Against The Flow - the Hamilton Jet tale 

Fantastic story. My father was into boats and went for a ride in a Hamilton jet one day when we were at the river. He saw the guy put it in the water, reversing it off the trailer and was fascinated. They guy took him for a ride, spun it round, did a jet stop and drove it back up on the trailer . Dad was soaked, in disbelief and like a kid that just discovered Santa's workshop. His beloved boat he had was sold that week to a guy at work and he found what may have well been one of the boats Hamilton produced that had a 6 Cyl Holden and a single stage jet. He had that a couple of years then a new hull and trailer was bought home. He had a 308 Holden he had rebuilt for it and that went in the new one with a 3 stage Jet. He put a lot of innovations into that boat and one was a Huge fuel tank so he could go anywhere for the weekend and never run out or have to worry about Jerry cans. I remember several times the guys at service stations filling it up and then asking how much did this thing hold? I don't know but it was a LOT. I remember him and his mate working on that putting it together for many weekends and me having got into the fibre glass dust and nearly scratching my skin off. I went on the first test run with it with his mate and they were both amazed at what they had built. Was very fast and pulled hard and scared the hell out of me as an 11 YO boy. I remember the only dissapontment dad had with it was that due to the hull design he picked, he couldn't get it to run in less than 6" of water and he was hoping for 4. :0) Very minor problem in the end. He was in the Sydney jet boat Club and we went on so many rallies and weekend camps in that thing. He had to sell that boat after my mother died and he struggled to take care of us kids on his own but got back on his feet after a while and wanted to buy his boat back. He went to the guy that bought it off him and saw it sitting out the back of the block of flats where he lived. We walked up to it and saw the cover on it had perished and broken down and the boat was full to the top with filthy water. I remember Dad being down and depressed for weeks and couldn't stop talking about how his beautiful boat was now garbage. I think he went back for another look to see if it could be saved but decided there was nothing worth while left. He never bought another one and whenever the subject of boats comes up he still reminisces about his Red Rocket.

I follow an inspirational car customiser in Nova Scotia, affectionately known as ' Bad Chad ' On his U-tube channel, and at car shows, when addressing youngsters, his catchcall is simple - - you must have a dream, because if you don't have a dream, it can't come true !! Bill Hamilton and Ed Hillary in the one documentary ? Wow,, wow, wow !! Earnest Rutherford, Burt Munro, Bruce McLaren, Jon Britten, A.J. Hackett, Peter Beck, Gallagher,, ( I think it was ) who invented the electric fence, I don't recall who was the Kiwi who dreamed up I.D, tags for cows' ears, or the milking system, and did Richard Pierce really fly before the Wright Brothers ? Incredible dreamers !! ( Apologies to all the other Kiwi's, of whom I'm not aware, or have forgotten at this moment, who dreamed up incredible stuff !! What a country !!

My father was a jack of all trades, specializing on inboard boats among other things pre 1960's. Had he lived long enough it would not have taken him long with a few of his local ingenious mates to start making one of these. These guys in my eyes were way before their times, thank you for an enjoyable Doko here in Aotearoa.

That was an amazing story. I enjoyed every second of it. The kiwi's certainly have contributed to the world of motorshops. From Bert Monroe on that old Indian to the Hamilton jet, New Zealand is firmly on the map of petrol head success. As a kid when I lived on the Gold Coast, the surf life saving boats were Hamilton jet powered, as were the Gold Coast made shark cats used for the air sea rescue boats. Well done kiwi's 👏

Great video, always been a fan of Hamilton Jets. Amazing world wide achievement.- NZs number 8 wire tech at its' finest, along with Kim Newcome, John Britten and many others who have put NZ on the innovation world map.

I grew up around all these guys from when I was a child , incredible memories, virtually every weekend on a river and bbq at end of day.

I live in Idaho now & a few years ago I found a Buehler Turbocraft boat in Utah with the Hamilton Chinook unit still in it & an Indiana Gear Works spare that looks new. It now has a 383 Chevy in front of the three stage & I changed the gate style nozzle to a Berkley unit & choked it down for better performance in the Snake & Bear rivers.

Absolutely amazing piece of New Zealand and world history. Beautifully captured. Amazing watch 👏

Absloutely great stuff! Many heartfelt thanks indeed - so many of these Titans of the day are now forgotten because they didn't spend all day banging their own drum, they just got on with having great lives. Today's heroes photograph their lunch for facebook.

Wow! One of the best hours I have spent watching YT. Thanks!

Outstanding! 40 years ago I proudly announced to my dad that I had bought my first jet boat. hey sadly uttered, “those are gas hogs!” oh but it was fun!

Ed Hilary. Smacked Mt Everest over Smashed a jet boat up the Ganges Drove a fucking Massey Ferguson to the South Pole. Has to be up there near the top of blokes dedicating their lives to doing cool shit.

Fabulous fabulous. Very pleased to have caught this Remembrance of John Hamilton, and the Hamilton Jet. I knew so little. 1960 perhaps, maybe 61, Clive River Napier, Dad launched his Hamilton, at least 3 children on board, me the oldest, Mum on shore watching, who did not swim-or could not swim. Dads first ever boat, and the BUNG was forgotten-imagine the chaos, Mum on shore screaming, as Dad insured we all made it to the bank. Boat baled on water, and off it went. It could certainly move, and water skis going back and forward, a variety of craft-and a Chap hit a bridge pillar. Never saw the boat again, never returned to the Clive since.

one word folks THE BEACH COMBERS old relic would just hammer down

Excellent. I have a twin jet drive. Love it. 18 years trouble free

The pleasure of paddling down the Whanganui River in shallow water and having a jet boat go by upstream. A great Kiwi invention.

Awesome !!!. My late Mother Maureen was proud of the Hamilton Jet Boat; She would love this !!!

I was so pleased at the end that the old boat will be restored as seeing that shell sitting there in the garden seemed an insult to its racing breed. Thanks Canterbury Museum, my favourite place I visit every trip back to Christchurch

Richard Pearse, Bill Hamilton, Bert Munro, Bruce McLaren, John Britten, all Kiwis who couldn't accept "can't be done."

Very good blast to the past and present. Thank you.

Best RU-vid video I’ve seen for a long time. Some very risky boating caught on film.

A friend had a 7 metre savage mako with a 351 Cleveland with a jet unit , it went well but cost too much in fuel , this was the late 70s

Amazing stories. Amazing rivers conquered. It worked!

Jet boating and racing has been some of best fun years.

I have had my Hamlton Jet boat for 40 years but never knew the story behind the product. My hull is also Hamilton 16' with a three stage 750 jet unit driven by a 265hemi Chrysler. It has been a brillient boat.

In the late eighties I actually came across that Sunbeam racecar of Bill's, specifically it's magnificent massive inline race engine, sitting in a quiet corner of a quaint old mechanic's workshop in the main street of the small inland South Canterbury township of Fairlie, gateway to the Lakes Tekapo and Pukaki. It was a beautiful engineering marvel to behold.

Great history. Very impressed thank you for sharing

Old school documentary. ❤

So great to come across this. I wouldn't have guessed the history behind it.

That was a good piece of history. This is where you get your jet skies tech. from thank you

Привет из Кемерово!

New Zealander Alan Gibb designed pioneered produced the most advanced land to water jet propulsion vehicles you will ever see.

Thank you so much for putting this documentary up dude ! 🍻

Avid boater in Jacksonville Florida. Enjoyed this.

Amazing invention ,and amazing stories , and amazing explanations, i had two awesome experience being on jet boats on rivers , places people's would not see , steep gorges in new zealand , great to go hunting up rivers , and streams , never thought i have that chance too , watching this story , DO I REALLY NEED A HAMILTON JET BOAT , , OH YES PLEASE ,

Having spent a lot of time in jet boats, offshore fishing and going up the Motu River i found this a fascinating and interesting story, well told and filmed... 🙏🙏👍👍✅✅🇳🇿🇳🇿

Our family spent countless weekends boating upon Blowering Dam, part of the Snowy Scheme, in NSW, Australia. We met a really "good bloke" contractor on the Snowy Scheme, who had bought a Stage 3 Hamilton Jet boat, and we asked him if we could try waterskiing behind it. The boat had a V8 coupled to the Hamilton Jet, so it was really powerful and agile. If we fell off our skis, it could turn on a dime to do a "flying pickup"

Great video!...We should have more Burt Munro, Bruce McLaren, Jon Britten, videos like these in schools inspiring our young inventors and innovators instead of he/she they/them crap. lol

Glad to have viewed this and was very informative.

27:35 this is a great transition! Well done.

twin turbo 454 in the 80's must be a museum piece now.

Absolutely amazing,there’s a whole lot of great inventions out there being put out from around the globe… But when you hear about so many great inventors and great achievements made by fellow Kiwi’s it gives you a sense of pride even though it was achieved by a fellow Kiwi… Love Aotearoa

I had one those chinook units a 2 stage behind a leyland p76 4.4 litre v8 ,man it was terrible no one could get that boat running right ,i brought it off engineers who made a great job of it they gave up trying to get it run right .Then i tried & gave up it cavitiaded was slow to get on the plane once on the plane it was o.k & it could do hamilton turn but just no response to it i was a fool i should have switched it out for a later model 772 or 773 unit it was a cool boat .There is only 3 things you need to know about jet boats 1 they are expensive 2 they catch fire 3 they sink ,,heed these warning you will be fine .

I was a kid in the mid 70's and when at school used to go to the library and read the boating magazines and was always facinated by the Hamilton Jet and the stories of the river adventures they had. Great documentary, interesting to hear the story of the development of the HJ

What an interesting story. When I was a kid, my whole family used to go out on a jet boat. We had a great time on it. I'm a bit surprised that there was no mention of personal watercraft, which for safety amongst other reasons wasn't mentioned.

grew up with jet boats on the waimak many happy memories

Wonderful blokes - every one of them

Such an amazing story to follow. It would be so good to be involved in a project like this. Sometimes I feel I was born too late into this life, where everything that is worth building has already been built ?? I'm sure, I will come back and watch this video again and again 👍👍

Born in South Canterbury in the 50s i remember, and a 100E Ford Prefect engine 😂😂😂😂.

36:39 I know that very exact spot in Nepal where Sir Ed Hilary is walking...!!! 😯🏔❤ It's in the Himalayas, on the Lukla to Namche Bazar trekking trail just below Namche town itself, looking down the Dudh Koshi river valley back towards Lukla. If the camera had turned 180 degrees up the river valley there is a classic view of Mt. Everest...👌👌👌 A very special part of the world.

Now i know why i thought i saw a young Jack Brabham in one of the early boats , Bill being an established car racer

Me and a friend were owners of a ex Dongara surf life saving boat with a 3 stage hamilton jet,302 windsor,i think it was a colarado model,long time ago,good memories.

In the mid-60's my uncle had a 16' Hamilton Jet Runabout powered by a Chevy 327, which he towed behind an AWD Jensen Interceptor 383! Fuel was cheap then. My father in the early-70's had an 18' Hamilton Jet (w/cabin) powered by a Holden 308, which he towed behind a Chrysler 360! Guess fuel was still cheap. I remember the 18 footer's top speed on glassy water was exactly 54mph at 5,000rpm! It seemed blindingly fast when sitting out there on the very foredeck of the boat to balance the 'vee' somewhat for optimal top speed across the water. Luckily I didn't fall off, but probably wouldn't have survived if I had! My father and I won the Whitianga 1970 Mercury Bay Regatta Open Category in this boat named 'Blue Jay' just beating Hamilton City's Rollo Marine 'solo' in a fibreglass sub-13' open race boat powered by a 60hp outboard which spent most of it's time with just it's prop and lower shaft in the water. He was gobsmacked to be overtaken by a heavy fibreglass 18' cabin boat in the slightly choppy conditions of that day with just enough keel weight to keep the jet's water intake still buried in the seawater, whilst his diminuative 'flying boat' had six inches of pure air under the whole of the keel..! Fun times!! Then the fuel crisis hit . . 1973 . . and the demise of 'fizz boats' . . in favour of sail !

Incredible engineering down south . A history i never knew about . I very Impressed.

outstanding legendary men. awesome!

Would love a jetboat but they're pretty expensive. Cool history behind those drives.

Just brilliant!...thanks for the upload ........ Rob

That was great , thank you.

Absolutely fabulous

Cool vid, thanks👍👍

Fantastic video, many many thanks for posting this fabulous history

I’ve been schooled on Jet Boats!

"Brilliant"👍👍👍👍👍

Very interesting, would be interesting to hear about others that came before Hamilton, Old man Thornycroft was into things like this and many other ideas on how to get a boat faster and into shallow water, he was also one of the early hovercraft problem solvers

Relick aproves this video

wow superb video thank you.

My father fitted a pair into a heavy hull to go up those rivers in competion with helicopters in the late 1960s. Two race ready 420 cubic inch Chrysler alloy race ready engines, set world records. Germany wanted the wild vennison from the mountains and that boat was cheaper than a helicopter.

Bill Hamilon - he's my hero. :P

God bless the Kiwi's ❤

I grew up with the famiky boat was a 1961? Arena craft w a hamilton jet. W a 270 or 212 t bird motor. The jet pulled skiers up more slowly but otherwise had advantages. Like when sister drove up on the beack 15 feet from the waterline. Took 25 psople but pushed out and np.

Still a very cool story.

This is from early 2000's.... Jon Hamilton died 2009 aged 84 from cancer

I’ve had a 22’ Jet Pace powered by a small block Chevy and a Hamilton 770 pump since 2003. Still works fine. Still uses way too much fuel and would like to have more horsepower. But it is much, much cheaper than the $80k-$150k aluminum outboards they’re selling now…

Ive been on the Shotover jet boat in Queenstown South island

New Zealand. Whaka yea👊

Isolation breeds invention.

Couldn’t spring for the full version of the software without the watermark?

Here in Missouri boats with jet pumps on outboard motors are popular on Ozark streams along with jet boats with inboard 4 cycle engines with a jet pump. I bought a welded aluminum johnboat with an Evinrude outboard with a jet pump from outboard jets in 1987, and it is my favorite boat.

I need one

We built an outboard using an ironhorse lawmmower motor.

Crazy to think that now a day you can order mini jets for brushless motors and put them in Rc boats, mini boats heck you could mount them to a paddle board. 😂

I wanted to know the relationship between the Hamilton jet boat to the jet ski watercraft. 😊

I remember the thing on the national geographic statue guys you know one of that 1 of that river. I remember that real well. I think there was only one boat that tried making it but didn't make it all the way up. But that's it but the late sex hes early 70s in New York State. There was song about airjetvotes the water jet. Whatever yeah that kind of like that concept but I don't know it's never never really took off or guess.

His boat and jet pump what is the origin for the Kawasaki JetSki I know I was there a technical trainer late 80s early 90s and at that time we already knew about this fellow and his jet propulsion watercraft Patents

but didn't they run a leg of the world jet boat marathon up the Colorado

Have anything to do with Hamilton Propellers in aviation?

Evinrude had a jet outboard in the 70s

Hamilon?

Another example of NZ ingenuity.😅

Water jets have abysmal efficiency at low hull speeds. Rivers also can have lots of weed. Guess where it ends up.

❤ Toyota GR Corolla ❤️

You also provided no evidence that they are not hamas. Same/same. Funny how one side has rules to adhere to and the other doesnt. Why do you hate jews?

The music junked another video 👎👎👎👎👎💩💩💩😬

I have a late 60s maybe 1970, Hamilton Colorado single stage jet unit. It is in pieces but is all there. It has the reverse bucket that looks like a bum. It has a reconditioned impeller, mid pitch, new wear ring, isolator and cutlass seal. There is also a fine pitch impeller that is used but ok. I would like it to go to a good home. It's in the UK near Cambridge.

New Zealand Home of Kiwi bird Australia home of the Emu bird Brother's in arms What a extraordinary New Zealand is