Concourse Hydro

: Reader Submitted; Scratch/Custom Builds

Concourse Hydro

Scratch/Custom Build ...by Scott Littler

A custom built Insane Hydro by Scott Littler...paint/graphics by Dean Werges...

My name is Scott Littler (AKA TWO HOTTY RACING), and I have been R/C Boating for 4 years. I started out with a 48 inch Aeromarine Challenger. The hobby shop that I bought the boat form invited me to the local race pond to check out some other boats and see some racing. At the time I didn’t even know that these boats were raced. I thought it was all for fun. When I got to the lake I had seen some really nice boats. Cats, Monos, Nitro and Gas. I watched for 15 minutes and then made a major decision to become a member of our local club. I also knew right away what I wanted…a GAS Cat. So 24 hours went by and I had my first cat boat at my door. Before I knew it I had a small collection of cats and monos. Turns out I wound up being a decent driver.

That year, Brian Watts invited me to race at the ever popular Winter Nats 2002. Being very competitive, I agreed to race. Things went well for my 1st race….4th, 5th and 7th….not bad for my first race. While I was at the race I noticed a hull I had never seen before. A Sport Hydro. Right then and there I fell in love with this type of hull and I had to have one. Andy Millet hooked me up with a P.I. Hull. After getting it built and driving it, I was really hooked! At the time of seeing the gas Sport Hydro, I also saw some scale concourse boats. I thought these boats were awesome but the downfall to me was that they were nitro, but they all were beautiful boats. As time went by I kept buying new hulls, starting with Performance International. I had some issues with the hull that never got worked out. I then went to the ever popular Insane Sport Hydro. Not only did I love the way the boat was laid up and how it looked and ran, Jeff Michaud turned out to be a great person to deal with. Since then Jeff and I have become good friends (great for business).

That brings me to my main story, “BUILDING A CONCOURSE WINNER”. The 2005 Gas Nationals were 3 months away and I had noticed that they were having an Open Gas Concourse category. Here was my chance to build a Gas Concourse boat. This also meant that the boat DID NOT have to be a scaled down version of a boat that everyone has already seen or built. I wanted something different, I wanted a real head turner. I spoke with Jeff Michaud and told him what I wanted to build. Jeff offered some opinions on what he would like to see. After these opinions were thought about, the build started. Jeff and I both agreed that a 1 Litre look would be very different than what other people were building. Nobody had one at that time so that was the look I went with. I wanted a boat with the rear spoiler. Jeff informed me that 1 Litre boats don’t really run a horizontal stabilizer but they do run 1 wing in the middle or 2 wings, one on each side of the rear. The first thing was to find a rear spoiler kit, which I found from Phil Thomas. This was the easy part. Installing them the way I wanted wasn’t so easy. I needed someone to install them to where they looked like they were part of the mold. I spoke to my motor builder, Butch Fields (AKA BUTCH THE BOATMAN) He said he knew the right man for the job, Dean Werges of Specialty Auto Body. When I finally spoke with Dean, he agreed this would be tough to do but he was willing to help me out. Dean had the boat about a week, then I got some Emails of the wings.

I was very impressed with the work that Dean had done on the wings. Now it was time for the paint. The scheme that I came up with was nothing than anyone else had that I was aware of. MILLER LITE is what I wanted no matter what! And the Miller Lite emblem had to be hand painted, no ifs and or buts. Dean wasn’t sure of this, was it a good idea or should they be copied in vinyl. I didn’t want any vinyl on the boat at all so Dean agreed and the emblems were hand painted.

I kept in close contact with Dean during the paint process. Each step went from my head to Dean’s hand. I told him what I wanted and Dean did exactly that. Having someone do exactly what you want is a huge “thumbs up” in my book. Dean also came up with some ideas that worked out great for the job at hand.

Time was getting close to the 2005 Gas Nats, so I got started on polishing all the hardware being used for this project. Everything was polished to a mirror shine. Dean kept sending Emails of each paint step, and every step was to perfection.

Dean kept the project interesting with every step he did. (PICS OF EVERTHING IN RED PINSTRIPE) I finally received an Email that said “ready for clear”. Now I knew the paint scheme was finished. (pics WITHOUT CLEAR) When I opened the Email I just about passed out! It looked to me that the boat was complete. I had to call to verify with Dean that he had not yet cleared the boat. He said no, not yet. I was like WOW! I couldn’t even imagine what it was going to look like after the clear!

Then the Email came! "BOAT COMPLETE WITH CLEAR" I was so excited that I didn’t want to open the Email without my wife. When we finally opened the Email, I was floored! Wow! I now had a “Bad to the Bone” Concourse boat!

It could not have come out any better!

Now it was time to have the boat shipped back home. Talk about being nervous about a shipment on something so beautiful! Well, Dean sure knows how to ship. He actually built a wooden frame inside the box so there was no way for the boat to get damaged. I know that shipping takes 3-5 days, but you know I was looking for that big brown truck every day! Then it finally arrived! I was so excited! When I finally got enough guts to open the box I was totally floored by the awesome job Dean had done for me. All the Emails and phone calls didn’t mean anything anymore. They were all great, but didn’t do any justice to the job that Dean had done! Remounting all the hardware and motor was very nerve racking. I sure didn’t want to drop any tools on the boat. I got the boat back together in time for the 2005 Gas Nats. Then we all know what happened, and the race was cancelled. God bless to all affected by the storm. Maybe there will be another race somewhere that will offer this Open Gas Concourse category or Best in Show. This is a “must see” boat! If you see me at a race it will be on display!