Rudder Book Review- The Golden Years of the Racing Outboard

 

Some books are labors of love and others are merely labors. Fortunately The Golden Years of the Racing Outboard  is one of the former. As author Peter Hunn says in his introduction: "Because I got old while waiting for the perfect time to don helmet, life jacket and kneepads, the pages you're holding represent my big race."

 

Hunn is a plywood romantic and this book is his love letter to the sport of racing outboards. He seeks to reclaim the past, since much of the evidence of the Golden Age is largely invisible, killed off by, among other things, the homogenized tide of fiberglass jet skis and family boats.  This book attempts this through an historical review of its best remembered equipment. Most of the numerous illustration are taken from period photos and catalogs rather than examples because most of the original hulls have, tragically, been lost to time and two decades of neglect from a distracted public.

 

The book is organized into four parts: Outboard Racing History, The Mercury Racing History, Competition Motors from Other Makers, and Racing Boats.  Although many of the original details were ambiguous or even contradictory, Hunn has carefully researched and clarified his material additionally providing a chronology of stock outboard racing mileposts from 1908-1960.

 

The chapter on Mercury makes for especially good reading in part because it involves the colorful character of its' mercurial founder, Carl Kiekhaefer. It was his KB-7, a saw engine revamped to water cooling, that in the post-War era, became the basis for an outboard that launched the Golden Age. Mercury's KE-7, the Lightning's, impact on the late 1940's small boat world is likened to the automotive world's enthusiastic public acceptance of Ford's first Mustang.

 

The final two chapters provide a comprehensive alphabetical listing of non-Mercury factory built racing motors, factory built racing boats, and kits and plans.

 

The Golden Age of the Racing Outboards is an affectionate and highly informative look at the motors, boats and people who created the special machines and exciting times that we remember as stock racing's finest years. Whether you are a new or long time collector, this is a book that you'll refer to again and again.