By Robert Little, Nor Cal/Lake Tahoe Chapter
I own my dad’s 1962 Besotes, but my story isn’t about my boat, but the cool pictures my dad captured in 1958 when he was probably 17 or 18. My family has lived in Stockton CA for a long time.
In 1958 a “boat racing regatta” was held at the Port of Stockton ship basin. My dad, George Little, captured 50 to 60 photos of that event and developed the pictures as 35 mm slides.
During Christmas of 2021 I began transferring boxes and boxes of slides and I found these gems. Many boats are home made runabouts, outboards, hydro-planes, and some inboard racers.
The photos are classic and too good to not share with your readers. I wish I could add more technical details but I wasn’t even born when the pictures were taken.
I have many more pictures of this event, boats in general, and some late 50’s pictures of unlimited hydroplanes racing at Pyramid Lake outside of Reno, NV. Readers can contact ACBS if there is interest in these historical pictures, and we will pass the message along to Robert.
What a great collection of photos! Thanks for being so kind to share!
Thank you for sharing the photos.
There is a lot of really cool “old school” technology visible in the slides, not to nention the cars in the background.
Please share some more, we all like to briefly revisit our childhoods.
Regards,
Mark Speaker
Lavallette NJ
I would love to see more ..🙏
Fantastic stuff🍷
nice
I am interested in these pictures they are very cool i live in Southern California love this history of a passion of mine please contact me
Socalpoolremodeling@gmail.com i would love too see more and buy if your interested in selling
The amount of “backyard engineering” that went into these boats was truly amazing. Love the home-built trailers too! Thanks for sharing.
Great pictures of an era I can relate to as a kid in love with hydroplanes at that time — thanks for posting.
I would love to see your unlimited hydroplane pictures from Pyramid Lake.
I have been a fan all my life, and I know that the Gold Cup was held there in 1961, won by Miss Century 21, driven by Bill Muncey. My boat, pictured in the article following yours, is named after the 1949 Gold Cup winner, my dad’s favorite hydroplane.
Grew up in So. Calif. as a member of SCSC (so cal speed boat club) I also have pictures, lots of memories in the 50′-70’s
I enjoyed seeing those photos. It’s great they did not get lost…