Description

1967 MISS BUDWEISER (U-12) UNLIMITED HYDROPLANE

FULLY BUILT AND READY TO DISPLAY MUSEUM QUALITY SHIP MODEL

Dimension approx.: 30″ L x 12″ W x 5.5″ H
The model is already built. THIS IS NOT A MODEL SHIP KIT
Authentic gauges, dials and chrome steering wheel on dash
Authentic gauges, dials and chrome steering wheel on dash
Brass Propellers and rudders

When the old Staudacher‑built hull rolled down the launch ramp at Mahogany & Merlot, its red paint gleaming once more under the Chelan sun, it was more than a vintage hydroplane returning to the water. It was the reawakening of a survivor — a boat that had lived more lives, worn more names, and carried more hopes than almost any other hull of its era.

It began quietly in 1962 as Notre Dame, U‑7, the pride of Shirley Mendelson McDonald. Powered by an Allison and driven by Warner Gardner, it was a clean, purposeful machine, built for the thunder of Unlimited racing. When McDonald commissioned a new Merlin‑powered hull in 1964, the original boat slipped into the background, resurfacing only briefly in 1965 as Shu‑Shu before fading again.

Its obscurity ended abruptly in 1967. Bernie Little’s brand‑new Miss Budweiser had been destroyed in a horrific accident at Tampa, taking the life of driver Bill Brown. Desperate to keep his sponsor afloat, Little bought McDonald’s retired hull, repowered it with a Merlin, and sent it back onto the circuit as the new Miss Budweiser, U‑12. Roy Duby drove it first, then stepped aside for rookie Mike Thomas, who delivered the boat’s lone victory at Kelowna before losing his life in a non‑racing accident that fall. By 1968, Little had moved on to a new Karelsen hull, and the old boat sat weathering outside the team’s Seattle shop.

From there, the hull began its long wandering. It became Miss Budweiser II in 1969, then Burien Lady under Bob Murphy in 1970, giving inboard champion George Henley his Unlimited debut. It morphed into The Smoother Mover, Ms. Greenfield Galleries, Mallory’s Red Ball Express, and later Oh Boy! Oberto, each new name reflecting a new owner, a new sponsor, a new attempt to squeeze life from an aging Allison‑powered racer. Drivers came and went — Bob Miller, Terry Sterett, Chuck Hickling, Jerry Bangs, Bill Wurster — each adding a chapter to the boat’s increasingly patchwork history.

By the late 1970s, the hull was tired, slow, and outmatched. Yet it found one more unlikely caretaker: Norm Evans of Chelan. Painted green and christened Evergreen Roofing, it became the first Unlimited ride for Norm’s son, Mark, who was thrown into the cockpit with no testing and told simply to “be careful.” He never quite reached the 100‑mph qualifying minimum, but he remembers the experience with a grin — even the newspaper jab that said his fastest speeds would be “on the trailer going home.”

After Norm’s death in 1981, the boat nearly became a giant gas‑station sign before the city of Chelan outlawed such displays. It drifted again, saved from destruction only when Seattle restaurateur Gerald Kingen took partial ownership. In 1998, the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum acquired it, restored it as the 1967 Miss Budweiser, and even sent it to Hollywood for the film Madison.

Its final rebirth came under John Goodman, who had the boat restored once more — this time with a proper Merlin, rebuilt by Mustang specialist Mike Barrow after a years‑long hunt for parts. For nearly a decade, Peter Orton maintained and drove the boat at exhibitions, until Goodman finally paused operations to address deeper mechanical needs.

That is why its return to the water at Mahogany & Merlot was such a surprise. Dixon Smith and Mike Hanson took turns at the wheel, coaxing the old hull around the lake as water seeped into its frames — fifty to seventy‑five gallons by the end of a run. It pulled right, hit every roller, and handled like a stubborn relic. But it ran. After all these decades, it still ran.

And that, perhaps, is the real legacy of this boat. It has been Allison‑powered and Merlin‑powered, raced by rookies and champions, renamed more times than anyone can easily list, and nearly lost more than once. Yet it endures — a living artifact of Unlimited history, still capable of raising its bow, lifting onto a plane, and letting the roar of a Rolls‑Royce Merlin echo across the water.

A survivor, through and through.