I have been digitizing some of the hundreds of old home movies (and videos and photos) I have inherited as my family’s archivist, and recently found the following 8mm film clip of the U-4 Miss Burien being launched at Lake Washington in the summer of 1960.

Filmed by my Dad R.W. “Bob” Schaefer – who was rarely seen without a home movie camera in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s – this :57-second clip shows the U-4 Miss Burien being towed into the Stan Sayres pits at Lake Washington, sometime during the summer of 1960.

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This hydroplane was the result of the Greater Burien Inc. organization, and was owned by Peter Woeck. Legendary hydro designer/builder Ted Jones built the new hull after the original flipped and sank in heat 2-A at the Diamond Cup at Lake Washington in 1959.

The scrappy hydro was also one of the largest endeavors for Larry J. Snyder Sr., a Burien businessman who helped sponsor the U-4 Miss Burien Unlimited Hydroplane Team during the golden days of the sport. The completely restored and race ready 1960 U-4 Miss Burien still exists in the collection at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent (Washington), only now as the Oh Boy! Oberto.

“The (Miss) Burien remained the flagship of every person who dreamed of running with the big boys,” according to the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum, which also adds:

“While she never had the depth of financial or equipment resources that the well-heeled teams possessed, she still put on a good show. In her first race, the 1960 Apple cup, she took third behind Miss Thriftway and Nitrogen Too, but out pointed Miss Bardahl. Chuck Hickling, a steady pilot, drove her in the Apple Cup and in a number of other races. Hickling later guided her to a second place finish at the Diamond Cup, winning the final heat but losing on total points. In 1961 Hickling and the Burien took second in the Seafair Trophy Race.”

“The Miss Burien never raced east of the Rockies, but she always put up a find on the Western circuit. She campaigned as the Tempest in 1962 and ’63. She continued to be competitive, but never sustained the pressure to earn the winner’s circle. In 1964 she raced under three different names with results similar to her past. In 1965 her registered number was changed to U-50 and she competed as Savair’s Probe and was finally known simply as Probe. The boat was retired in 1980 and later donated to the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum.

“She was restored by the Museum in 1996 as the Miss South Park and finally completed her return to her roots by representing the ageless dream of every racing fan under her given name: Miss Burien, U-4.”

Also, in its early days, Miss Burien was driven by local boy Bill Brow of Burien, aka “The World’s Fastest Milkman” (he worked for Vitamilk). Sadly, Brow was killed while piloting the Miss Budweiser at the Tampa Suncoast Cup in 1967.

Miss Burien, truth to tell, was a ‘backyard job,’ built in 1956 as a hobby by original owner Norm Christiansen and maintained by a volunteer crew. The boat measured 27 feet 4 inches, which is now considered rather short for anything with an Allison engine. Brow demonstrated his potential in his very first appearance as an Unlimited driver. Midway through Heat 1-A of the Diamond Cup at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Bill and Miss Burien were running third behind Fred Alter in Miss U.S. I and Bill Muncey in Miss Thriftway. Then, while exiting the lower turn, Brow executed a daring maneuver. He drove through Muncey’s roostertail, took the inside lane away from him, and accelerated into second place, leaving Miss Thriftway far astern. Brow averaged 101.580 for the 15 miles, compared to Muncey’s 96.878. This was the first heat at over 100 miles per hour in the three-year history of the Miss Burien hydroplane, whose previous pilots included Bill Tonkin, Norm Evans, and Mira Slovak. There was no question in the mind of owner Peter Woeck. Bill Brow definitely had ‘the right stuff.’ Indeed, much would be heard from this talented rookie in the years to come.

“While most of Bill’s remaining appearances with the Miss Burien were hampered by mechanical difficulty, he made his competitive presence felt on several occasions. These included a sterling performance in qualification at the 1958 Gold Cup on Seattle’s Lake Washington. Brow posted a 9-mile average of 111.570 around the 3-mile course. Only the Maverick with Bill Stead and the Hawaii Kai III with Jack Regas ran faster with speeds of 119.956 and 113.445 respectively in an 18-boat field. Brow qualified higher than such well-financed entries as the Miss Thriftway, the Miss U.S. I, the Miss Supertest II, the Gale V, and the Miss Bardahl. Bill’s association with the Peter Woeck team ended on the same race course where it had begun in 1959. Miss Burien flipped upside-down and sank during Heat 2-A of the Diamond Cup. The boat was destroyed and Brow spent the night in the local hospital. Ironically, in the re-run of the same heat in which Bill had been injured, another craft–the “Green Dragon” Miss Bardahl–also had an accident. The Bardahl’s driver, Jack Regas, was critically hurt, although the boat was not badly damaged. When Miss Bardahl returned to action a month later at the Silver Cup in Detroit, Bill Brow was at her wheel and took an overall fifth.”

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3 replies on “VIDEO: Celebrate our ties to Seafair with this rare film clip shot by my Dad of the U-4 Miss Burien being launched in 1960”

  1. Thanks for sharing this incredible vintage lookat the rich history of Seafair.The days of the real thunder boats are long gone but the memories retained minds and encapsulated in film will always remain.So long till next year Seafair

  2. Thanks Scott always like seeing the oldies. Had the pleasure of working on U-7 Miss Washington. In 1980. Grew up in Woodinville Wa and can remember hearing the boats all the way out there as they raced on lake Washington.

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