TOPIC: Disneyland Phantom Boats

Something fun... while watching a youtube movie on Dinsneyland in the 1950's they mentioned an attraction called the 'Phantom Boats' seems like in 1955 and 1956 there was a lagoon with 'futuristic' fiberglass boats with fins running around...

check it out!

www.davelandweb.com/motorboatcruise/

Now that are what you call "fins". Sweet, love to have one of them.

Does anyone have any more information on these boat besides what is available on the web? Or know what kind of motors they might have run?

Seems to me, from the photos, that the motor was an outboard and most likely air cooled by virtue of the grills on top of the motor housing in some of the photos...

I am just really curious, this kinda stuff intrigues me.

I was there in 55, but don't remember them.

Cool boats... Some of the boats must have survived. Or maybe Disney have a huge wharehouse full of stuff retired from the park... In any way, someone probably knows where one or more boats are today.

50's flash, great slide! ... everything I have read is that these boats were a flop from the start, and only lasted 1.5 seasons, including 1955. You would have used a 'B' ride ticket to get on them.. and apparently this attraction was the only one in 'Tomorrow Land' to require a 'B' ride ticket. Apparently the motors would overheat (which would make sense if they were air-cooled) and at first, patrons could guide them, but later, the boat had a park employee pilot them to try adn keep them running more regularly..

It seems as though with this ride, you had free-reign over the whole lagoon, these boats were not mounted on a track, so esentially, you were paying to go 'boating' on a private lake.

Over at Toms www.cheapoldboats.com I knew I had seen one of these.
He has or had one. It is on the website still.
Years back when my wife and I were first dating I had an Aqualark 8 foot that used to be at Disney World FL. I had a 25 HP Evinrude on it. Lots of fun but at Disney they used a 7.5 Merc. The Water Mouse they used in 1998 when she and I honeymooned there had 9.8 Mercs on them. They looked like mini-sea Rays with a radar arch on them.
I know Disney World in FL is used my Mercury as a proving ground for motors under 75 HP. They would leave the 4 stroke 50 HP with the big-foot gear foots running nearly 24/7

Pretty sure that picture was in 'Heart Of Glass' but could be wrong. Glasspar made those boats for Disney as well as the original Autopia car bodies. Really don't have much more I can contribute.

G3Jim mentioned 1998 boats they used,good description, especially if you were on honeymoon.When I was on my Honeymoon,ohhh never mind. There is a 1999 for sale with pic. Craigs NY Finger Lakes punch in Disney in the boat search icon, asking 3200 in Corning. Sorry I do not know how to cut copy paste and make it appear here.

now that Rod mentioned Glasspar you can totally see it in the bow.
Here is the link to the water mouse ad in Corning.

fingerlakes.craigslist.org/boa/2220597633.html

I will see if I can find some old pictures of my Aqualark. I will have to scan them into my PC then post them. That would have been circa 1974 when I was there.

Thanks guys! I was just very intrigued by these 1955 models... seems to be very ahead of the curve, given that most of us work on or use fiberglass runabouts from 1958 on...

Also was just curious about the propolsion... but maybe if Disney currently has a relationship with Mercury, they did back then as well. Cheers!

That was for Disney World but Disney Land could could also be a testing ground for Merc. I do not remember Merc ever having air cooled outboards and from what I can make out in the photos the motors do not appear to be Mercury outboards.

One of our club guys looked at the pics and thinks its a Champion outboard, which does look a lot like a Merc (they copied Merc to get to market fast and got sued for it). I see the overheating issue, but it may really have been loading up and fouling plugs from being run slow for extended periods, too much motor being run to slow. Thus the need for cast members to run them and go fast enough to keep the motors cleared out. There was also mentioned smoke was a problem. Well duh...if you putt that's going to happen. They could have lowered the mix to 50:1 or lower, to fix this mostly since they were only trolling. There is also the issue of the cover over the engine. It looks to me like they took those off in later pics to let the smoke out I bet. Shame though, a few changes like a leaner oil mix might have allowed this ride to last.
Renting the Mouse boats like they do at Disney World to run in the much bigger lagoon really makes more sense I think...

Current discussion on Face Book.
www.facebook.com/groups/113419432157267/578233279009211/?comment_id=578389065660299¬if_t=like