Westmoreland testing

Our little test session on Saturday went well, but perhaps not necessarily as well as hoped for the 1975 Oh Boy! Oberto of Mick Shutt and the 1970 Miss U.S. of Bill Shearer.

The Oberto, which is very close to being finished, needing just the dummy motor to be completed and installed, ran well. It popped right up on plane and moved deftly across the water. The only problem the boat had was when the driveline spun loose and was lost at the bottom of the casting pond. A new one has already been prepared and the boat will likely be ready to make its racing debut at the ERCU Gold Cup.

Veteran boats the 1973 Red Man Too made a few passes of an imaginary course, as did the 1976 Miss Vernor's, and both looked good and ready for their next rounds of racing. Both will appear at the Gold Cup.

Shearer brought out his "new" 1970 Miss U.S., which he'd recently acquired from brother-in-law Henry Marvin, and was very excited to run it for the first time. While it was out, the boat looked great. But upon returning to the pits, Shearer noticed the motor and speed control were a little warmer than he'd thought it should be, so he checked out the different factors that could be causing the trouble.

What he found was that the water pickup on the rudder was full of sand, which had compacted into the turn of the tubing at the base of the rudder. After working hard for some time, Bill decided to call it a day and take the boat home to work on the rudder in his shop.