A hull of a business

HAYDEN - North Idaho is already well known for its high-end wooden boats, and now two men have joined forces to put it on the map for building the fastest boats in the world as well.

Retired unlimited hydroplane racer Mark Evans, a former Miss Budweiser driver and author of "Dancing with Disaster" plans to join forces with retired airline pilot and current Coeur d'Alene Airport Association board member Murdo Cameron, and make the lightest-weight and strongest hydroplane hulls ever to hit the water.

"I have built the composite molds and parts for a two-piece, classic shovel-nose hydroplane, and I'm using that proven design plan to build a new racing boat," Cameron said Tuesday. "The two-piece design reduces production costs over the standard design requiring hundreds of parts."

Evans and Cameron, who have known each other for more than 20 years, say their hulls will be less expensive and allow more people to enter their sport.

"There are two things that are hurting unlimited hydroplane racing today," Cameron said. "One is building the hull and the price of the hulls, and then they've kind of run out of engines a little bit."

There isn't a store someone can walk into and buy a hydroplane capable of traveling 200 mph, Evans said.

"You have to go buy from a competitor," to get a hull or engine, Evans said. "It's almost a known fact that these people aren't going to give you their best stuff."

Owners and drivers of existing teams are eager to see what Cameron and Evans can do with their composite hulls, Evans said. He said one of their new hulls won't be in a race until 2015.

Current sport owners and drivers are "not going to jump on the bandwagon until we go out there and start spanking them," Evans said. "I can't wait until next season to come out with a boat, and all eyes are going to be on that hull."

With molds ready and a small crew, Cameron estimated he could turn out a boat every month when the business is up and running.

The boats will be new, customized, "tricked out a bit" and purchased from somebody other than a competitor, the businessmen said. Cameron said he can reduce time, labor and cost of hull production by 60-70 percent.

"We could become the high-speed boat capital - right here in Coeur d'Alene - of the world," Cameron said. "This is a very small, very niche market."

H1 Unlimited, the hydroplane racing league, hopes to expand hydroplane racing by adding five to seven racing teams, he said. That will create demand for more boats to be made.

As the business - no name has been chosen yet - is building and readying for its launch, Cameron is helping students in North Idaho College's new Aerospace Composites Technology program get some real-world, hands-on experience.

"This is the most dangerous sport in the world per mile driven," Cameron said, one hand resting on a hydroplane in the NIC program's shop. "NASCAR is for Camp Fire Girls. This is a flying vehicle."

Cameron, a program consultant, is helping students by building the new molds at the aerospace composites program facility located on Dakota Avenue near the Coeur d'Alene airport.

"I'd like our school to attract students from out of our area and from out of state," Cameron said. "We'd like to train and build a local workforce to supply the local composites industry and help the Idaho Aerospace Alliance attract new industry to our area."

Coeur d'Alene Diamond Cup race president Doug Miller said it will be great to see brand-new hulls that were 100 percent built in North Idaho being used in hydroplane races around the world, including on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

"That's pretty cool," Miller said. "Built in Coeur d'Alene. We need to manufacture things in this country, and these boats are being manufactured here from scratch."