Newest J-Class Hydro: TUG IT "Baby!"

[TUG IT!!]

Last weekend at the APBA event "Thunder on the Narrows" in Kent Island, MD., Kevin and Ryan Murphy unveiled their newly restored J-Class Hydro TUG IT "Baby!". After a winter long resto, Lil- Kev and Ryan had a chance to finally jump in the boat and see what she had against the rest of the class, each grabbing a 2nd and 3rd place finish in their heats respectively. Not bad since the 1st time the boat had a motor on it was 20 min before the 1st heat.

Last year a good friend of mine Chuck Werner, who is on the Kent Island Racing Association and long standing member and racer with the APBA were talkin about this newly growing class for kids 9 - 15 years old, J-Class Hydro. He informed me that there was a hull that needed some TLC and a family who could campaign the boat at APBA events. My 1st thought were my 2 cousins Kevin 14, and Ryan 13 (at the time) along with my Uncle Matt who taught me about workin on boats as I was growin up. Of course all were psyched, we just had to run it my Mom (Marilyn) and we were good to go.

Chuck suggested that the boys run 1 of the 5 APBA boats in Kent Island, see if they liked it, and talk about the boat resto from there. So the boys got online, took their tests, went to the drivers meeting and we were off. The day before the race I set up some buoys out in front of the Shipyard, put in an inflatable with a 15 Evinrude on it, and Matt and I taught the boys how to take turns, work the throttle, etc... This was the 1st time either of the boys had run a boat on their own.

Saturday morning we helped rig and set up all the the APBA boats along with the privatley owned, and the boys headed out for their 1st race.

Kev took 1st place on Staurday and Ryan took 1st place on Sunday in the rookie heats... Not too bad for their 2nd time runnin a boat.. Chuck agreed, and a month later the boys took delivery of boat 113E to get in shape for next season..

[TUG IT!!]

So started the TUG IT "Baby!" re-hab:

The boys went to work stripping, sanding, and scrapin.. They also enlisted some help from a bunch of the other kids in the neighborhood, practicing their prep and paint skills on Big Kev's trailer for TUG IT..

[TUG IT!!]

Here's Lil Kev sprayin for the 1st time with a big gun

[TUG IT!!]

Here's the boat last Saturday. The boys rigged the boat the nite before the race, and it was painted 2 days prior.. We fabbed the trailer Thurs, and it was welded up on Friday.. The ONLY dually in J Class, and this thing WILL NOT break in half like it's older brother's!!

[time]

LOOKS GREAT , THE BOYS WILL HAVE A GREAT TIME ,

[Pete B]

Awesome way to show the boy's a lot of different aspect of boating as well as some ownership in the project.

[Ratickle]

Why do the thoughts in my mind keep coming up with you should have made the trailer big enough to haul two hydros in the very near future????


Nice job, congrats to you and the boys! Love that baby dually trailer....

[time]

WE CAN DO THAT, HAULING TWO , IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO .

[TUG IT!!]

I don't know where my head was.. Rat, Jim... Keep me straight! I'm sure the boys will be buggin me about a double decker next.. Thanks a lot.

[TYPHOON]

Thats great team work! Lessons in life they will have forever and be better for it. Maybe broke but smarter than there friends. LOL
MD

[jonesn']

Great stuff Kevin, thanks for sharing!! Great to see the kids "taking ownership" and wanting to learn!

DJ

[Ratickle]

When is their next race?

[TUG IT!!]

Unfortunately the boys are gonna be racin in Cambridge, MD the same weekend we'll be in St. Clair, 7/28 - 7/29... But they've got their boat and the other 3 of the APBA boats ready to roll!! Hopefully we'll get some more new kids out there to give it a shot! I don't get these kids... Having 4 boats ready to race 2 weeks before the event???? They obviously haven't studied @ the TYPHOON School of Technology which I attended briefly... I thought we were suppose to start workin on race boats like a day or 2 before the race, up until u get in the damn thing?? Kids...

[TYPHOON]

They will learn. I hope you havent rebuilt your drive yet for St. Clair!!!! You still have 2 weeks left. Dont ruin all the fun and get it done and tested. The Boy Scouts modo is always be prepaired and you are no Boy Scout my friend. Stay thirsty and put off what you can do today till the last minute.
MD

[TUG IT!!]

So it sounds like the Boys had a pretty good time last weekend@ the Cambridge Race while we were in St. Clair...
Lil Kev went out in the 1st race, started in the back and blew by the rest of the boats to take a 1st place on Saturday..

Then Little brother Ryan comes out in the 2nd race and says he may have hit a peice of debris in the water on the 1st lap.. Well whatever it was left a pretty good size hole in the bottom.. He said the boat started taking on a lot of water so he just stayed in the throttle to keep it up on top. Good plan until the water got up to the kill switch and kept shocking him everytime he grabbed the throttle, so down she went!!
The poor kid was apologizing so much, "I'm sorry I couldn't stay in it, it just kept shocking me otherwise I would have kept running!"

[TUG IT!!]

No Problem! Get her out, pickle the engine, and flip her over..

[TUG IT!!]

So next step was the glass repair.. They said everybody was jumpin in and helpin in between the hydro and skiff races to get the bottom patched up so they could get back out again on Sunday..
These kids were so appreciative of the help that they got from EVERYONE to get them running again!!!

[TUG IT!!]

So by Saturday evening the boat was patched up, motor was screamin again, and they were ready to terrorize the river again!!


Lil Kev was back out again in the 1st race givin her hell! She ran great and Kev took her to a solid 2nd place finish..
Then Ryan took her out in the 2nd race, and grabbed 1st place..

I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of these guys!! Unbelievable job Boys!! You went out and kicked ass, got your ass kicked, then came back and kicked ass again!! Awesome.. And the part that I'm most proud of is they got to be a part of and see how big of a family boat racing is.. When the odds are against you everybody pitches in to do whatever it takes to get you back out on that course..

[Wil Ros]

Awesome story and future offshore racers!!

Great job!!

Wil

[Pete B]

awesome job boys, and that style racing never gets old, the short heats make for entertainment for the fans, and gives the kids more that one chance to be competitive on a given race weekend.