TOPIC: Hamilton Jet?Buehler Turbocraft notes

Earlier this month I came across a copy of the book "White Water". This was written by Joyce Hamilton, wife of Jon Hamilton, son of the "father of the jet boat". Joyce hailed from Christchurch New Zealand and accompanied her husband Jon to America to test the then fairly new Hamilton Jet drives licensed by John Buehler of Indiana Gearworks of Indianpolis, Indiana for the fist boats in history to go down the Colorado and back up! John Buehler financed the team and supplied the boats to make the attempt in May of 1960. Interesting read with a day by day account of the trip in Buehler Turbocraft Jet 35 model boats for the trip. They cached fuel and food supplies on the downstream run for Lees Ferry to Lake Mead and then turned around and came back. Incredible testament to this amazing feat. It has fueled my need to get my Jet 35 back in the water this Summer!
So after reading, I think about a business associate that I have in New Zealand that comes to the states every few years, so I email Andy and ask him if he has ever heard of Hamilton Marine out of Christchurch NZ. He immediately emailed me back and told me that his brother had worked for them and that he and his father had a Hamilton model jet boat called the "Colorado". (This model was named after the Grand Canyon Colorado River trip of 1960! Small world indeed! More to tell in future posts...

Very interesting indeed! There is video footage of that Colorado river ride as well, I believe that it's John Buehler as captain. If you google buehler turbocraft you can find that video, looks like a crazy ride!!! I know that hamilton is still in business building jet pumps, there was a dowty turbocraft made in Canada as early as 1959. It shares the same pump design as the buehler, so hamilton obviously shared his first design with a few visionary's to come up with the first water jet driven boats. I have heard that pump was used on fire boats to power the fire hose, and it was hard to handle with it's great power. I am in the same boat hornet, i am fueled up to get my 3 stage bolero back in the water, the 351 windsor should be easily putting out 300 h.p. so it should be a blast.

BC, Dowty was the licensee of the Hamilton Pump in Canada. It is interesting that the Dowty Turbocrafts were the same hulls as the first ones that Buehler came out with in the Spring of 1959. Also of interest was the fact that Buehler had been approached in late 1958 by the engineers of Mercury Marine in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin to manufacture the gearing of the then new concept Mercuriser stern drive. Jeff Rodengren mentions this in his book "Iron Fist" regarding Charlie Strang, (Head of Engineering at Merc at the time) who talked with John Buehler. John was uninterested as he showed them the new Hamilton Pump that he was starting to manufacture and he felt that he was sure that this the new propulsion system would be the market leader moving forward. Buehler also started the the Turbocraft power division to sell to other boat builders, similar to what the stern drive market did a few years later. COmpanies included Borum, Sooner, Century, Chris Craft, Thunderbird, Dan Arena to name a few.
In teh summer of 1959, Buehler took the first generation 16' hulls out to the Salmon River in Idaha for testing. I have 8 MM film reels on VHS of this trip and it is amazing to view. A friend of mines father accompanied Buehler on that trip and took the footage.
According to Joyce Hamilton, John Buehler did not attend the events of the Colorado expedition the following year in 1960. As they had to postpone the start by one month, Joyce and her husband accompanied Indiana Gearworks personell back across the country to be hosted by John Buehler and his family at the factory. Then back to Colorado abourd their corporate plane to start the trip in late June of 1960. National Geographic was on the trip and did alot of photography and filming. A lot of the film was lost when they sunk one of the boats and never were able to retrieve the films. Nat Geo had an article in the April 1962 magazine I believe. (Not sure as I have my records loaned out to a close Fiberglassic friend here on the site) It has been fun compiling this history, It has charge me to do more digging!

Thanks hornet, you have your facts straight ! Its been some time since i have researched buehler, and your knowledge adds to what i have learned and its definately an interesting topic to me. Keep up the good work and i will also see if i can dig anything up. Its snowing again, and all i can think about is getting out on the water! LOL

In 1959, John Buehler bought Heckel Plastics and starting building the first "Buehler Turbocraft" model which was a 6 cylinder 16' and Dowty of Canada used them as well. Dowty was the Canadian builder licensed in Canada by Buehler. It was this early 16' model that they tested in the summer of 1959 on the Salmon River in Idaho. John Buehler was there for that testing. Then Buehler had Cole-Nielson of Coral Gables Florida design the next model that came out, the Jet 35, an 18' V-8 powered boat. Cole Nielson was a design firm that also did the design worl for Woody Woodson of Thunderbird boats in Florida. Woody also used the Turbocraft Jet units for his Thunderbird line. On the Colorado River Grand Canyon attempt, they used 2 23' Thunderbird Trihulls on the dwonstream run to cache the fuel. They also tested the ability of the boats and found that the 23' Thunderbirds were going ot be too heavy for some of the rapids running back upstream, so on the upstream run, they used the Jet 35 model with success. Sooner Plastics of Wichita Falls Texas also built the fiberglass components and JEt 35 Models as well as the home plant of Indiana Gearworks in Indianapolis. Indiana Gearworks then developed the "Turbocraft Division" for the marine side of the business and eventually became known as the
Buehler Corporation" in the mid 60's.

Even more info, i like it. I recently purchased a 1960 16' buehler, it appears to be of the first model line built. It was originally powered by a 6 cylinder, at some point repowered with a v-8 ford omc motor. It has a engine cover constructed completely of fiberglass along the same style as any other buehler cover i have seen, but the top is not padded. There is a sticker on the window from 1960, its a Oakland co. Mich. watercraft license, pretty cool. Both of the emblems are gone, its faded around where they were so the outline is visable. Bummer, I really like the first emblems before the plastic buehler jet emblems on later boats. Its gonna be a resto mod.
I have an extra later model two stage pump with the step, thinking of changing over to that. I do know if that is done that the sea water will have to come in through a intake on the hull.That will go to a belt driven water pump to circulate the water through the motor and exaust. If i am correct, the earlier pump, I believe 1959-62 pumps water to the motor and a block that has 6 outlets for each exaust port? Both my late 60's boleros have the sea water inlet in the hull.
Also plan on moving the v-8 12" forward, using a drive shaft to marry motor with pump. Full floatation foam, below a new floor with any required stringer repairs performed. It really is a solid boat shouldn't be to bad,you know how that goes! LOL, also front and rear bench seats tailored to a nice fit with period correct pattern. And a custom layed out dash with a full compliment of period correct guages.
Anyways, its another work in progress and i will post pictures when i tear into her this spring. Thanks again for all the research and info, hornet. Keeping my motivation high through this brutal winter!