The Len Southward-owned REDHEAD proved the most successful of the
group, competing from 1948 to 1959 and winning the Griffith Cup--the
top 'Down Under' motor sport award--several times.

In her original configuration, REDHEAD could only do about 85 on the
straightaway. Then the owner fitted some miniature sponsons on the
26-foot by 9-foot single-stepper, which helped considerably. On
February 22, 1953, Southward became the first New Zealander to clear
100 miles per hour with an average of 101.260 on a two-way run over
the measured mile. In 1957, REDHEAD raised its own mark to 109.900
mph.

Across the Tasman Sea, the Rolls-Royce Merlin-powered FLEETWING, owned
by Bill Jeanes and driven by his brother Bob Jeanes, became the first
Australian hydroplane to officially clear the century mark with a
106.635 clocking in 1955. FLEETWING bore the name of another famous
Australian Unlimited hydroplane that its owner had campaigned with
considerable success during the 1920s and 1930s with a 220-horsepower
Hispano-Suiza ('Hisso') engine.

Both REDHEAD and FLEETWING obviously stood a generation or two behind
their 1950s American and European counterparts. Both had started as
step hulls with sponsons added as an afterthought.

Contrary to U.S. practice, quite a number of Australasians have tried
their luck at matching a Rolls-Royce aircraft engine with a smaller
than usual racing hull with varying degrees of success.

In the 1960s, Australian Tom Watts attempted to fit a Merlin into a
19-foot hydroplane called EXCITER but achieved unsatisfactory results
and gave up on the idea.

Another Australian, Bruce Doust, had a 20-foot long clinker-built
skiff called SPITFIRE, powered by an unsupercharged fuel-injected
Merlin. Doust was fatally injured when the boat dove to the bottom at
Taree in 1968.

FLAK TOO, owned by Dick Shuttleworth of Wakefield, New Zealand,
underwent a configuration change that is curious to say the least.

Designed by the Champion Boat Company, an American firm, FLAK TOO was
built in New Zealand by Jeff Kroening in 1951 and measured 19 feet 6
inches long with a 7-foot 8-inch beam. A three-point hydroplane, she
was originally a 225 Cubic Inch Class hull, fitted with a hopped up
100-horsepower flathead V-8 Ford Special. FLAK TOO could do 61 miles
per hour and finished second in the Masport Cup, the most prestigious
of NZ motorboat racing awards, at Wellington.

The 1952 season saw the craft take the Unlimited Unrestricted
Championship at New Brighton. In later years, she was re-powered with
a V-12 Rolls-Royce Kestrel--a pre-war forerunner of the Merlin--with
the middle six cylinders removed and the two ends welded together to
form a V-6. Other New Zealand Unlimited hydroplanes of that era that
used the Rolls-Royce Kestrel included John Younger's MAESTRO, G.S.
Jonathon's MERCEDES, Pam Palmer's STINGAREE, and L.W. Moult's
WHIRLWIN.

To be continued....