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The founding members of the IPBC Inc felt that there is a legitimate place in the sport of Powerboat racing for a club or clubs, which are not affiliated with other Powerboat racing organisations
The concept is that there has to be a simple and inexpensive way to attract people to powerboat racing.
Based upon the above we have a philosophy of run what you bring as long as it passes our scrutineering check
No racing licences are required or expensive race boats.
Race craft can consist of your backyard ski boat (inboard or outboard), Jet Ski, tinnie and real race boat if you have one. The most stringent requirement is that a kill switch is fitted to the craft so that it will stop should the driver be ejected from it.
The Spook
Torkan
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The history of
"The Spook"
Classic Hydroplane
"The Spook" was built in 1969 by Graham Troy for the then famous Australian
motorcycle racer "Eric Debenham" The hull Is from a set of plans drawn by
American hydroplane designer Ted Jones in the late 1950's. The original name
of the boat was "Avenger", lt was fitted with a 3.8 ltr Jaguar engine, Originally
this engine was supercharged , however this was removed and three Webber
Carburettors fitted to lt. It was Raced at all meetings around Sydney for the
then Sydney Hydroplane Club Eric Debenham still lives in Sydney
Around 1970 it was sold to Mr Neville Campbell of Gosford who never raced it. lt
appears that the boat sat in his shed, unused , for about ten years or so.
lts next owner was Mr Ron Hilary of Punchbowl who purchased the boat and
engine about 1980/81 Ron fitted a fuel injected 283 Chev engine, repainted it
red and white and renamed it "Eagle". Ron raced it for a short time and then sold
it to its next owner. Ron has now retired to the NSW South Coast.
The next owner of the boat was Mr Keith Hayward of Revesby, Keith purchased
the boat around 1982/83. Keith fitted the boat with a 327 Chev and the boat was
very competitive. Keith campaigned the boat for several years. Keith Hayward
sold the boat to his brother Paul Hayward who refitted the boat with another 283
Chev. lt was Paul Hayward who at this time renamed the boat with its current
name, "The Spook "
Graham Howard purchased the boat from Paul Hayward 1993/94, and seperated the
engine and hull. The engine was used in another hull and Graham
removed the gearbox as well, Graham only had the hull for about 3 to 4 weeks
and onsold it to its next owner.
The next owner was Mr Mark Pritchard of Pitt Town near Windsor, Mark fitted
the boat with a 258 Holden and ran it in several Brooklyn to Windsor Bridge to
Bridge races.
The current Owner of the Boat is Bob Forbes of Rankin Park in Newcastle, Bob
purchased the Boat from Mark Pritchard in August 1998. Since owning the boat
Bob has changed it a bit, These changes include ;
1/ Building e new cowling to fit between the engine and the drivers cockpit, This
was necessary as the original fibreglass engine cowling which ran from infront of
the engine to the cockpit had been lost during a bridge race
2/ Removing the original fibreglass nose cone which was fitted to the front of the
boat in front of the engine and replacing it with a flat piece of ply. This was
because the nose cone was severely cracked. This work gave the hull the very
flat foredeck and open engine look. This same look has been seen on some
early unlimited hulls in the USA.
4/ Bob has replaced the 253 Holden V8 which was in the hull when he purchased
The boat with a 308 cu in Holden V8. This has seen a transformation in the boats
Performance. The 253 was good and had a top speed in the mid 90mph bracket,
but you had to have the distance to wind it up. For circuit racing, which is what
Bob primarily uses the boat for, you require much more grunt out of the corners
and acceleration down the short, circuit racing straights. With the 308, the boat
is now achieving speeds in the 95 mph bracket when circuit racing. Top end
Speed with the 308 is approximately 110 mph at the engines specified redline of
7000 rpm. These revs have been achieved at Raymond terrace with a long run down the river.
Generally speaking the hull is in very good shape for its age. lt is now ( in 2002 )
42 years old and has been raced for most of its life.
In November 2004 I started construction of a new hull, which is a blown-up version of the original hull and will
be 18'6" long and 8'2" wide
Christmas 2005 the former or original hull was sold to a racer in QLD without the engine.
November 2009 I have now completed construction of the new hull and is now ready to be painted and have the engine installed
The Engine
The basis for the engine is an early model Holden 308 block. The block has been modified and has been fitted with four bolt main caps on the three centre crankshaft bearings.
The addition of a stud kit and girdle completes a very strong bottom end assembly.
The crankshaft has been nitrided and is complemented with a set of Scat H beam chrome moly conrods topped off with custom made Venolia forged pistons.
The heads are from Yella Terra and are the latest design high port Dash - 3 models, These are probably the most sophisticated heads ever made for an early style Holden 308 before they went to the fuel injected heads with the different firing order.
The camshaft is from Camtech and features 250 degrees of duration at .050 of valve lift and .550 thou of valve lih in total.
Valves are Manly of stainless steel construction.
The valves and valve springs are held in place by Titanium retainers and ten-degree Valve locks.
Rockers are Yella Terra race series screw adjustable roller rockers, actuated by Crow heavy-duty chrome moly push rods.
Fuel supply is by a Holley 750 cfm vacuum secondary carburettor. This carburettor sits on top of an Edelbrock low-rise single plane inlet manifold. This will be replaced with a high-rise Inlet manifold manufactured in Australia, which I already have.
Compression ratio is 11.25 to 1 and the engine runs on Avgas. Although I am considering changing to methanol.
The engine in the old boat featured in this folder has spun 8300 rpm _ a speed believed to be in the ballpark of 125 mph.
All that remains is to strip the engine down and refresh it with rings, bearings and valve springs and its all good to go.
The boat was built in 1969 by Col Winton. He built it for Frank Huntly. It was a 16 ft shovel-nose rear seater called "Tempest" it had a Falcon 144 6 cyl engine in it, Frank rolled it oneday while racing it.
Frank then sold it in 1975 to Des Radburn, it was then cut in half and turned into a picklefork cabover front seater Des put a 6 cyl valiant motor in it and called the boat Tortoise.
Des had an altercation with the deepwater boat ramp and tore the back end out of it, so he lengthend the boat and put a 350 chev in it. He sold it to Gary Livemore in 2003.
Gary then cut it in half again and put 18 inches in the tunnel and lengthend it again .also redesigned the sponsons and did a lot of other major mods to the hull. and renamed the boat "torkan".it is now fitted with a 366 cube methanol ford mutant engine.
Under Construction
