"Hydroplane racing? Really?" Topic

Yeah, really!
Look, this is the same guy that created Wire to Wire a game about horse racing. Yes, it doesn't sell well but it is one of my favorite games. Plus it makes a great background for Pulp games as well.

link

Which one is Tom Wilson in the "Rawhide"?

Hope he beats J.J. Jamison in "The Scarlet Lady"!

Hydroplane racing???

Absolutely!

Still need to finish my water hexmat though, but the hydros are just itching to get started.

There's a company up in the Pacific Northest that produces some nice, approximately 1/100th scale hydros in resin as well. They are from the 1950s and 1960s period.

More info on the company please!

Here's the company, though interestingly, they don't list the smaller scale racing models on their website, so you'll have to inquire directly with them about that:

craftworks.com/hydros/hydros.htm

They produce two models, e.g. one is a round-nosed hydro, and the other has a slightly pointed, round nose. They are about 1/2 the size of the larger boats.

They also sell resin racing buoys in a set as well.

Prices were pretty reasonably, e.g. a lot less than their larger 1/48th scale models.

I got the info from Dave, here on TMP:

TMP link

You might also want to ask him for a copy of his rules, which are quite good.

Don't forget to check out his racing boat pics as well. He runs events occasionally at the local air museum up in Seattle, if I recall correctly, and there are some nice shots of his painted boats on Google images, if you do a little searching for "hydroplane racing miniatures".

One feature of the game is all the racing takes place in a small area of table. The key is how the boats are in relationship to each other instead of the track. So the boats are moved by spots and the pack, all the boats, are moved with a marker around the course.

Thanks for the boat link.

Ed- When you get to the point of releasing it, lets us know. I definitely want a copy.

I can see where that would be a useful way to play, given the large distances and fast speeds that the hydros get to.

Plus, it helps to keep everyone in the game.

Mako – You're absolutely right. We played a 10 player Charioteer game at Bayou Wars with all newbies and the game ran great and everyone was involved (okay, the six still alive) till the end of the race.
Will keep you all posted.

Laps 2 and 3

TMP link

I think this goes to show that you can make a game out of just about anything and that there is a game for very interest. Never would of thought of this one.

I played a similar game involving sled dog racing.

We have been gaming hydros for years here in North West. Rules based off of Formula De. For playing "Thunder Boats" we have resin cast piston powered boats.

link

Yep, spent 15 years up in the NW and attended Enfilade regularly. Where did you get the boats? Are they the ones Mako11 mentioned?

I believe they are.

My models are all made by Sean McEvoy, who is the Craft Masters owner. It's hard to get Sean to make these readily available. He's always wanted Dave Schueler to package his Thunderboats game with his hydros.

I'm running Thunderboats at Enfilade on Friday night, but if I can get my head around Unlimited, may run an open session on Sunday afternoon.

Mako11 and Ed,

The ones we have from Sean are about 15mm. So we can have a game on 6 x 8 table instead of half of a basketball court.

I'm holding out for the NASCAR game.

In case anyone needs some larger scale toys:

TMP link