Breathing Fire Into A Green Dragon
By Wayne J. Hill

On July 20, 2000, the 1958 Miss Bardahl (The Green Dragon) roared to life after more than 30 years of hibernation. This article attempts to capture some of the magic and euphoria experienced by the volunteer crew during the restoration and re-christening of the 1958 National Champion Miss Bardahl.

A little history behind the Green Dragon: The Bardahl racing team won more races (24) in the decade of the sixties than any other team. Between 1957 and 1969, Miss Bardahl accounted for 27 race victories, five Gold Cups, six National Championships, and was the first to average 116 miles per hour in a heat of competition (in 1965). The primary force behind the Miss Bardahl's success was Ole Bardahl, a Norwegian immigrant, who settled in Seattle, built a business empire, and put together one of the most competitive teams in Unlimited history. Bardahl had achieved success in Indianapolis auto racing before joining the Thunderboat ranks. Ole saw his Unlimited Hydroplane as the perfect vehicle to promote his world-famous Bardahl Additive Oil.

Ole tested the Unlimited waters in 1957 by sponsoring a boat that had been built as a hobby in owner Norm Christiansen's backyard in 1956 and had originally been named TEMPEST. At 27 feet 4 inches in length, she was one of the smallest Unlimiteds of all time. Nicknamed the "Green Dragon," Miss Bardahl raised many eyebrows when she led the highly regarded Mira Slovak and MISS WAHOO for four laps of the 1957 APBA Gold Cup on Seattle's Lake Washington. After testing the waters, Ole was hooked!!!

Now bitten by the hydro bug, Bardahl became his own owner in 1958. He ordered a new Unlimited hull from designer Ted Jones, whose previous success stories included SLO-MO-SHUN IV, MISS THRIFTWAY, HAWAII KAI III, SHANTY I, and MISS WAHOO. Ron Jones, Ted's son, built the new Miss Bardahl (U-40). This was the younger Jones's first attempt at constructing an Unlimited. Christened on Lake Chelan, MISS BARDAHL won the Apple Cup on that eastern Washington lake on May 11, 1958. With Norm Evans driving, the U-40 defeated Fred Alter and MISS U.S. I in the winner-take-all Final Heat, 101.618 miles per hour to 99.298. To say that the new MISS BARDAHL (U-40) made a successful debut would be an understatement! At season's end, MISS BARDAHL was National High Point Champion. She had finished first three times, second twice, and third three times. The U-40 outpointed second-place MISS U.S. I, 2075 points to 2069, the closest finish in Unlimited history. In addition to winning the National Championship in 1958, the U-40 claimed victory in the following races.

• 1958 Apple Cup - Norm Evans

• 1958 National Sweepstakes Trophy- Mira Slovak

• 1958 Rogers Memorial Trophy - Mira Slovak

• 1961 World's Championship Seafair Trophy - Ron Musson

• 1961 Silver Cup - Ron Musson

After finishing second to Miss Century 21 in National High Points in 1961, the 4 year old Green Dragon had reached the end of the Thunderboat trail. Oly ordered a new hull from Ted Jones, and the 1958 Miss Bardahl was retired. Eventually the boat wound up on display at Seattle's Goodwill Industries, where she peacefully rested for more than thirty years.

The restoration process begins: The first phase of the restoration of the 1958 Miss Bardahl actually started April 3rd 2000, when the trailer was inspected for road worthiness. The boat needed to be moved from Seattle's Goodwill to the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum. After sitting three decades, surprisingly enough the trailer was judged to be road worthy and the actual move occurred Sunday April 16th. A group of volunteers maneuvered the boat through several obstacles in the Seattle Goodwill, managed to amaze a number of the Goodwill workers, and successfully transported the boat to the Museum. Once at the Museum, the boat was discreetly separated from the trailer (remember the boat and trailer had been married for over thirty years), and placed on support barrels ready to start the restoration process. At this time we had a very green volunteer crew standing in awe of the boat and the history it represented. Most of us knew more than a little about Unlimited Hydroplane history and had volunteered, with the hope of capturing some of our childhood dreams. Many of us as youngsters, had grown up watching the Unlimiteds down at Lake Washington dreaming of the chance to be a member of one of the "Thunder Boat" crews. Fortunatly, we had some experienced people like Dave Williams, Peter Orton, and Crew Chiefs Mitch Blondin and Bob Jensen to advise us and provide direction.

The real repair work started Saturday April 22nd. The "display" engine was removed as was the cockpit and rear cowling (tail section). The boat had no steering or gearbox systems as the boat was being displayed and not being raced. The boat was found to be in relatively good shape and structurally pretty sound. The deck had lots of gouges especially on the front, and starboard side and required a lot of T.L.C. to get her ready for her "original" Green Dragon metallic green colors.

Over the years the boat had been painted more than a few times and the color scheme was not even close to being original. As we sanded off the layers of paint and found the original color scheme underneath, it was exciting to daydream of how she would look as we put her in the water, fired up the engine and actually ran a few laps at Seafair.

It was about this time that we (the volunteer crew) learned that Billy Schumacher was going to drive her in an exhibition race for Thunderboats during the Seattle Seafair Regatta in August. Billy Schumacher is one of the most respected drivers from the 60's and 70's, and won a number of races as the MISS BARDAHL chauffeur during the 1967 and 1968 seasons. Well now, this was getting more and more interesting all the time! Even though we were a little green on experience, I could sense the excitement and enthusiasm of the crew. I don't think any of us had a clue as to how much work and how many hours we were going to put in before running the boat at Seafair!

The term "bodywork" has taken on a whole new meaning, this boat is big, and it has a body with an underside that goes on forever! Several of us volunteered to "strip" the hull's underside and the bottom of the sponsons. The bottom aluminum was coated with a "varnish-type" material. This was a very difficult and labor intensive job and seemed to go on forever. I think we all gained a new appreciation for this labor of love, and I know that we all gained a new respect for the dedication and hard work of our fellow volunteers. The aluminum bottom was actually in pretty good shape except in a few areas where the boat was resting on the trailer. A small portion of the aluminum had to be replaced, but nothing major. The inner & outer aluminum panels located behind the both sponsons were eroded. The aluminum was cut out, the wood was sanded and sealed properly, and the aluminum was cut to size and replaced. Nuts, bolts and all hardware were replaced for all above mentioned repairs. As the work was going on under Miss Bardahl all sorts of things were happening topside.

Dry rotted wood was cut out under the deck at the rear of the engine well. New wood was cut, fitted and installed. Large holes were patched and filled on the deck. The holes were actually access holes for gas and oil tanks. The holes had aluminum cover plates on them. These were covered when the boat's engine was changed from Allison to Rolls Merlin around 1959, by Anchor Jensen and his crew. The nose of the boat was separating from the fiberglass. It was repaired and reattached. Final filling and sanding was completed in preparation for new paint.

An Allison engine that was used in the filming of the movie "Madison" was selected as the engine of choice. For the 1958 racing season the Green Dragon was fitted with an Allison engine, and although she may not have always been the fastest, she was very dependable. She finished an almost unheard of 25 of 27 heats that she started. For that reason and because we were trying to restore her (as much as possible) to her original condition, an Allison was determined to be the best choice of power. The Allison was shipped up from California and in an effort that required much skill and many hours, the engine was prepared to provide power for the Green Dragon. Peter Orton lead the effort with a great deal of help provided by volunteers from other Vintage Boat Teams, including Miss Madison crew member Frank (Bill) Meyer, and volunteer crewmen Dane and Steve Sorenson.

As was the practice of the volunteers to show up Tuesdays, Thursday, and Saturdays, we arrived one Tuesday night to discover that Miss Bardahl was gone. We knew she hadn't gone far as the engine was still in parts and being put back together. The boat had been removed from the boat shop over the weekend and taken to Fruehauf Trailer for painting in their booth. Bob Jensen, one of our crew chiefs took charge of the painting effort and performed absolute magic! The boat was painted its 1960 metallic green and yellow. (The 1960 green is a little darker and with a hint more blue then the 1958 green). It simply looks beautiful! It was absolutely stunning to see the transformation that took place. She was really starting to look like the Green Dragon.

While the boat was gone for a couple of days, work did not stop. Some of us worked on the trailer getting it repaired and cleaned for summer duty. Others worked on getting some of the systems ready to go into the boat when she returned from the paint shop.

By this time most of the volunteer crew had gotten to know each other on a first name basis and it was very interesting to discover how much we all had in common. Most of had different backgrounds and professions, but it was obvious that we all shared a love of these old Hydroplanes. Two of the volunteers (Jay and Alex Lehnert) are a father and son working together and getting it together. How cool is that? These two guys never missed a work party and were always ready tackle anything thrown their way. Another of the volunteers that always seemed to be there was Jim Iverson; Jim has proven to be a very versatile and valuable member of the crew who can do almost everything. We could always count on him to bring some cheer and sunshine in to our group. Whenever we needed someone to do some precise, highly accurate work we knew we could count on Greg Hedman. He turned out to be one of the best "finish work" members of the crew. Along came a guy with two first names, Glenn Raymond. Glenn is actually a mechanic by trade, and gave us volunteers another person to count on for much of the work centering around the engine and other mechanical systems. Bob Olson was another volunteer that proved to be a very valuable and dedicated member of the crew. We were not only learning a lot about working on a Vintage Hydroplane but we were learning even more about the history of Unlimited Hydroplanes! The knowledge that we shared and the stories that we heard made all this work seem like fun. We had a lot of work left to do, but it seemed like we were actually becoming a team.

Once the boat was back from the paint shop it seemed like there was a flurry activity all the time. It was drawing closer and closer to the time we needed to get the boat in the water for her first bath in over 30 years.

An oil tank was fabricated and installed under the forward deck. An oil cooler was installed and it's plumbing completed. The fuel pump and filters were installed and plumbed. Water pickups were replaced and plumbed.

Museum volunteer Randy Hoyle fabricated and installed the steering system, rudder and rudder bracket. Speedometer, shaft log and cooling lines were installed. The cockpit and rear cowling were both mounted. Side rail trim pieces were installed. A new dashboard was fabricated and installed. There really was a lot going on all at once!

About this time one of our volunteers found that his neighbor, Ron Beloit, had hand lettered many of the Unlimiteds back in the 60's. Ron quickly volunteered to hand letter the Green Dragon just as she was back in her hay-days. Wow, if we thought she looked good when she came back from the paint shop, you should see her now. From the oil can on her tail to the scallops on her nose and all the lettering in between, she really does look gorgeous. Ron did an unbelievable job. She is the Green Dragon of the 50's and early 60's.

Knocked out by a fish!

Just as we were knocking ourselves out trying to get the boat ready for an early July re-christening and test run, we were knocked out of the water. Knocked out by a Sockeye Salmon! Actually what happened was that Lake Washington was closed to us for the duration of the Sockeye fishing season. This turned out to be OK, as the crew needed the extra time to get the boat ready to run.

As we got closer and closer to our new date for re-christening Miss Bardahl, our excitement was tempered by the fact that we were now working almost every night trying to finish up a thousand little things. We finally got the gearbox and engine installed and it was almost time to light the fire. Without the leadership and just plain hard work of Dave Williams, Peter Orton and the crew chief of the Miss Burien George Greer, we would never have made it in time. On a Tuesday or Wednesday night, it might even have been a Thursday; we finally reached the point where the crew chiefs said let's fire her up! Another mad scramble commenced.

• Move the boat out of the shop into the great outdoors (so everyone can hear the sound of the engine for miles around.)

• Make sure the batteries are charged.

• Install the batteries.

• Check the oil level.

• Put enough fuel in the tank.

• Rig up lights, it's dark outside.

• Hook up hoses to the water pick-up.

• Disconnect the shaft from the gearbox.

• Install the seat in the boat.

• Where is the Fire Extinguisher?

• Check all the wiring and plumbing.

These were all things we learned later to do on a routine basis, but doing all these things for the first time around 11:00 at night, it must have looked like a real circus! After many tries and several false starts we finally saw some fire coming from the Green Dragon's stacks and heard the thunder that we had all been waiting for. It is a good thing that the museum is not located close to any populated neighborhoods, as it was about 12:30AM when Miss Bardahl finally awoke from her long slumber.

The Green Dragon hits the water running

On July 20th Lake Washington was reopened and we were allowed to re-christen the Green Dragon and to actually run the boat for the first time in almost 40 years. What a day this was, not just for the crew, but for the preservation of Boat Racing History!

There are a couple of things that stand out on that day. The first thing is that, Evelyn Manchester, daughter of Ole Bardahl, was there to re-christen the Miss Bardahl. The reaction of the crowd as they saw these two beautiful ladies is something that I will never forget. After saying some sagacious and wonderful words about the boat and Unlimited Hydroplane History, she gingerly cracked a bottle of Champaign across the bow of the newly restored Miss Bardahl. Although it did take more than one try, the bottle of Champaign was broken and the Green Dragon was christened for a second time.

The next thing that stands out is when we dropped her (Miss Bardahl) in the water and Dave Williams prepared to take her out for a little test run. This was the first time she had been in the water in more than 35 years, so when Dave hit the starter and the first smoke and fire came spiting from the engine it was truly a sight to behold.

After a quick spin around the lake Dave relinquished the drivers seat to Billy Schumacher. This is the third thing that stands out about that day, watching Billy as he took the boat out on the lake, seeing the boat come up on a plane and watching two legends of the Unlimited Hydroplane world kick up a roostertail and cruse around Lake Washington. What a great feeling, to have been part of the volunteer crew and to have shared in the experience!

A couple of weeks later we would find out first hand what was like to make last minute repairs trying get one of these thunderboats ready to race.

Seafair Weekend

The culmination and real reason for all the work involved in the restoration process was now upon us. The 1958 Bardahl was ready to run in Seafair's Vintage Hydroplane race sponsored by PEMCO Insurance Co. The race was a re-creation of the 1960 Gold Cup that was run, but because of high winds, was never completed.

The Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum provided the following boats for this historic event: Miss Century 21 - The Hawaii Kai - Miss Burien - The 1967 Miss Budweiser - The Nitrogen Two - and of course The 1958 Green Dragon. The race was scheduled to run Sunday August 7th as a "Warm up" to the current day Unlimiteds.

As luck would have it we were able to place our boats in the Pits several days in advance. It was evident that these old boats stirred up quite a bit of interest as fans lined up hour after hour to see the boats, and to have their pictures taken with these restored vintage hydros.

During a test run on Saturday afternoon Billy Schumacher quickly returned the Green Dragon to the pits sensing something was not quite right. It turned out that a $2.00 part (a water fitting) had broke and had caused a bearing in one of the struts supporting the drive shaft, to burn out. Thank god we had an experienced driver that brought her back before any major damage was done.

However, as was and always will be, these parts are not always easy to find and replace. Replacing the water line fitting was not a big deal, but replacing the burned out bearing was! We didn't have another, and required help. One of the members of the current Miss Budweiser team heard of our dilemma and offered to fabricate one for us. Wow, this was one of the big time crews offering to help, and of course we took them up on their offer. Many hours later the new bearing was finished and installed.

Sunday morning found this volunteer crew in a mad scramble to get the Green Dragon ready to run in the exhibition race. We had replaced the bearing in the strut, but in doing so we created a situation where the drive shaft didn't line up with the engine and gearbox. This meant that we had to pull the engine and shim it to the correct height and angle to align with the drive shaft. This put the volunteer crew and all our friends (offering free advice), to the real test. Somehow we were able to complete the repairs, test fire the engine on the trailer, and hope that when we put the Green Dragon in the water she would perform as expected. We now really understood what the crews of these vintage boats had to go through to get ready to race. We had all gained a new respect for men like Bob Gilliam, Norm Evans, Chuck Hickling, and the many other heroes from the past that had performed last minute miracles with volunteer crews. Our fear was that we knew from the past experiences of our heroes, that these last minute repairs didn't always turn out to be miracles.

Before we had much time to think about it, the vintage boats were being lifted off their trailers and dropped ever so gently into the water. We held our breath and crossed our fingers as we watched Billy Schumacher climb behind the wheel of Miss Bardahl. At least we knew that we had one of the best drivers ever, getting ready to breathe a little fire into our Green Dragon. As the boat fired up on the first try, and Billy headed out onto the course, we were one happy but still very apprehensive crew! It was with great delight (high fives everywhere), that we watched as the Green Dragon took the inside lane and was able to push her nose in front and win the reenactment of the 1960 Gold Cup.

We have run the Miss Bardahl on several occasions since then and still continue to marvel at the beauty and grace of this piece of Unlimited Hydroplane History. Being part of the crew that restored the Green Dragon is an experience that will never be forgotten. We were able to live out some of our childhood dreams and experience what it is like to be a member of an Unlimited Hydroplane Crew!

We want to give special thanks to the following people, who may not have been regular members of the volunteer crew, but contributed their time and experience to the project.

• Dan Lopez

• Dane Sorensen

• Steve Sorensen

• John Buckley

• Monte Aversand

• Fred Laville

• Paul Laville

• Ryan Johnson

• Curt Fleck

• Jim Clark

• Chris Clark

• Karl Pearson