Fixing Tri Cities

Well, to tell you about what it took to fix Tri Cities I need to first tell you a little bit about Tri Cities. The U37 crew was having a great weekend. You could call it “routine”. The boat set up was good and it was pretty much just a matter of heat strategy. What was it they wanted to go for? Total domination or getting in the final? Well, despite the rest of the field qualifying faster the Miss Beacon Plumbing chose to get in to the final and dominated along the way. In this heat Villwock led for about ¾ of a lap and from there it was all over.

In the final Theoret led for 3 ¾ of the race when all hell broke loose, literally. The boat “threw a prop” and with that the crew had exactly 5 days to the minute, to be on the water in Seattle. Except they first had to fix this; torn up transom, destroyed shoe and a prop in pieces. It was at this very moment that the U37 crew started a task list in their heads knowing that first this boat had to get back to Seattle. So that’s exactly what they did. They packed her up and 8 hours later they were back at the shop in Seattle laying out supplies for the rebuild that was going to start in just a few hours. This boat will be on the water at Seafair.

Before you fix it, you must first make it worse. Here the crew is taking the damaged material off of the boat to prepare surfaces that a new non trip can be connected to. In the timeline this is late morning on Monday, approximately 18-20 hours after the Tri Cities final.

To do this work it actually took 2 crews working 20 hour days. 1 crew would work to shore up the rear transom and 1 crew would work to rebuild the non trip. In this photo we’re in the early afternoon hours of Monday. The first day was probably the longest day with the crew putting in 21 hours. That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 men on the crew, friends of the crew and neighbors who heard the bad news. The response to this situation was unbelievable. One story I can tell you is about a guy we’ll call “Bob” and you’ll understand as you read the story. Bob was a neighbor of the shop. Bob came by to see if there was absolutely anything he could do to help the crew. So he could see that the floor was getting to be a mess and if it were clean, it would be more safe. So Bob grabbed a broom and proudly swept the floors to make better work spaces for the crew. Wed night at midnight Bob came by the shop. You see, Bob couldn’t sleep knowing the crew was in the shop THRASHING to get their boat in the water in 42 hours. So Bob threw on some sweats hit an all night coffee stand (thank GOD the shop is in Seattle) and brought the crew some very large cups of coffee and some very large pastries. Bob explained “my wife doesn’t even know I’m here. I couldn’t sleep and I figured you guys could use some coffee so I had to go get some and bring it down.” Of that entire week, I think the crew would agree that Bob was the MVP.

Jeff and Chris iron out an issue with connecting up the transom and the bottom of the boat. It wasn’t just rebuilding the boat it was a massive series of issues that you had to troubleshoot in order to carry out the plan of rebuilding the boat. I think that’s what made it so draining on the crew. It was definitely physical all week but it was very mental throughout the process as well.

If you had not seen the boat back on the water over the Seafair weekend you probably would not believe me when I tell you that this picture was taken Wed morning. Less than 72 hours after the accident and the boat is making an incredible comeback.

And with that it looks like maybe this boat will be qualifying Saturday morning. It’s definitely going to race in the Chevy Cup and it’s going to be the boat to beat. It’s just got a long way to go until it’s finished and with today being Wednesday, they’ve got a little more than 48 hours until this boat needs to be qualifying for Seafair. So if they extend that 24 hours then everything will be just fine.

Looks like Dave is working hard. Nah. Building stuff is what Dave does so despite complete exhaustion, he’s livin’ the dream “doing what he does”. And honest to God if you were standing there taking this photo and you asked Dave “when will this boat be on the water?” Dave would answer “Before the course closes on Friday evening” having no idea for sure what time that is. And he doesn’t tell you that with playful optimism. He’s as serious as a heart attack.

It’s now very early in the morning on Thursday. That’s right THURSDAY. The heart of this crew is like no other. This boat is almost back together. A couple more hours of laying glass and they’ll be ready to pack up the truck to head to the pits. Think about this. How many reality shows have you watched where a group of people can’t work together for 24 hours to achieve a common goal. This group of men never stopped. They never complained and they never one time, bickered at each other. No man was above any job. If someone was asked to sweep a floor, they proudly swept the floor knowing it was helping someone else on the team. If someone had to be taken off of their job and do a parts run in the middle of rush hour, they did it happily. I refer to them as a crew which they are, but more importantly they are a team in the true sense of the word. Even Scott the crew chief would have to be reminded that he’s got guys to do the job he can put down the sander and oversee the operations for a while.

As they leave to go catch a nap while the epoxy “goes off” the boat is really looking good. Hopefully these fixes will hold together. There is simply no time to paint it right, so there will be some patch work done to the paint job on Friday. The sun is about to come up on Thursday morning so this crew will have about 36 hours once they get back. Can they do it? They have absolutely no doubt that they will do it.

From the front it looks like this boat is ready to battle. But racing in Seattle is like racing in a soup bowl. To some degree these guys are crossing their fingers and hoping these fixes will hold together as this boat is punished at Seafair. When the crew comes back in a few hours on Thursday morning they’ll need to get the engine, gearbox, skid fin, rudder, prop and systems back in order. Oh yeah, they also have to clean the shop and pack it back in to the truck. As they leave on Thursday night they know that all they need to do is patch up the paint and load her on to the trailer.



Remember Dave? The one that I told you would lead you to believe this boat would qualify on Friday? Dave is a general contractor and when he gives you a completion date, you can bet that the job is not only going to be done, it’s going to be done to an exceptional level. The crew pulled in to the Stan Sayre’s pits at about 5pm on Friday. Before the course closed at 6pm, Jean Theoret validated the 1500+ hours spent rebuilding this boat by qualifying at 142mph right off the trailer. The Miss Beacon Plumbing had officially welcomed her guests to the 2008 Chevy Cup at Seafair.

As hard as Dave Villwock and the U16 crew tried to spoil the U37 crew’s weekend, Jean Theoret would not have it. The U16 would spend the weekend in Theoret’s roostertail for a 3rd consecutive year.


And when it was all over, no one came close to beating this boat. Despite the call that Theoret was off plane prior to the race he dominated the weekend. Think about it. If he came off plane, which he didn’t, then he came from off plane at the beginning of the race to dominate 5 laps of racing. Dave Villwock can tell you all day that he let up but if you watched that race you know he brought everything he had and it wasn’t nearly enough. The cherry on top for this team should be that they also accomplished the fastest competition lap over the Seafair weekend. Hats off to the U37 crew for the amazing job that they did to get this boat from the final in Tri Cities to the checkered flag in Seattle. I’ve named a few of them in this story but every one of them had a very important roll in this entire process and it would not have been successful if every one of them didn’t do the job that they did that week. I’d also like to mention that this crew of men had a crew of women behind them and whether it was being patient while their men didn’t come home for 5 days, arranged food to be delivered or picked up, reminded guys to take a 5 minute break, or whether they were at the shop on Thursday at midnight sewing sponsor patches on to uniforms they had as much heart as the crew fixing this boat. THIS is hydroplane racing folks. And it’s stuff like this that happens week in and week out to every team on the beach. They are all great at what they do and they all have heart. While this blog spotlights arguably one of the greatest hydroplane crews ever, the U37 crew, everyone in the pit would give this effort to get their boat on the water for the next race.
One thing that I didn't point out. Not all of the crew lives in Seattle and all of these guys use their vacation time from their real jobs, to go racing during the summer. One crew member had to be at home in Portland during this thrashing. To make it up to his teammates (even though he didn't need to) he called a local restaurant and had an incredible dinner sent over for the crew.
And the thing that makes these men and women amazing is that they don’t collect a pay check. Very few of them are on the race team payroll. The rest of them are there because they love to go racing and more importantly, they love to go hydroplane racing. All of the photographs in this story were shot and provided by Todd Tamayao, photographer of the U37 Racing Team.