. As I looked for my boat to exit the corner and head full tilt down the back stretch I saw a boat facing the opposite direction, dead in the water at the apex of the left turn. Needless to say that was me. About half a second later John Hruby's Miss Circus Circus found my boat before he could see it. It was not John's fault as it happened in a blink of an eye.

The results were not pretty, luckily his boat had minor damage with mainly hardware breaks. My boat was not so lucky as the canopy and cowling will become good wall art with rudder and prop marks up and down the side of the hull. I think the pictures do enough justice.

Kirk Maupin had another great day however with his beautiful and lightening fast Atlas Van Lines. The finishing order of the race are as follows:

1) Kirk Maupin/1975 Atlas Van Lines

2) Steve Schmitz/1986 Squire Shop

3) Bill Brandt/1972 Notre Dame

4) Paul Jackson/1991 The Edge

5) John Hruby/1978 Miss Circus Circus (DNF)

6) David Newton/1993 Miss Budweiser (DNF)

Next race on Newton Marine's schedule will be to join UNW next Saturday at Monroe... unfortunately without the 1993 Miss Budweiser, as that model will need a good and long rest. Rachael again took video footage of the final heats, I will post them shortly on tonight.

Dean Chenoweth Memorial up next

Next on the RCU race season is the 2010 Dean Chenoweth Memorial race. The race will be held Sunday at Marysville's Twin Lakes, just off I-5 exit 206. The boat count is expected to maintain a high count, coming off a 35 boat race, two weeks ago. Last years defending champion Dave Brandt will be back to reclaim his title. For anyone in the area interested come out and watch, we will be racing from 10:30 am to around 3:30pm.

VIews into RCU past

Looking through some old photos John Logan was generous to share a number of pictures of his first year with RCU, back in 1982. Him and his brother Jerry, were 2 of 18 rookies that joined the club that year! We still are fortunate to have good numbers at our races today, but they are nothing of what they were back then. Thanks for sharing the photos John!

2010 ERCU Seafair Trophy Race Videos!!

1/10th Modern Final:


1/7th Modern Final:


1/7th Vintage Final:


I was unable to obtain video footage of the 1/10th scale Vintage final as I was racing in that heat.

2010 Seafair came early to some...

The 2010 Seafair race came early this year to many as ERCU kicked off their 3rd race of the season with their Seafair Trophy Race. ERCU is a scale rc hydroplane group located in the Pacific Northwest that holds races for 1/10th and 1/7th scale electric hydroplanes. The pits held 25-30 people which raced in the 4 different classes (both the 1/10th scales and 1/7th scales are split into a vintage shovel nose class and a modern pickle fork class). For more information on ERCU visit their website, http://www.e-rcu.org/. The weather held out to be one of the nicest days of the year so far as it was clear skys in the mid 70s with a slight breeze to from the west coming off the coast, perfect racing conditions.

Today I raced my late father's checkerboard Miss Bardahl along with Kerry Kjos' 1960 Miss Thriftway. I was fortunate enough to make the first connie with my Miss Bardahl and the final heat with Kerry's Thriftway. I made a great start in the connie with the Bardahl and lead wire to wire. As I already had a ride in the final heat with Kerry's Thriftway, I opted to drive the boat that was eligible to start on the front line and bench the Bardahl. (Sorry Mr. Manchester!)

The final heat for the vintage class turned out to be a fast and strange one. Coming around the left corner before the start a few boats tangled into each other leaving boat parts from lane 2 to lane 6, taking out 3 boats before the race had even began. Going down for the start Jeff Campbell with his outrigger Pay'n'Pak and I took off battling deck to deck and swapping leads for a good two and a half laps before Jeff got a little lead coming off the right turn and never looked back. My boat did not have such a good corner, took a little dive inside the course mistakenly missing a buoy which resulted in a lap penalty and 4th place overall.

I was able to take video of the final heats for both 1/7th scale classes and the modern 1/10th scale class. I will post them shortly and congratulations to Jeff Campbell, Bill Smiley, Gale Whitestein, and Craig Mullen for their wins today!

On a side note it is always good to see fellow boaters that have strayed away come back into the hobby. That being said welcome back Brad!

2010 Spring Training!

On May 7th Kennewick Washington held a spring training day for a few Unlimited and Unlimited Light teams including the new (new to the team) U-21 and U-25. The Albert Lee Appliance made several good runs including a top speed of 201 MPH at the end of the straightaway. H1 professional photographer was on hand to take some very good shots, click here to view them on his smugmug website. Ken Muscatel will be back on Saturday the 8th to make a few more runs, Chris will be back to take more photographs.

2010 Bill Muncey Memorial Photos

I have uploaded all of my photos to the Newton Marine Smugmug website. Check it out to see photos of all of the days events and as always make sure to check Chris Denslow's Smugmug website to see his professional photographs. For all official results of the race and for season high points please visit R/C Unlimiteds website.

Videos of 2010 Bill Muncey Memorial

Here are the videos of the Final Heat, First Connie and Second Connie. I would like to thank my fiance Rachael for filming again this weekend.

Final Heat


First Connie


Second Connie

Kirk Maupin Takes the Bill Muncey Memorial

The 2nd race in the 12 race season for RC Unlimiteds is in the books. A total of 35 boats entered the race to make it one of the larger turns out in a few years. The wind died down to 20-25 MPH during the day, which was welcomed compared to the 50 MPH gusts on test day that caused white caps to form.

In the morning test session, the main motor in my 1993 Miss Budweiser developed a problem of inconsistency and showed erratic behaviors. We ran several times without any improvement and decided with 10 minutes left in the testing session to change motors to one of our backups. Unfortunately the engine swap was not completed until 5 minutes before our first heat, so with a different motor and too rich of a tune, it took several heats to dial in the motor. Luckily with good draws and good finishes I was able to make it into the final heat with a fast line up of other boats. In the start of the race, I was able to grab lane 1, but going into the first corner the lanes narrowed and Kirk Maupin and I bumped sponsons leading to minor damage to both boats. Kirk and I ran side by side for 1 lap until Kirk showed his superior speed and took over the lead. From their he was able to extend his lead to easily take home the win, which was very fitting as he won with his brand new model of Bill Muncey's 1975 Atlas Van Lines. I was able to hold of Dave Brandt for 2nd place, as he made his way to the final heat as the 1st connie winner, making him start in the trailer position. The final heat was a fast one even due to the rough water and high winds. Surprisingly 6 boats finished under their own power.

Here are the final heat results for the 2010 Bill Muncey Memorial:

1) Kirk Maupin/1975 Atlas Van Lines

2) David Newton/1993 Miss Budweiser

3) Dave Brandt/1994 Tide

4) Rich Matkin/2009 Boeing

5) Brian Anderson/1985 Domino's Pizza

6) Greg Ross/1989 Risley's Express

7) Dustin Hicks/1993 Oh Boy! Oberto-DNF

Chris Denslow made another appearance to take professional photos of the event. You can view them at his smugmug website. (The photo to the right was taken by Chris)

My fiance was kind enough to take more photos and videos of the event, I will uploaded them and get them up on the blog hopefully by sometime tomorrow.

So far this year we have had a good turn out to the races with fast boats and great racing. This year has a lot of promise to have many different winners, with some first timers. Our next race will be in two weeks on May 16th at Twin Lakes in Marysville.

Saturday Testing blown out!

Well, we just got back to the hotel room and are relaxing as the winds outside in Ellensburg are howling at 50 plus MPH. About 20 people came out to test their models, and ended up with wind burns instead! We arrived today at 11 am and got very little done as the wind picked up and never let up. I brought over a model of the 1986 Miss Budweiser Griffon that I was eager to run and did two runs, which were at half throttle at best. Brian Lepinski took some video of one run:

Brian's facebook video

Winds are supposed to die down to 20-25 MPH tomorrow, hopefully we will be able to get in some good racing still. Unfortunatley I don't have much else to report as the wind kept all the boats at bay.