Bill Everitt's 30cc hydroplane

'Melody'

No matter whether it is cars, boats, planes, engines or trains, full sized or model, at some stage in their lives they will fall out of fashion and the process of decay starts. Burned, scrapped or left to rot, the end is inevitable until someone suddenly realises, that once they are gone, that is it. Happily there are always individuals or groups that will step in before it is too late, but even then, with the best will in the world, the decay continues because the preservation, conservation or restoration never happens. Tethered cars are not too bad in this respect as it is normally only the tyres that suffer, but boats are a different matter. Wood, oil, water, petrol, methanol, battery acid and physical size have meant that far too many have ended up as bonfire material, and others are well on the way. It is one of my aims to prevent this happening as far as is realistically possible and this is how that came about for one very well known hydroplane.

Some years ago I was shown an otherwise complete hull that was minus its engine. It was Bill Everitt’s ‘Melody’, a very successful 30cc A Class boat that he had raced throughout the 1950s, gaining several prestigious race wins in the process. He built and ran a whole series of 10 and 30cc boats during his competitive career, yet 'Melody' was the most consistent of the 30s. Following Bill’s sad and untimely death in 1964 the boat passed to his son Terry, who loaned it to Peter Hill in the early 90s to run in the vintage class. 'Melody' was without its original 30cc two-stroke that Bill had built from a set of castings that he and Ernie Clark, also of the Victoria Club, had produced, as that had been used in a later boat. As a result, Peter fitted an American 30cc motor that had been given to him by Charles Watkins.

Bill Everitt seen here in 1963 with his later A Class boat 'Swinging'

Whilst that engine would run happily, it never produced the same level of performance that Bill Everitt’s motor did, probably because the Americans used to run with huge loads of Nitro and probably a bit of propylene oxide to help it along.

After three seasons of running this true 'vintage' boat, Peter moved on to other projects and ‘Melody’ was consigned to the workshop loft, where I first saw it some 10 years later. With its history, it seemed a very appropriate candidate for conservation and I investigated the possibility of restoring the hull and reuniting it with the original engine. Thanks to Terry and Peter, a couple of years later I was able to progress on the first stage when I picked up the hull.

The next bit is always a dilemma, how much work needs doing? I like to keep everything as original as possible, but sadly, the ravages of the oil and water, plus a strange reaction between layers of paint meant that this was a major job.

Right: Melody as recovered

The hull is based on a Bob Palmer design with two thick hardwood frames running the length of the boat, Lime hardwood bow and stern blocks, and then everything else balsa, except for the floor and sponson planes of ply. Here was the major problem. The ply floor had split at some stage and oil had migrated throughout the middle core of the three ply, but by a stroke of luck had not contaminated the balsa, so a new ply bottom was the first stage. Having stripped off the ply, all the fittings were removed for cleaning and repainting and the inside cleaned up using thinners to leach out any oil in the hardwood. Fitting the new floor required some real finangling as this would normally go on before the balsa blocks, but careful fitting and plenty of glue got us there in the end.
Left: Bill and 'Melody' at Victoria in 1954

The rest of the hull was a different matter as something had reacted with the top coat of paint, which was blistered and peeling so had to come off, but I wanted to keep the name and was aware that the surface of the hull is doped nylon, so had to be most careful. With a lot of rubbing down and priming I was able to apply several coats of red International Yacht Paint as instructed by Terry. To preserve the name I rubbed each coat back to the sign writing each time until the paint was transparent. With a tiny brush and shaking hand the name was picked out in yellow enamel.

The metal work was relatively simple, except for the cockpit surround. Just a small piece of this remained to show how it had been. The entire surround was cut from one piece of aluminium sheet, the centre cut out and then flanged to fit the opening. It also has to be curved as well in two directions, just to add to the fun.

Left: Bill Everitt Launching 'Melody' at Wicksteed Park in 1957.
This was for the Timson Trophy, which he won at a speed of 54.69mph.

New screws and plugged holes allowed the skeg and tether brackets to be reattached securely and there was ‘Melody’ back to pristine condition and hopefully safe for the time being. The only problem at that stage was the lack of a suitable engine. I had seen and photographed the original motor some time previously and still harboured the hope that I could bring the two back together, which is why I was reluctant to refit the Watkins engine used in the 90s as that was physically much bigger.

Original motor that powered 'Melody' and 'Swinging' to so many victories. Courtesy of Terry Everitt

It was in this state then that OTW originally featured 'Melody' as a Workbench project late in 2009. Terry Everitt then very generously offered me the motor so that the boat could be completed with a view to it being exhibited at the 2010 Model Engineer Exhibition. This required some swift work to meet the deadline for collection. A great deal of time was saved through Terry still having original engine plates along with the nuts, bolts and spacers. The longest job was a silencer, similar in design to the original, but with additional baffling to meet the modern noise limits. One feature of all vintage boats was a fuel cut-off that was tripped at the end of the run. The original had not been used in the 90s but after some repairs was able to be refitted The last item was an aluminium spray shield folded up to pick up on the screw holes in the side frames.

It has taken a few years, but thanks to the generosity of Terry Everitt and Peter Hill and the continuing help from Terry, my ambition to preserve 'Melody' has been realised.