Class B1

British Record Breakers

Flash Steam

B Class (15cc)

B class (15cc)

A/Steam Class

Novice Class

B Class

Novice Class

A Class

A3 Class (10cc)

Super Novice Class

Back in 2002 this was the largest entry of B1 hydro’s ever seen at the St Albans International, held on the August bank Holiday Monday.

Three British record breakers, the red boat in the foreground is Gordon 2, built and run back in the early 1950's by the late Ernie Clark, setting an A Class record of 70 mph plus. The green boat is a modern A Class boat owned and built by John Hyder and the current record holder at 130.05 mph. Phoenix 6 is a B/Steam Class boat owned and built by Stan Poyser and holds the current record at 96.67 mph.

Stan Poyser's flash steam boat, unusual rounded hull shape.

Modern B Class 15cc by Ernie Hills, with the cowling removed to show the home built engine.

Older design by the late Jim Williams of the Cotswold Club. Home built engine and tuned pipe but no cowling. Turned in speeds of 80 mph plus

Bob Kirtley with Pisces, the fastest steam powered boat at 120.79 mph. holds the British if not the World record.

A typical standard Novice class Hydro. The engine is a MDS 40 (6.5cc) making for a cheap set up (less than £40). Fastest speed 81mph

The late Vic Collins with his ‘B’ class four stroke powered hydro. The engine is home built. Although this boat never recorded an official speed, its predecessor recorded the fastest speed ever for a four stroke at a tad under 90mph.

Sue Free’s novice class hydro literally flying round the course at about 90mph. Not bad for a boat powered by a cheap ASP 40 motor that cost less than £80 all up to build. Who says you can’t go fast cheaply?

John DeMott’s vintage ‘A’ class 30cc four stroke powered hydro seen here running in France in 2004 recording a speed of 58mph

A modern A3 10cc hydro owned and run by Arthur Wall. Powered by an OPS 60 Gold Head engine to speeds of 120+mph

Jim Free in 1998 at St Albans with his Super Novice class hydro, just after setting the class record at 111.3mph. Powered by a K&B 40 (6.5cc), this boat surprised a lot of people, including Jim, as it uses a solid driveshaft with no horizontal drive. This boat also ran at the World Championships in France in 2005 where it recorded just under 120mph, which would have shattered the old record, had it not be deemed too noisy and disqualified. ‘That’s life