Hal Kelly, Foo Ling ?

[Tomtall]

I have a chance to purchase a Foo Ling runabout by Hal Kelly. Boat was built in 1966. Used as a lake racer up till 1972. Been stored in the rafters of a garage since then. What can anybody tell me about this model of Hal Kelly boat. I want to put my son in it with his 15 johnson race motor so he gets an idea how to drive a roll up boat. Do you think this boat will perform with that size engine on it? The owner of it ran a KG9 on it. It was advertised as a A-B class boat back then. If anyone with experience with this boat could give me some input it would be appreciated.

Thanks - Tomtall

[7500Blizzard]

It should run ok with that motor with a little setup. I have a set of plans for this boat one of these days i get around to building one

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

I have a chance to purchase a Foo Ling runabout by Hal Kelly. Boat was built in 1966. Used as a lake racer up till 1972. Been stored in the rafters of a garage since then. What can anybody tell me about this model of Hal Kelly boat. I want to put my son in it with his 15 johnson race motor so he gets an idea how to drive a roll up boat. Do you think this boat will perform with that size engine on it? The owner of it ran a KG9 on it. It was advertised as a A-B class boat back then. If anyone with experience with this boat could give me some input it would be appreciated.

Thanks - Tomtall
Tom,

I believe the plans that Hal sold included up-scaling measurements for a "C" & "D". Ask what the length is, that will tell. To be perfectly honest, I doubt that if it's the "A-B", with the KG9 on it & someone in the cockpit, water would probably come over the transom.

[Tomtall]

John - I will see what it measures out as. This was kind of confusing information from the gentelman that ownes it. He told me it was 11 ft long. Then in the next breath he said he ran a kg9 on it. We'll see when I get over there. Thanks for the info, both of you.

[7500Blizzard]

As it says in the pic above the foo-ling is 11 feet long his "b" hull was the airborne at 11ft 6 inches and c/d boat was the mad cap at 13ft.

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

As it says in the pic above the foo-ling is 11 feet long his "b" hull was the airborne at 11ft 6 inches and c/d boat was the mad cap at 13ft.
Yes but, I raced with Hal, and went with him to the Stock Outboard Nationals in 1954 & my Mom & Dad were close friends with Ethel & Hal, so I do know that Hal had made provisions so that the FooLing could be built as a "C". I even believe that there might be a picture of it as a "C" on Skip Hagerman's site.

[7500Blizzard]

The pic i posted was from skips site couldn't find much more there.

[STEVE FRENCH]

Does anyone know the fell'a in the Tomahawk, Wis. area that built a Foo-Ling and ran a Super-10 Wizard on it?.....He had a sand cast 20 block bored and sleeved to 22 CI and said it performed really well......He sent me pics several years ago....Was think'n of ask'n Ruck to do one for me......Missed a block on E-bay resently but it was Mod ported and I want one for closed-up lake play in KG-4 form.....;)
I bid on that one and thought I would try it with a Bayer pipe set I have on a Mark-25 powerhead but someone else got it.

Thoughts?
100N....Steve:cool:

[Tomtall]

Steve - You have a PM with the information you seek. ;)

[JohnsonM50]

Yes but, I raced with Hal, and went with him to the Stock Outboard Nationals in 1954 & my Mom & Dad were close friends with Ethel & Hal, so I do know that Hal had made provisions so that the FooLing could be built as a "C". I even believe that there might be a picture of it as a "C" on Skip Hagerman's site.
I have a copy of Hals Airborn B [and the boat]. It does have a 'D' scale to about 13'6". Theres also added instruction like a 3/8 bottom to build it.
Look at the Foo-Ling & see if it has external upper chines. This is unique to that model I think. Its supposed to improve roll up characteristics & trap some air too.. [Ive heard]. Hals runabouts as Ive heard are: Dry Run, Foo-ling, Jinx, Airborn & Madcap.. Are there others? He designed some hydros too.

[JohnsonM50]

I have a copy of Hals Airborn B [and the boat]. It does have a 'D' scale to about 13'6". Theres also added instruction like a 3/8 bottom to build it.
Look at the Foo-Ling & see if it has external upper chines. This is unique to that model I think. Its supposed to improve roll up characteristics & trap some air too.. [Ive heard]. Hals runabouts as Ive heard are: Dry Run, Foo-ling, Jinx, Airborn & Madcap.. Are there others? He designed some hydros too.

I would also agree that a KG9 would be a handful on a B, Would you be able to reign in the porpoise? :eek::)

[Ed Hatch]

I believe Mad Cap and Foo Ling are just a/b and c/d versions of the same design. If you look at the two boats in Skip Hagerman's website

http://www.antiqueoutboardmotor.info/Garage/HalKelly/Kelly.html

You will see the similarity in the chines. No way to tell, but it makes sense on a practical basis, scaling up a B Airborne to a D Airborne using that funky scale in the Airborne plans is not as precise as it should be,,,and since Mad Cap and Foo Ling were the successors to the Airborne it seems logical that Kelly would address the scale up issue with two separate plans,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Tomtall]

The Foo Ling I purchased was a "B" version. The builder and owner (at that time a teenage boy) ran the boat with a stock KG9. He said it was a hand full but very fun. He had to re-enforce the transom and glass the bottom to make it live. This pictures shows the Foo Ling trip chines. Yes the boy that built this boat 30 years ago ran it with the fin mounted backwards.:rolleyes:

[JohnsonM50]

The Foo Ling I purchased was a "B" version. The builder and owner (at that time a teenage boy) ran the boat with a stock KG9. He said it was a hand full but very fun. He had to re-enforce the transom and glass the bottom to make it live. This pictures shows the Foo Ling trip chines. Yes the boy that built this boat 30 years ago ran it with the fin mounted backwards.:rolleyes:
The fins a good one, wonder if you changed it would it even be noticeable? An A class 15 with a short course prop will probably be pretty cool on that. Good Luck

[Ron Hill]

Seems when Frank Zorkan built Ernie Dawe a Foo Ling, he did not have those reverse chines, as Frank and the rest of us felt these were air traps and would not be legal. Ernie raced his Zorkan Foo Ling in the 1960 Beloit Nationals.


The boat is faster with the fin on backwards...

[Tomtall]

The boat is faster with the fin on backwards...

If that's true Ron, God really screwed up when he made the Shark. :D

[Ron Hill]

My dad never cared about horse power because he said we were racing BOATS......Not horses...

In 1956, I finished third in AU at the Cambridge, Maryland Nationals. I lost to good company. Dean Chenoweth was first and defending National Champion, Bill Schumaker was second.

53 years later, I still feel I would have won that Nationals had I been able to run my good motor. My good motor had been torn down for inspection and we were headed from the Divisionals to the Nationals and no way to put it back together, plus every part of my good motor was polished or chrome plated (California Bling), my Old man feared we'd get DQ'd for the polish, so we ran a BONE STOCK engine and gave away 1 mph.

After the Nationals this picture was posted in Boat Sport of the AU start. The picture hangs in our shop today. But, in studying the picture, I decided to back cut my fin on the angle of the water. I picked up 1 1/2 mph by doing this.

All my runabouts after that had "Back Cut" fins. Running a fin backward is almost the same thing, in the fact that the fin can come out of the water and not drag...

Also, the backward fin has less leading edge to cut through the water (4") compared to 6". More drag, less speed...

So, a shark's fin may be better under water, but a boat runs out of the water part of the time...

[Jerry Combs]

After seeing Ron's cut back fins I did the same on my BU fin. Worked great!

[Tomtall]

Interesting. I'll have to try that. Thanks for sharing. :cool:

[seacow]

Look at the Foo-Ling & see if it has external upper chines. This is unique to that model I think. Its supposed to improve roll up characteristics & trap some air too.. [Ive heard].

One of the things I liked about my Foo Ling was those chines. Made it easy to lift and carry the boat. It seemed to do better on one buoy turns than the Sid, Van Pelt, Dry Run, and DeSilva B runabouts I ran during those days. But the Sid Craft was much faster on the straights than the others.

[Ron Hill]

http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1463&highlight=hill+family&page=13

This was Chad' last A Stock race. He started 45 after winning straight heats at Bakersfield, he was 15 and too big for "A".

Scroll down some, boat has some Hal Kelly lines, doesn't it???

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

My dad never cared about horse power because he said we were racing BOATS......Not horses...

In 1956, I finished third in AU at the Cambridge, Maryland Nationals. I lost to good company. Dean Chenoweth was first and defending National Champion, Bill Schumaker was second.

53 years later, I still feel I would have won that Nationals had I been able to run my good motor. My good motor had been torn down for inspection and we were headed from the Divisionals to the Nationals and no way to put it back together, plus every part of my good motor was polished or chrome plated (California Bling), my Old man feared we'd get DQ'd for the polish, so we ran a BONE STOCK engine and gave away 1 mph.

After the Nationals this picture was posted in Boat Sport of the AU start. The picture hangs in our shop today. But, in studying the picture, I decided to back cut my fin on the angle of the water. I picked up 1 1/2 mph by doing this.

All my runabouts after that had "Back Cut" fins. Running a fin backward is almost the same thing, in the fact that the fin can come out of the water and not drag...

Also, the backward fin has less leading edge to cut through the water (4") compared to 6". More drag, less speed...

So, a shark's fin may be better under water, but a boat runs out of the water part of the time...

The way the drawing looks, is exactly the way everyone mounted them with the long slope from top to bottom going aft as the leading edge. Did you actually turn them around, or did you cut the bottom edge so that it was slightly deeper in the front then the rear so it cleared the water on the straights?

[bandit]

I would also agree that a KG9 would be a handful on a B, Would you be able to reign in the porpoise? :eek::)

I ran a speeditwin on a 10' van pelt , took some setup but sure was fun as i was only about 160 then.
Richard