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The year 1948 was a banner year for Henry Kaiser’s vast business empire.  His new foray into the automobile industry as Kaiser-Frazer Automotive was showing great promise.  Kaiser Permanente was back on track after critical meetings at Fleur du Lac in mid-June 1948. His industrial products businesses, especially Kaiser Aluminum and Chemicals, were performing very strongly as well.  But on the boating front, his racing ambitions were stunted by the damage done to Hornet II in the August 1947 races, and by the fact that Hornet II’s two-point hydroplane hull was unlikely to be competitive beyond Lake Tahoe no matter what size engine he stuffed into the engine room.  

 

In conversations with his friend Stanley Dollar Henry learned that 1949 was going to be a big year in national boat racing.  The Gold Cup races were scheduled to be run in Detroit as they were every year, but more importantly, the international Harmsworth Cup races were scheduled to be run in Detroit as well.  The prestigious Harmsworth event is only run when an international challenger comes forward to challenge the prior winner, and that challenge had already come forward for 1949.  The national and international boat racing world was abuzz about this prospect and several new boats with the latest technologies were already being planned for these events.  In fact, Stanley Dollar had commissioned a new boat for the events.  This was sufficient motivation for Kaiser to make the leap from local racing at Lake Tahoe where he had enjoyed great success, to the national and international racing circuit.

 

The American Power Boat Association Gold Cup Races:  The Gold Cup races, sanctioned by the American Power Boat Association, determine the ultimate United States champion in unlimited power boat racing.  These races, which began in 1904, are patterned after a similar international racing series known as the Harmsworth Cup races which originated in England.  Although the Gold Cup Trophy itself, a gold plated, silver cup, dates from 1904 when it was purchased for $750 ($23,332), millions of dollars have been spent over the years by avid sportsmen in pursuit of that Trophy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gold Cup Races for 1949 were scheduled to take place on July 2 in the Detroit River.  Although Kaiser and others didn’t know when they started planning in 1948, the 1949 Gold Cup field would include 27 boats, the largest field in the 45-year history of the Race.  Experts at the time estimated the total value of the boats in the Race to be at least $2 million ($23.5 million).  Another very special highlight of the 1949 races was that Gar Wood, legendary racer and boat builder, would serve as the Honorary Chairman and Referee for the event.  The race would consist of three, 30 mile heats, all to be run on the same day, with the boat recording the lowest cumulative time over the full 90 miles being declared the winner.  The races require both incredible speed and stamina.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Harmsworth Cup Races:  The Harmsworth Cup (also known as the Harmsworth Trophy) Race is a British international championship race where competitors represent their Countries, not just their teams, and is considered the ultimate international unlimited boating championship.  Founded by English publisher Alfred Charles William Harmsworth in 1903, boats in this race were to be built entirely by residents of the country represented by the boat, using materials built wholly within that country.  Much of the excitement in 1949 was centered on the fact that the Harmsworth had not been run since 1933 because no challenge had come forth to Gar Wood and the United States, the 1933 Champion.  The Harmsworth had been paused both because of WW II and because American Gar Wood had won the nine Championships prior to 1933, and competitors generally considered him unbeatable. But now, heartened by changes in technology since Gar Wood’s reign, a brave competitor, Ernest A. Wilson from Ingersol Ontario, Canada, stepped forward to challenge Wood and the United States.  Joining Canada’s challenge was Achile Castoldi of Milan, Italy. 

 

Each competitor country was allowed to be represented by three boats.  In the case of Canada and Italy, it was unlikely that there would be more than one boat from each country.  However, with the large field of Gold Cup Championship boats, there would be qualifying runs to determine which three boats earned the honor of representing the United States. 

 

The Harmsworth Cup Race would take place on July 30, 1949.  It was going to be quite a spectacle.  Describing an earlier, 1920, Harmsworth Race on the Detroit River, Time Magazine wrote: “Many a race between shadowy contraband-carrying rumrunners and swift, searchlight playing patrol boats has been run on the narrow Detroit River.  Last week 400,000 persons lined the river’s edge to watch millionaires race millionaires.”  The crowd in 1949 was likely to be much larger, but the description of the racers remained accurate.

 

Planning Begins for the 1949 Races:  Once Kaiser made the decision to “go national” in 1949, he put his executive staff and public relations department to work.  There were major decisions to be made.  A short list of those decisions would include: what boats should Kaiser develop for the races; who should he hire to drive those boats; who among his executive staff should he appoint to be in charge of the boats since Henry’s time would be extremely stretched; the races were to be held over a one month period, how would Henry and Bess move back and forth from California to Michigan; all of Henry’s boat mechanics and equipment were located in California, how would all these men and equipment be moved to Michigan; plus a host of other logistical issues. 

 

The nerve centers for the racing operations were assigned to be the office of Henry’s long-time executive secretary, Edna Knuth (“Knutie”), back at the Oakland Headquarters and a team at Henry’s New York City offices, which at the time were in the British Empire Building, a 6 story Art Deco style building at 620 Fifth Avenue, now a part of Rockefeller Center, and very discrete with no signage of any kind, led by executive staff member Jean Hoffman.  The three decisions that needed to be made first were where water trials for whatever boats Henry chose to race would be held, who would drive Kaiser’s race boats, and who would build the boats Henry would race?  Of course, these were not sequential decisions, but were certainly interrelated and needed to be managed by Kaiser and his staff.

 

Selecting the Venue for Pre-Race Water Trials:  Before any important races, it was essential that boat, driver, and crew members had a chance to test race boats under racing conditions.  Especially in the case of new boats, these shake down runs highlight weaknesses that must be fixed before competition.  Ever public relations conscious, Kaiser realized that these pre-race trial runs could be turned into a spectacle themselves.  Why not publicize these shakedown runs as attempts to set new one-mile speed records sanctioned by both US and international racing organizations?   Establishing new world speed records only weeks before the major races would certainly get the attention of the public and the other competitors in the races.  It would be a competitive and public relations coup. 

 

Pre-race water trials needed to be run on a relatively large lake with straightaways of at least 3 miles where speeds of 180 miles per hour or more could be accommodated.  There needed to be facilities for boat maintenance, fuel and reconstruction, if necessary.  Local cooperation was essential since a squadron of private patrol boats would be necessary to keep unsuspecting pleasure boats off the test course.  And because Kaiser planned to make the trials a public relations spectacle, the venue needed to be in, or near, a major media center to insure radio, newsprint, and even television coverage.  There were several possibilities in the Mid-West and East Coast near Detroit where the races were to be held.  Kaiser and his team quickly narrowed the list to three possibilities: the Detroit River near where the Gold Cup and Harmsworth Races were to be run, Lake George in New York the site of a previous Gold Cup Race, and Lake Placid the sentimental favorite of the Kaisers.

 

After playing both Lake George and Lake Placid Chambers of Commerce against each other like a master violist playing a Stradivarius, gaining all sorts of concessions and promises from each potential venue, Kaiser executive member in charge of managing Kaiser’s racing boats, Jean Hoffman, advised Henry that he had narrowed the field to two contestants, Detroit and Lake Placid.  Hoffman’s thoughtful recommendation memo to Kaiser was direct and to the point.  First, Detroit will exert no effort to attract our boats, while Lake Placid is very excited about the event and will make substantial contribution to induce us to come.  Second, nor you or Mrs. Kaiser have any wish to come to Detroit from the point of view of personal pleasure, and business demands on you from the nearby Kaiser-Frazer facilities could destroy the relaxation you find around boats.  Finally, in what would turn out to be a prescient observation he stated, if the boats do not meet our expectations, Detroit, in front of future competitors, would be a poor place for an exhibition.  His strong recommendation was that the trials should be held at Lake Placid.

 

This recommendation was undoubtedly music to Kaiser’s ears, if only for sentimental reasons.  He set the staff to planning a “Coming Home” for himself and Mrs. Kaiser to the place they had met and where Henry had grown to love boating.  "The Lake Placid First Annual Mile Trials for Unlimited Hydroplanes", sponsored by the Lake Placid Area Chamber of Commerce and sanctioned by the American Power Boat Association, was set for June 11th and 12th 1949.

 

Planning began immediately and was extensive.  Accommodations for the Kaisers and staff were arranged in the presidential Suite of the Lake Placid Club and a host of air and rail reservations were made to move Henry and Bess back and forth from the apartment they maintained at the Waldorf Astoria (Apartment 16 R-S) to Lake Placid and Detroit.  Unfortunately, Bess’s health was beginning to fail, and there always needed to be back up plans if air or rail travel was too difficult for her.  Although Henry kept several cars in the garage at the Waldorf, more were sent from Detroit to move the staff and, possibly, Bess. 

 

On the public relations front, Kaiser’s planners were able to arrange media coverage through three radio stations: Mutual, NBC and ABC; television coverage on WRGB (an NBC affiliate), a mobile television unit, as well as all the large New York newspapers.  The Kaiser Companies public relations staff fed the media machine constant reports about the progress of boats being built, who would drive the boats, and a lot of sometimes sappy background material about the Kaiser’s younger days in Lake Placid.

 

Selecting the Drivers:  One of the biggest early public relations coups for Kaiser was his selection of famous bandleader Guy Lombardo to drive his boats.  Gaetano Alberto Lombardo was a 47- year-old popular entertainer featured with his Royal Canadians Band, who, along with his brothers, would go on to sell about 300 million records during an illustrious career. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But more importantly to Kaiser, Lombardo was a successful unlimited hydroplane driver as well.  Fresh from his victory in the first Gold Cup Race after WW II in 1946 in his Tempo VI hydroplane, Lombardo would bring not only his driving skills but his popularity to Kaiser’s boats.  Lombardo had been a close friend of Kaiser for some time and had visited Fleur du Lac on several occasions.  He knew that Kaiser was very serious about this step out of California to national and international competition and that Henry had not only the ambition, but the financial ability to succeed.  The deal would be a good one for both sides.  Lombardo would receive priceless national media coverage, and Kaiser would have one of the best drivers available for his new boats.  Lombardo was also a student of hydroplane racing and owned his own race boats, so Henry expected him to make suggestions during the design, construction and shakedown stages of his new boats.  Evidence of the mutual advantage of this deal between Kaiser and Lombardo is that Lombardo was to be paid the grand sum of $1 for each race he drove for Kaiser.

 

Commissioning Kaiser’s New Race Boats:  Henry now faced the most consequential decision in his racing quest.  He was well aware that advances in hull technology now demanded a move to three-point hydroplane technology; his beloved two-point hydroplane Hornet II was now obsolete in unlimited hydroplane races.  Kaiser reasoned that if three-point hulls were now required for success, why not turn to the builder who first patented that technology. 

 

In mid- 1948, Kaiser approached Arno Apel, President of the Ventnor Boat Corporation, to begin plans for a new boat.  Henry announced that he would be staking his bid for the world championship on the long-standing fame and reputation of Ventnor in the boat racing world, dating all the way back to 1902.  Over that long time span, Ventnor had continuously invented and developed new designs, with the result that in 1948, more than 90 percent of all world inboard racing records were held by Ventnor hulls.  After contracting on August 19, 1948, for a boat specifically designed to compete in the Harmsworth Cup Races, Kaiser and Apel began considering whether that Harmsworth boat would be capable of winning the Gold Cup as well. 

 

There are important differences between the two races, the most important being that the Harmsworth Race is longer, requiring a more-sturdy boat, but also important is the fact that the Harmsworth is run in clockwise circles, while all unlimited races in the United States including the Gold Cup are run in counter-clockwise circles.  Whether the driver is constantly turning left or right makes a big difference in how the boat needs to be designed and set up.  A boat designed to be sturdy and turn to the right very well might be at a great disadvantage to smaller, more agile left-turning boats.  While work began on the new Harmsworth Boat, Henry came to the conclusion that one boat would not do for both races. 

 

Late in the process for the Gold Cup Race to be held on July 2, 1949, Henry contracted for a separate Gold Cup boat on January 17, 1949.  He then added an order for a third boat, a twin engine runabout.  Interestingly, Kaiser ordered the Gold Cup boat and the runabout after he had been notified of Ventnor’s pending bankruptcy filing.  It was an extraordinary leap of faith to place the fate of Henry’s national racing quest in the hands of distraught mangers and the desultory unionized work force at Ventnor.  Unfortunately, Henry was about to learn that not everyone is capable of, or interested in, working in Kaiser-time. 

 

Once the decision was made to build two different, purpose-built boats for the Harmsworth and Gold Cup Races, Apel and his chief designer Norman Lauterbach went to work on the specifications for the boats.  Kaiser was, as always, hands-on.  The record is filled with correspondence by letter, telegram and transcripts of telephone conversations between Henry, Edgar, and Guy Lombardo with the managers and engineers at Ventnor and Allison working out the minute details for the boats.  Unfortunately, the record is also filled with legal briefs and conversations with Ventnor managers and the Court-appointed executors of the Ventnor bankruptcy.  

 

Specifications of the Harmsworth Race Boat:  In order to sustain the pounding of the longer Harmsworth race course, the three-point hydroplane hull was designed to be 32 feet long and almost 12 feet wide.  Penned by Arno Apel with technical assistance by Chief Engineer Norman Lauterbach, the Harmsworth boat featured aerodynamic design done at the Guggenheim School of Aeronautics at Georgia Tech University.  The design duo claimed that they “threw out all traditional notions of design in building this boat.”  Of particular note was the use of all aluminum spars and braces inside the wood hull and an aluminum deck for durability, all of which undoubtedly pleased Kaiser.  The engine in the boat was the monster Allison W-3420 Model 24-cylinder aircraft engine displacing 2,840 cubic inches and producing about 3,000 horsepower at 3,400 rpms.  To convert engine rpms to the speed needed to allow the boat to “ride” on the propellers, two Dan Arena gear boxes at a ratio of 2.78:1 meant that at the engine redline of 3,400 rpms, the propellers were turning at 9,500 rpms.  As a special feature to help the boat handle better, the designers used two counter-rotating propellers coupled to the Arena gear boxes through a complicated arrangement of universal joints and two-inch propeller shafts.  Mostly because of the weight of the huge engine, the boat was quite heavy at 9,000 pounds.  The cost of the boat in racing trim was approximately $100,000 ($1.2 million).  With its sleek hull design and gleaming aluminum decks the boat looked fast and beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Specifications of the Gold Cup Race Boat:  Designed by Arno Apel and Normal Lauterbach, the three-point hydroplane hull of the Gold Cup boat was a bit more nimble than the Harmsworth boat at 28 feet long and 11 feet wide.  The engine in this boat was also an Allison, but was the smaller 12-cylinder V-1710-111 Model displacing 1,710 cubic inches and producing about 1,500 horsepower at 3,000 rpms.  The Dan Arena gear box stepped up the single propeller rotation to about 7,500 rpms.  Constructed of a wood frame and hull with an aluminum deck, the boat weighed approximately 5,200 pounds in racing trim.  A much simpler design than the Harmsworth boat, the Gold Cup boat was also less expensive to build, setting Henry back by about $60,000 ($714,888).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In true Kaiser fashion, there was an organized naming procedure for the new boats within the Kaiser executive ranks.  With the only limitations being no commercialization, over 100 names were suggested.  In the end, two names suggested by Edgar Kaiser were selected.  The Harmsworth boat was briefly named Aluminum Star, but finally changed to Aluminum First at the suggestion of Bess Kaiser.  The Gold Cup boat was named Hot Metal.  Interestingly, both names are close to endorsements, some might say advertisements, for Henry’s most successful business at the time, Kaiser Aluminum and Chemicals.  But, Henry’s interest and confidence in aluminum as the metal of the future transcended his own company’s offerings and it’s likely he rationalized the names as nods to the future, not his businesses.

 

Meanwhile, the financial and labor situations at Ventnor continued to get worse every day.  By early January 1949, Ventnor was in receivership and living hand-to-mouth mostly from progress payments from Kaiser.  Morale was low.  By February 19, 1949, the Ventnor court-appointed Receiver told Kaiser that the decision had been made to liquidate, rather than recapitalize, Ventnor primarily because of a Court decision that the Ventnor Receivers must recognize the union contract that was in force when Ventnor went into receivership, and which was the primary reason the company had failed.  Already the union had forced the Receivers to hire several employees whom they did not want.  Receiver Marks assured Frank Hewlett, Kaiser’s representative, that none of these workmen would be used on the Kaiser boats under construction. 

 

To make matters worse, Kaiser’s attorney advised Kaiser that funds being transferred to Ventnor from Kaiser were being used to finish other boats at Ventnor.  He recommended a much more strict accounting of how funds from Kaiser were being spent.  In an inner-office memorandum from Frank Hewlett dated March 22, 1949, the specifics of dealing with the Court appointed Receivers regarding how each check from Kaiser was to be spent, Hewlett states that “Morale is getting steadily worse at the Ventnor plant, mainly because the workman feel that they will be out of a job once the Kaiser boats are finished.  Production stepped up a bit, according to Receiver Marks, when he warned the workers that unless they snapped out of it, he would not recommend them for employment with the prospective purchaser of the plant.  Apel sings the blues and feels that he has received a raw deal from the Receivers whom he thought would put the plant back on its feet.  The two Receivers regard their job as a thankless and hopeless one, and are doing everything possible to sell the plant and liquidate the corporation.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Although the bankruptcy and labor problems at Ventnor undermined the successful completion of the boats and were a constant headache for Kaiser and his staff, the boats were eventually transported to Lake Placid to prepare for the June 11th and 12th “Grand Homecoming” for Kaiser.  Aluminum First had a long list of things to be fixed or completed and Henry finally lost patience with Ventnor and simply brought the boat to Lake Placid to be finished by Kaiser employees.  Henry drove Hot Metal for the first time on Memorial Day 1949 and Lombardo took Aluminum First on some shakedown runs. 

 

During the preparations for the Lake Placid runs, Lombardo spent many sleepless nights as he alternated between playing regular engagements with his band at Providence, Rhode Island at night, after which he caught an airplane to be at Lake Placid the next morning for test runs on the calm Lake.  The early reports from Lombardo on Aluminum First were encouraging.  Lombardo told reporters that he was “very optimistic” that he would break the world speed mark of 141.74 mph held by the late Sir Malcolm Campbell by “at least” 15 to 20 mph.  He said that the boat was “a cinch to go 160 mph or better.”

 

Disappointment at Lake Placid:  Things began to unravel quickly at Lake Placid as the dates for the scheduled trial runs closed in.  The 24-cylinder Allison engine in Aluminum First failed only days before the event and was replaced by a spare engine Kaiser had insisted on bringing along.  After fixing the engine, Aluminum First sheared one of its two massive propeller shafts the day before the trials, and Kaiser had a new 18-foot shaft flown in from Detroit that night.  After the herculean over-night efforts to repair the shaft, when the boat was fired up on the day of the trials, one of the universal joints in the complicated engine to propeller shaft drive-train failed, and that was the end for Aluminum First for the Lake Placid races at least.

 

Hot Metal faired only marginally better.  The Kaiser camp thought the U.S. speed record of 124 mph held by Gar Wood in a now antiquated race boat was going to be an easy record to beat.  But, Hot Metal, driven by Max Collins, was only able to manage 105.571 mph under ideal conditions before being forced to retire due to mechanical difficulties as well.

 

And so it was, in the bright lights of extensive media coverage with a very sympathetic acceptance by Lake Placid locals, the very well-planned and financed assault on long-standing world and US speed records by Henry Kaiser’s boats, featuring work by the best designers and outfitted with all the latest technology money could buy had failed miserably.

 

Perhaps to cover his embarrassment from putting so much on the line, only to fail, Kaiser astounded the flocks of reporters at Lake Placid by tugging at his Greek fisherman’s hat and stating; “I am not disappointed”.  Of course, that response required clarification, and he went on to say: “Naturally, I regret the unfortunate turn of events which has temporarily frustrated our efforts.  However, it is not for myself in any way that I feel badly.  Rather, it is for the engineers and the designers, for the mechanics. And for the drivers, Guy Lombardo and Max Collins, that I feel badly.  It is upon all these fine young men that the disappointment falls so heavily.  In no way do I look upon our experience here as a failure.  Our attempts on the records were blocked, but in the final analysis it is anything but a failure.  To the contrary, I consider the very failure itself to be a success.  This is a young man’s world in which we live, and young men learn best through adversity.  This has been a hard lesson in adversity which these “boys” will never forget.  It is a lesson for which they will be much better men and citizens in the long run.  We are pioneering in this field, and pioneering is the thing on which this country is so well founded.  We need much more of it.  It is young men like my “boys” who hold the future of the nation and the world in their hands.  It remains for young men of vision and perseverance in industry and in all walks of life to preserve our Country.  We have the power and we have the hulls to do the job.  The mechanical failures which we have encountered here are matters of engineering in things which are relatively small.  It is a matter of harnessing the power to the hulls and keeping the harness in place at the speeds we seek.  There is every indication at this moment that engineering can and will overcome the obstacles which have prevented our immediate attainment of new records.  The unknown forces which come into play at the terrifically high engine and hull speeds at which we work cannot be overcome quickly and with one fell swoop.  It requires time and trial, but these boys will succeed.  They will lick these irritating problems, one by one, until there are none left, and then there they will be, with the record.”  This was certainly a magnanimous statement from Henry, but did he really believe what he had just said?  Given Kaiser’s personality and unsinkable confidence in the future, we think that at that moment he believed every word.

 

The only thing to do at that point was to load up the boats, equipment and staff and move on to Detroit for the Harmsworth and Gold cup races.  The team now had less than a month to work out the problems in Hot Metal to get the boat ready for the Gold Cup Races on July 2nd.  But they faced a bigger immediate problem.  Probably disillusioned with the performance of Kaiser’s boats at Lake Placid, Guy Lombardo informed Kaiser that he now planned to drive his own boat, Tempo VI in the Gold Cup Races, but would be ready to drive Aluminum First in the Harmsworth Races later in July if the problems with the boat could be resolved.  Kaiser reached out to Danny Foster, a well-known California race boat driver who had won the Gold Cup in 1947 and 1948 in two different boats, to drive his boats in both the Gold Cup and Harmsworth Races.  Foster tentatively agreed, but after taking both boats on trial runs, informed Kaiser that neither boat was in competitive form at that time and that he would try to find another ride.  Desperate, and no doubt chagrined that after all the planning and work of the past 18 months he couldn’t find a driver that thought his boats were competitive, he turned to Norman Lauterbach, designer and engineer on both boats at Ventnor, to work out the problems with the boats and drive them in the upcoming races.

 

Failure in the 1949 Gold Cup and Harmsworth Cup Races: The results of the Gold Cup and Harmsworth Cup Races were another particularly bitter pill for Kaiser.  The best Lauterbach could do in Hot Metal on July 2nd was to qualify in the Gold Cup at a disappointing 67 mph.  He had also attempted to qualify Aluminum First but the boat could not even average the 65 mph speed required for all boats in the Race.  Hot Metal went on to fail to finish the three-heat Gold Cup final race because of mechanical issues.  There were no bright spots for Hot Metal; the boat was clearly outclassed by the other Gold Cup boats.  The only bright spot for Henry was that his friend Stanley Dollar had managed a second place finish in his Skipalong of California.

 

The experience for Henry only got worse with Aluminum First at the Harmsworth Cup qualifying trials.  Because the Harmsworth is a challenge race, in this case the Canadian team challenged the United States, it was necessary for the United States to have pre-race trials to select the best three boats to go up against the Canadian team.  Aluminum First, with Lauterbach driving, was not able to mount any sort of challenge to the assembled United States boats because of poor performance and mechanical issues, and did not qualify for the race.  Once again, the only bright spot for Henry was that friend Stanley Dollar won the Harmsworth Cup in Skipalong of California.  It was a long trip back home to California for the Kaiser family and team after a very disappointing two-month period in Lake Placid and Detroit.

 

With the boats back in California in the winter of 1949, Kaiser’s team worked diligently to try to fix the myriad problems.  Almost all fingers pointed at the Dan Arena gear boxes, but there were just too many design mistakes and workmanship issues to point to any single culprit.  After a few design changes, followed by trial runs on the Sacramento River since Lake Tahoe was too cold, failed to produce any kind of improvement in Aluminum First, it is likely the hull was scrapped at that point, with her massive 24-cylinder Allison engine eventually seeing life in another Kaiser boat.  Hot Metal would go on to race again, and also undergo a surprising transformation that would bring Kaiser more victories at Lake Tahoe.

 

In the Aftermath of Failure:  Earlier, you saw Henry’s magnanimous response to the media after the Lake Placid failure.  We theorized that he really meant that initial response.  But, after he absorbed the full effect of the abysmal failures of his boats in the Gold Cup and Harmsworth Races, his tone had changed considerably.  A scathing memorandum from Kaiser’s race boat manager Jean Hoffman probably reflected not only his own opinion, but the Boss’s opinion as well: “The Ventnor Boat Corporation failed miserably to fulfill the terms of our agreement on the building of Hot Metal and Aluminum First.  We were led to believe by direct statement of both Lauterbach and Apel that Hot Metal was not only able, but easily able, to exceed 120mph.  Aluminum First would, without difficulty, reach speeds in excess of 140 mph.  Yet, Lauterbach qualified Hot Metal in the Gold Cup trials at a speed of 67 mph, which was all he could get.  He also attempted to qualify Aluminum First, but failed to even meet the minimum required speed of 65 mph.  This I believe, is substantial evidence of their misleading us respecting their ability to deliver boats of the kind we ordered.  We also gave them the opportunity to drive the boats after we had put them mechanically in condition to run.  And not to mention, we suffered through the bankruptcy drama at Ventnor as well.  Altogether, this all was a failure of the first order.”  Kaiser let his displeasure with Ventnor, Arno Apel, Norman Lauterbach, and Dan Arena be well known in the small unlimited hydroplane racing community.

 

Kaiser also appeared to be fed-up, at least for the time being, with big-name boat designers making offers to build boats for him using many of the same words and promises that Apel had used in his promises.  For a man like Kaiser, this must have been particularly galling.  In private conversations with family and boat racing associates, Kaiser, no doubt, employed one of his favorite quotes from Tacitus, many centuries earlier in 98 AD: “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.”

 

A final telling fact about Kaiser’s 1948-49 boating disappointments is the complete lack of photographic history of the events in the Kaiser archives.  For a man like Kaiser who loved to record his adventures for his family history and his company’s public relations departments, this lack of photographic history speaks volumes.  Although there are cases of letters, memorandums, and telegrams back and forth from Kaiser and his executives to Ventnor, Allison, several consultants and potential drivers, it is as if at some point Kaiser ordered the historical record purged of photographic evidence of his national racing failures.

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