My grandpa took this video. My dad donated it to the hydroplane museum a few years ago. My grandpa was good friends with Ron Musson. What a beautiful boat and a tragic story. Thank you for posting this video for all to enjoy.
This was an incredible forward thinking boat of its day. An absolute stroke of genius from Ted Jones late in his career. It was a very difficult design to perfect, it had many drive line challenges that had to be worked out. Foremost, designing a V-drive gearbox that could withstand the HP and prop cavitation it was subjected to. But eventually, it became race worthy. Its first race was in Washington DC, the President's Cup. This race was referred to as Black Sunday and I was there as a young lad. My father had a boat in the race which also marked his first race. In it's first heat of competition, the Bardahl dominated, running away from the others in strikingly easy fashion. In its second heat, it broke out a very large lead from the start and was alone in first place when it suddenly nosed into the water, exploding into pieces and sending water and pieces of the boat around 100ft into the air. Ron Musson, Bardahl's very capable driver, was killed instantly. For years afterwards, the sport blamed the hull design on its demise, although it was discovered quickly that the boat suffered a broken propellor, thus throwing a blade at very high speed, which thrusted the back of the boat up, thus causing the bow to nose in. This was the first cab-over design, meaning driver in front of engine. Ted Jones and his son Ron, would not have a chance to try the design again for many years. Today, that design has dominated the sport of hydroplane racing for over thirty years now. We owe the exciting racing to forward thinkers like the Jones's. Ron Jones, Ted's son , would go on to become a master of the design and enjoy many racing victories with his hull designs. I feel fortunate that I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of the future back in 1966, and still feel the pain witnessing the death of a great driver.
