Jet boats and their history

Press, 21 April 1984, Page 20

Jet boats and their history

The Jet Boat: Making of a New Zealand Legend. By Anne and Les Bloxham. Reed Methuen, 1984. 242 pp. Illustrations. $29.95. (Reviewed by Kevin J. Whitelaw) Jet boats are regarded as exciting machines that negotiate wild rivers with exhilarating ease. The boats are also famous as a New Zealand product, the results of the determined efforts of Bill Hamilton more than 30 years ago. The Hamilton jet unit is an outstanding success story, a world leader in marine propulsion, and this book does credit to its history. Anne and Les Bloxham devoted three years to research on the development of jet boating in New Zealand and overseas. Both have long personal experience of the boats. Les Bloxham has been editor of “Jet Boating” magazine since it began in 1969 and both authors have trailed many white-water boating events, at home and overseas. Their book makes appealing reading. The authors deal with the formation of the New Zealand Jet Boat Association, in 1962, and its foundation members. They describe and illustrate local and overseas marathon competitions. Most important of all, the book is a tribute to a remarkable New Zealand engineer, Sir William Hamilton. Although Hamilton did not invent water jet propulsion — the idea in Britain goes back at least to 1661 — he showed the world how to make the jets work efficiently. Bill Hamilton was born on a farm near Fairlie in 1899. South Island mountains and tumbling rivers were

* his playground. In 1921 he bought > Irishman Creek Station in the ! extensive tussock country of the Mackenzie Basin and there his ideas on river boating took shape. In 1951, beside the Waitaki River, a dream ' from boyhood boating days of 40 years > earlier was rekindled. ! Hamilton’s ambition was to travel , up and down the High Country rivers t in a propeller-less boat. His determination, coupled with his ; practical abilities, created a New i Zealand legend. At Irishman Creek was i produced the first efficient, successful marine jet unit. Inspired by “the Boss,” a team of willing employees had perfected the axial flow pump by 1956. The dream of a boat that could travel aagainst the current of wild rivers became a reality. World attention came when Bill Hamilton and his wife Peg completed the upstream passage of the Colorado’s Grand Canyon rapids in the United States. New Zealand has much tough terrain and orders for such a workable craft flowed in from professional hunters, runholders, and enterprising tour operators. Initially the cost of the craft restricted the market, but in years to come this, too, was to change. Pleasure jet boating was round the corner. By the 19705, jet boat racing was gaining support. For • the first international jet boat race, Hamiltons’ marine division in Christchurch shipped two boats to compete on Mexico’s Rio Balsas River. Nevill Sutherland won the race after seven gruelling days. The Hamilton official entry, driven by Bill’s son Jon, came

third. Now marathons are held in Mexico, Canada, and New Zealand. All these things are included in the Bloxhams’ lively account. The book also provides excellent descriptions of the rescue work carried out by jet boats in surf and in floods. It describes the expedition to Africa’s awesome Zaire River in 1974 (the Congo), and Sir Edmund Hillary’s “Ocean to Sky” adventure in India. The book has a splendid assembly of photographs in colour and black-and-white, especially those from the Hamilton collection and from the camera of Guy Mannering.