Rest in Peace, Charles Mistele. You led an amazing life. Thank you for your friendship, your grace and the example of how to be a true gentleman. You will be remembered, not only as a man who kept history alive by keeping Miss America IX on the water, but for respecting others' lives and stories along the way. You are missed.
Hear, hear. He and his father Harold left an indelible impression on everyone they interacted with. The Wilsons of the Miss Canada series of hydroplanes became close friends and admirers of the entire Mistele family.
@@BobbyTucker Never had R-R power so why would you want to replace engines that are not original with other engines that are not original? The Packard's probably put out as much as the big block Chevy's but parts let alone original engines are pretty much non-existent.
I would like to share a personal story about my experience with miss America 9 and 10. Back in 1985 I was a young marine tech at what was then Jafco Marina and is now Harbour place Marina, a man named Bob Schroeder showed up with Miss America 9 and Miss America 10. Bob was a personal friend of the marina owner Jack Fruenhiem and quite the legend. Bob was a world champion hydroplane racer for team 1 Budwieser. Bob was also renown for his skill at rebuilding Allison Transmissions. Bob was contracted to transport these 2 legends to Mystic Connecticut where they would go into the historical museum. Well Bob being slightly crazy he decided to launch both boats because the antique boat show was coming up on Grand Island. He felt people should see them run one more time before they were put away for good. Now Miss America 10 just went thru a meticulous 250,000.00 dollar restoration, it still had the original 4 12 cylinder super charged Packard engines. The boat was immaculate, the 1st boat to ever break 120 miles per hr. it was quite a sight to see. Now Miss America 9 did not have it's original drive train, had 454's and was not meticulously restored. It makes sense when John describes the shape it was in when he obtained it. So needless to say it was not seaworthy, we had to hang it in our travel lift for 5 days just to get the boards to swell up enough for 4 bilge pumps running full out to keep it afloat. Bob shows up and says come on Greg lets take 9 out. Me being a young and dumb guy agreed and off we went. Now the Niagara river was really rough that day and we did manage to get out of the marina without a tow boat, 9 is direct drive...no neutral. He we are idling, rocking wildly, I look over and Bob is pulling out these old coke bottom bottle looking racing goggles, turned out to be his hydro old glasses. Great now I'm out here with this racing legend, in a boat that never should have been launched, reliving his glory days. He punches it and we are immediately up to our waist in water, he looks at me and just blows it off. I'm looking out at the bow of the boat, it was flexing so hard that every 3rd wake the entire bow would disappear. all of a sudden he pulls up and starts screaming " there is a miss in the port motor". We both stand up and sure enough a spark plug wire was laying in the bilge. He looks at me and screams go get it, now at this point I am seriously contemplating just swimming back to the marina to save my life. I think i said f no, he says you have to the engine will load up and blow. So here he is holding me by my ankles, boat rocking, scorching straight pipes I got the wire back on and off we went. Now the boat is running right and he is hammering it, I honestly thought the thing was coming apart. Somehow we made it back to the marina, he shuts it off and looks at me and says tomorrow we take 10 out...I said no WE won't be. So the next day he shows up and goes out with another tech and runs 10 on 2 engines back and forth...looked amazing really. Again this boat is direct drive so when you fire it up its in gear and really should use a tow boat to get in and out of port. So here comes Bob clicking the boat on and off to enter the basin, the solenoid sticks the engine doesn't shut down and he rams the large travel hoist foundation and blows the frt 20 ft off the boat to pieces. The deck is cypress, hull mahogany. When we ran up from the shop, the boat was still jamming itself under the dock while Bob was stuffing rags into the super charger to get it to stall. Took 2 years for Bob to restore the boat. I am now 62 years old and still consider that ride in 9 was the most dangerous thing I have ever done!
The imagery that evokes in my mind as a marine tech myself and a floridian, I can't not smile and laugh. That's a hell of a story man. Something that only you and only ever you can say they've done. That's awesome man. What a legend yourself. 🤘🏻
He brought that monster to a boat show in Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee Georgia and I had the pleasure of seeing, hearing it and watching it run. Amazing old boat with modern running gear!!
👍👌👏Oh WOW, what a simply fantastic boat! Thanks a lot for restoring recording editing uploading and sharing. Best regards luck and health to all involved people.
Garwood who invented the hydraulics for dump trucks used these Chris Craft boats to run rum from Canada during prohibition. My dad worked for him and said they could outrun any of the police boats of the time.
Absolutely beautiful,and t can motor hard and sounds Awesome. A true piece of history. Thankyou for posting and sharing the story.( his story,history).I,m so glad this vid found me.Thankyou,Best wishes to all,from,Auckland,New Zealand. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐👍👍👍👍👍⚓🚤⚡❤💯🥇🙂
Beautiful boat, Fantastic owner. He showed it at Keels & Wheels in Kemah, TX years ago. He allowed my 85 year old father aboard. Then they talked for a half an hour about growing upon Detroit. They both had fun that day. Say what you want about the engine swap, Packards are not available and his documentation of the boat is another show.
Saw it on Lake Hartwell and couldn't believe its turn radius. Unbelievable stuff!!!! Noise is amazing but would love to hear the original PACKARD engines!!!! Great boat
I'm a practical man and usually despise fast boats for their general uselessness for anything else and their extreme cost to buy and own. But I have to admit, that is an awesome boat.
The whole point of this boat was the pair of Packard v12s. With the v8s it sounds like everything else on the water. In a boat defined by its sound it's all wrong.
I so agree with you! What a farce claiming that it's restored, but without the engines that made it what it was. Well it's just another pretty boat. I wanted to hear the supercharged packards screaming across the water. But all I got was just another pair of shitty old 454s. It's like going to a car show and seeing all the 32 Fords with junky old Chevy crates slapped in them. I won't even take a second glance at them. I think it turns a restomod into restopoop.
It is a real shame that he passed away, unfortunately that piece of history has died with him, that boat will probably never touch the water again. Beautiful boat, that was made when stuff like that had soul instead of being made on a machine.
I bet he has had many a snail tracker want to sunbath on the deck of that beauty! He seems like a smart man, I doubt any snail tracker has ever slimed up the finish.
His father was the guy with with the boats and held records for altitude and distance in float planes and a great collection of classic cars. I think it was his mother in charge of the varnish.
Check out the Sweden built "Sverige S-1" too. Built later but from old drawings and blueprints, with the intent to beat the Miss America record. I don't know if it's as fast as this one was back in the days, but the S-1 is still an impressive boat with dual Rolls Meteor engines...
Unbalanced and dangerous in anything other than flat water as witnessed by its hook and crash in a chop. It's been to the bottom twice apparently. No way to trim it on the step,- maybe with surface drives to adjust the thrust. Just not built right, and old designs were not all that brilliant or safe, and just took guys with giant nuts and a death wish to drive them fast (same as old racing cars).
I totally admire the owners running the boat, hey the Packards are gone the a true fitting replacement BBC, hard to go wrong there! I would love to see this boat and hear it run, I bet it is amazing!!!
In my opinion this boat had the motors of the greatest cars ever built. It is a shame the original motors are gone, but to be used in WWII was a good calling!
Back during the 1930s and the Depression, rich men like Henry Ford paid obscene amounts of money to builders like Gar Wood to build racing boats like this and they would race their boats up and down the Detroit river to see who was the fastest.
