No one ever sets out to build a losing boat.
It's always a winning boat.
And as it's being built, we're going to win races
and then it becomes a real boat and it runs.
And sometimes it's successful, sometimes it's not.
That's this boat.
But it did something that was really important.
I had my friend Brad. Brad Haskin.
He calls me up on the phone one day and says, Hey, I got this crazy idea.
If I can get a couple of us friends together,
we can go buy an old vintage hydroplane.
It's sitting on Craigslist.
It hasn't raced in years, and and the guy just wants to sell it.
And we can buy it and we can donate it and we can have a little bit of fun
along the way, you know?
I said, I think you're a little crazy, Brad, but,
let me think about it.
Announcer: "And there's the Squire Shop going into the north turn..."
I found out it was one of the Nordberg boats.
This was Chip Hanauer's big break.
He's he's our big star of this sport.
He's the guy who's won 11 gold cups.
And this was the first boat that he drove to win a race.
Here comes the Squire.
If you were here back in the seventies, in the eighties,
Squire Shop, that's where you went to get your prom clothes.
That's where you went
to get your cool bell bottoms. That connected the sport to the people.
Announcer: "Squire Shop, Chip Hanauer, holding on to the lead, as they go up into the air."
I remember when I was a young kid, we used to go to the Squire Shop
and buy clothes.
We wear the stonewashed jeans back in the day.
Squire Shop? That's the boat to bring back.
But it never could catch
Atlas Van Lines
But it went hard though.
To run number two, in a race when you're running around a trail.
If you're there and you come up the winning line, if you can throttle
hard, that guy in front of you don't know if you got it to beat him.
And that's the way we used to win races.
Announcer: "Chip Hanauer, picking them up and
laying them down, rocking and rolling, doing a pretty good job right now."
The underdog can still win.
Good ride for Chip Hanauer!
I thought about it and it started to sound even more crazier.
But over time, it was like, you know, it wouldn't be such a bad deal.
You know, I was like, why?
And he explained to me which one it was.
And I was like, you know, honey, we have history with this boat.
I was offered a ride in it, and I was so shy
and I was so nervous, and I just says, no, I can't do it.
And he says, Are you sure?
And I'm like, I'm sure.
And I think I kind of went and hid behind mom.
Oh, she goes, I got pictures of it.
Really?
I remember having braids in my hair,
and that's all I really remember about it.
There it is, her standing there on the dock.
And I said, I know exactly what hull it is.
That this boat.
You know, we got to get it now.
And I called the guy up
and he goes, I just sold the boat yesterday.
You're kidding me, right?
He goes no. I really did.
I said, really?
Oh man, we missed our chance.
Kind of knew who would bought the boat.
And after about a year of asking,
he finally broke down and said, Yeah, I'll make a trade.
I want another hydroplane.
I'm like, I don't have another hydroplane.
Well, that's the deal.
So I immediately called the museum and I said,
is there any boats out there at all that meet this criteria?
He goes I know of only one been on the market a very long time
Had this tarp is flapping in the wind strings hanging off it.
Wood literally crumbling in the ground.
It was horrible.
But he kept seeing the potential in it.
We set up a meeting, drew up the paperwork, and we
finally got the boat.
To me, it was a Chip Hanauer boat
It's the Squire Shop
It had a deck on it.
I didn't really care
Get it down here
day one. OK, let's remove the deck.
I remember holding up the first sheet and I hold up the fiberglass
deck and I'm looking at it and the wood backing had crumbled into the boat.
And I'm like, where's the deck?
It's in pieces laying inside.
And like, wow, this is really rough.
The very first thing I did
in restoring this boat was pick the mushrooms off the bottom of the boat.
It was so saturated with rain,
oil from the years of racing, and then the damage was done.
I was still hopeful
because as long as I kept a screw, it was the Squire Shop boat.
Right?
It's a ton easier.
It's not old, grimy, unrecognizable stuff.
All fresh cut and brand new.
Not a screw put in the wood.
You know, it's completely fresh.
We're trying to preserve not just create new.
And so it was important to stay true to the original design.
There's a legacy that we get to leave behind.
It's something that not only our families enjoy being a part of,
but other people get to enjoy.
The parts. Well, it's it's kind of a long trail spans almost the entire country.
Some of them literally about a block from my house,
which was the cowling in the lake.
Once I heard that story, you wouldn't believe how many times I drive by.
It's out there somewhere.
It was a long time to just find out where it was,
and then to get the amazing amount of volunteers I had to help me get it.
30 some odd years, the bottom of Lake Washington...perfect condition.
Exciting.
Great job, guys.
You guys see, we're working on the project.
We got these parts hanging up on the wall in our garage.
Where'd you get those?
Oh, a boat caught on fire or something exploded. Engine failure,
or whatever. The guys are just saying, here, take it home. Souvenir.
Been on the guys wall, since the day it happened,
He goes, you might want to use these.
Absolutely.
The boats now are all plastic and all composite boats.
But the old method of building them out of wood is getting lost.
So it's kind of cool and help show these guys and teach them how we did it.
We're building boats, and we're teaching people how to build boats.
So we're preserving more than the history.
We're preserving the knowledge.
If it was just gonna been a museum piece, then
I probably wouldn't have gotten involved, but to see it run again,
that's the really cool part about it.
I feel good and nervous at the same time.
First time for a boat going out, is always...
you never know.
You always double check. Triple check.
But there's always that, heebie-jeebies, you know,
Remember popping those decks and oh.
It was a much larger project.
You start by peeling off
all the bad stuff, and there really was pretty much all bad stuff.
So that was a huge job.
And then getting hit with COVID right in the middle of it.
This one took a lot longer than it should have, but we're really,
really happy to have it on the water finally.
(engine sputters)
Come on, Dave.
(engine starts)
(people clap and cheer)
It's been a nine year
journey for myself since the day of the idea.
It's one of those pinch me moments.
I can't believe we pulled it off.
We did it, baby.
(boat engine purrs)
Hear that?
That's the happy sound!
I haven't decided if I'm going out for a ride yet.
Maybe. (laughs)
Anything's possible.
I have no desire to ride in the boat.
I am still just a fan, and that's all I'll ever be.
Oh, Bob.
We did it, man. Yep. Yep.
Every boat has sort of a spiritual guide, if you will.
And that's. That's Gary for this project.
He is certainly the spiritual guide to this boat.
He raised money, and he bought the boat, and then he donated the boat.
Our guy for the Squire Shop is Gary Laws.
I mean, it's probably built better now than it ever was brand new.
It's a piece of art that actually runs now.
Would I do it again?
I probably do it a little differently.
But, you know, it was totally worth it.
It's not just about the boat and it's not just about, you know,
getting it back out on the water.
It's about the journey with my family.
Seeing my dad and seeing Gary smile and seeing mom smile.
That's the important part to me.