RESTORE THE RESTORATION By John Woodward. Doug Woodward photos.

Many of us who own, drive and/or maintain a vintage hydroplane know how difficult it is to keep these hulls in top form year after year. The wear and tear on these mainly wooden vintage race boats is enormous — with no help from Mother Nature — as the everchanging water conditions aid in the hulls overall aging process. All these factors play heavily into when it becomes time to restore your previously restored race boat. A perfect example would be the journey of the E-76 Country Stoves (owned by my older brother Doug Woodward), a 280-class inboard built in 1978 by the master Ed Karelsen. After purchasing the hull in early 1986, we (Doug and I) co-drove the Country Stoves for close to two seasons in region 10, until I unfortunately barrel rolled the boat in 1987 at Lake Tapps after getting chopped in a corner and ripped off a large portion of the right sponson. The boat was rebuilt by Doug in 1988 with Ed Karelsen as a consultant, using the latest Karelsen 280/5 litre plans along with his trademark transom shoes. We competitively ran this configuration for the next several years until a company move took Doug and his family from Maple Valley, WA to Washington North Carolina in the early 90’s where the hull soon after found its way to the underside of a blue tarp. Sometime in the late 90’s, Doug trailered the boat to an inboard race on Lake Wheeler in Raleigh, NC with intentions of finding a prospective buyer for the Country Stoves. Fortunately, there were no takers which then lead Doug to consider the rapidly expanding Vintage and Historic division on the east coast, so on January 1^st, 2004, after a few years of weighing the options, the eventual 6-month restoration project went into high gear. On July 3^rd, 2004 the beautifully restored E-76 Country Stoves made her vintage debut on the Ohio River in Madison, Indiana becoming an instant hit within the vintage community. The revamped Karelsen appeared at 12 different vintage regattas across the country in her decade of service, including eight visits to Wheeling, WV however time was catching up to aging hull. The Country Stoves underwent several patchwork repairs as the original wood started to soften up and slowly decay. In 2010 while running on the rough Detroit River at the Gold Cup, the boat took a big hop and blew out the inside left air trap and nearly sunk the hull at the dock. The crew frantically scurried to get the lifting slings on just in time before she went under. The subsequent 36-hour thrash repair job on the engine and hull enabled us to get back on the water late in the weekend but the hull was now in desperate need of an overhaul. She ran sporadically for three more seasons before Doug decided it was time for the dreaded blue tarp to make another appearance. After another half dozen years of storage, the tarp finally came off and plans to restore the restored Country Stoves began with intentions of participating at the 2020 Wheeling Vintage regatta. Then the Corona Virus hit and life as we knew it all but stopped and social distancing became the temporary new normal. So, with more than anticipated time on his hands, the re-restoration has slowly continued. If everything works out according to the re-adjusted plan, the hull will make her 9^th and final appearance at the Wheeling Vintage regatta on Labor Day weekend in 2021 provided the covid-19 pandemic is brought under control and racers are once again able to assemble. Then the Country Stoves and her faithful crew will bid the fair city of Wheeling good bye as she heads west across the country to her new home in Oakridge, Oregon and back to the familiar waters of region 10 where life began for this Karelsen masterpiece four decades ago. This story along with many others just like it is what makes the Vintage & Historic division the place to be. Stay tuned race fans, vintage will return. John Woodward – Region 10 Vintage and Historic Representative.