The Off Season: Where
Champions Are Made!
by Darren
Olson
Our last race in
Last October we, the UL-72 Miss Boat Electric team, finished
the season in second place! Half of the
team wanted to take a few weeks off, spend some time with the family, relax,
watch football and catch up on sleep.
I’ll admit I was thinking a little bit like this myself, but two of us decided that if we rested now we would lose our
positive momentum. So the next day we
started by removing every deck hatch and pressure washing the inside of the
boat. While the messy work was being
done outside, the others cleaned out the hauler. Once the boat dried out we started on our
winter plan.
When you first began to stare at an unlimited light
hydroplane, many hours can be wasted discussing what could and should be
done. Many times I’ve heard people say
“Let’s think about it.” Sometimes you
just need to do it and talk while you work.
I’ll admit I didn’t truly understand the amount of time we were about to
commit but it just needed to be done. We
usually met at the shop every Tuesday and Thursday from about 5:30 pm until
about 10 pm. Some nights there may have
only been 1 person (cold weather usually equated to fewer in attendance...go
figure) and at other times there were 7-8 people.
Cleaning and tear down took approximately 3 days. This included pulling out the motor,
inspecting systems (fuel, oil, electrical), deciding what hardware needed to be
re-plated, removing the fuel cell, rudder, skid fin, tails, steering cables,
canard and linkage, and anything else we could remove with minimal
swearing. I’m amazed, as other teams can
also attest, how many problems will show up come spring time when proper
cleaning and treatment isn’t done…unless you enjoy the thrill of replacing hose
ends, wiring, bearings, bolts, cables, etc…
By this time our primary sponsor Boat Electric, excited by the way the
season had ended, requested to have the boat on display at the Seattle Boat
Show in January. I asked our owner Joe
Fraundheim if we could repaint the whole boat for the Boat Show since it was
beginning to look a bit tired. His
response was “I’ll be at the shop Saturday at 9 am and we’ll make it happen.” Sure enough, I showed up armed with four Harbor
Freight dollies and coffee. The two of
us lifted the boat off the trailer, and flipped it over onto the dollies within
2 hours. I was impressed how simple the
process was. Now onto the messy stuff.
The bottom work took approximately 7 weeks (18 days). George Greer (long time UL-72 crew member and
co-crew chief) and I decided to build a new air trap support angle to replace
the one that kept popping loose the last 2 seasons. The old aluminum angle was about to give way
to a more flexible and hopefully stronger carbon fiber angle. This process involved some very long
nights: laying up the part,
trimming/sanding, vacuum bagging it onto the boat and fairing the finished
product. This process alone took
approximately 13 days. While this was
happening other crew members removed the steel running plates on the bottom of
the sponsons in order to replace broken wood inserts under the plates (a direct
result of lack of attention over the years...remember all those salt water
races?). This took approximately 6
days. The final goal was to sand, prep, paint
and buff the bottom of the boat. This
also took approximately 6 days. November
was a few days away and the shop was getting colder and colder each night. Just like before I called Joe and told him
that the bottom was finished and we’re ready to flip the boat back over...”See
you Saturday” (another 2 hours).
With the bottom completed we could move onto the deck work. This took approximately 5 weeks (17
days). I didn’t need a lot of help at
the start of this process so the rest of the eager team broke into different
directions: trailer repairs, motor
maintenance and systems repairs. I kept focused
on repairing cracks in the deck and preparing the boat for paint. The trailer became a monster of it’s
own. The axels needed to be replaced,
cracks in the frame needed to be addressed, the lights were removed / replaced,
the trailer was sanded / repainted and the diamond plating was polished (I
didn’t envy those guys). At any given
time there were 2-6 people working hard on the trailer so it would be ready
when I had the boat done for placement back onto the trailer. The temperature continued to drop and we were
now nearing December. If there truly was
a Santa Clause I would have wished at this point for lots and lots of kerosene
for our heaters...or a better heater.
I still remember the
day before painting began. The trailer
was finished enough for us to put the boat on the bunks in order to move across
the street to a new building that had a working oil furnace...HEAT!...YEA! By the time we started to pull the boat out
of the shop there was at least 2 inches of snow on the ground. By the time we moved through the parking lot
and across the street there was at least more 2 inches of snow on the boat. Now we each had a shop to paint in: the old
shop to paint the trailer and the new temporary shop to paint the boat. Both shops were cold and had water dripping
from the ceiling. That weekend was a bit
of a blur. I don’t know if it was the
paint fumes or the extremely long hours but by Tuesday everything was
painted. With everyone on board it took
3 days to reassemble the boat (some of the systems went in later after the Boat
Show). It almost felt like race time
again as we were putting vinyl back on the boat days before the Boat Show
opened.
In all the whole process took approximately 800 hours in 40
days. I don’t know if I ever doubted that
we would get the job done. I was just
glad it was over! After the boat show
(and a well deserved rest for the crew) another 275 hours was put into getting
the boat ready for Spring Training at
I think back to 4 years ago when George asked me if I would
like to work on a race team. Was it worth
it? Some days I think I was crazy for
saying yes, but then I think of all the great race sites I’ve been to...the
great crew members I’ve gotten to work with...and all of the other teams and
fans I would never have met if I hadn’t said “Sure” (Winning the National Championship and Driver’s
Title with doesn’t hurt either.). The
other day, when we were cleaning the boat after Port Angeles, we were amazed
that we won not by being the best at all times or by having the most spare
parts but by being consistant and staying relaxed. Racing is hard work and stuff happens at each
race site, but if it isn’t fun…why do it?
See you in 2008!
Darren Olson
UL-72 Crew (Co-Crew
Chief)