Canadian Raceboat Hall of Fame Grand Opening 2025

What an Opening Act for Season Two!
On May 17 2025, a “heat” of lady drivers hit the “starting line” together, wide open, nailing a “clean start” to 2025’s new FAST GLASS and MAKING WAVES, BREAKING BARRIERS exhibits.
Sarah Coulson, representing the legions of on-shore lady race officials, executives and organizers, past and present, confirmed there were no gun jumpers, scissors in hand, when the ribbon came tumbling down. Like Referee Sarah, Lise Haineault (CBF), Emilie Daoust (HRL), Fiona Hodgson (past Chief Scorer) and Barb Hammond (Haliburton Promoter) were among the many mentioned who make racing happen.
Tammy Wolf (F1) & Tammy Everitt (OSY 400) added an international flavour to where our lady drivers are having an impact. TW was the 1st Canadian lady winner in F1 Europe, and TE, daughter of past F1World Champion Larry Everitt, is rising fast in OSY, beating Canadian champion Andrew Fralick for her first victory last year.
Marion Korell spoke to her memories of how Canada’s 1st World Champion (in any motor sport, 1934) Lorna Reid Wilson demanded a re-think of women’s roles in powerboat racing: women CAN be mothers, singers AND fearless riding mechanics at the same time.
Mikayla Gordon was at the front of the T-850 class racing Gordons ( brother Eric included) yesterday, representing the linkage between the Checkmate outboards of the 1970s (one of them is in the exhibit) and the wild-and-crazy racing V-bottoms of 2025. Mother Allison Perks-Gordon absolutely loves what her kids are up to.
Patricia Warden represented the very first woman, the UK’s Marion Carstairs, to make waves in her “Estelle” series of 1920s challenges to Gar Wood and male ascendacy in the sport. Back then, competitors insisted upon calling her “Joe”, not Marion.
Tiffany Abel, a 4th generation driver in the Abel family of stock outboard champions, is not only following in her older sister Valerie’s footsteps, she is current Cdn Champion in the AXS hydroplane class, building on her previous successes in the junior JSH (Novice in Quebec) class. The girls start early in racing, just like the boys.
Come to the Canadian Raceboat Hall of Fame and get in the action too; each of our exhibits will be expanded with new biographies, photos and boats large and small being added each week. Get trady for a summer full of family race activities and your hand at the V/R race simulator…but bring your A-Game; the girls are fast!

by Harry Wilson

Good morning everybody. Welcome to the Canadian Raceboat Hall of Fame’s opening day of 2025. Today we are going to open for the first time the exhibits known as Fast Glass, the story of the transition from wood to fiberglass to carbon fiber in general boating, but specifically about racing. And the other one is the untold long overdue story of the women who make racing happen both on the shore and now in the [Music] boats Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Canada telling us we’re looking for adventure in whatever comes our way. Yeah. Oh, heat, heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] First of all, I want to thank all of you for coming here on a sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy, sometimes summer summery morning. I don’t know what we’re going to get in the next 5 minutes, but it’s great to have you all here. I want to thank also the people who made the day possible. The me members of what I call the Canadian Racewood Hall of Fame team. I want to acknowledge right now Courtney Proan who was just here controlling the TV and sorting it out where Courtney disappeared. There she is at the back. I also want to thank very much Sarah Coulson who is here who is in double capacity today not only as a CRF team but also as a representative of the women in racing particularly on the uh shore side of things as well as being a racer herself. And I also want to acknowledge Anne Curley who’s over there somewhere. Uh these are the permanent members of the of the team. Uh I want to also acknowledge right now our incredible group of volunteers uh Jay and Cole Wright who are here somewhere. This building is built because of Jay’s expertise in bringing it together. He was the site project manager. Uh Chris Taylor who’s around here somewhere uh working on videotaping as usual. Chris is responsible for about 80% of the video work that we do on the Facebook pages and on our website. I want to acknowledge Mike Braden. I don’t know if he’s here right now, but Mike Braden uh has been an incredible volunteer and was here until late late every night trying to work in this. Ed Skinner, believe it or not, yes, Ed Skinner, past owner of Duke Boats, uh he came in a couple days ago probably humorously and said, “I can help.” And I looked at him, I thought, “Ed, there’s no finer eye for boats in this world than you just walk around and find out all the things that are wrong and we’ll fix them.” And he did exactly that. But right now, I’d like to introduce uh the key important people in bringing this whole dream together. Um besides Anne Curley, I want to acknowledge and bring to the service uh to the front. Now, uh Jamie Smith and and Murray Walker. Uh by the way, I would like to acknowledge right now that these two remarkable gentlemen are recipients of the King Charles Coronation Community Service Medallion. And a very few of them were delivered across the country. And because of the incredible dedication and vision of Jamie and Murray, we have this. Just want to acknowledge all of you publicly before I hand microphone over to Murray and to Ann. But these are the three people who are constantly living this. I’ve never seen anybody work as hard as these three. So photo off if you wish and we will give opportunities for everybody to take photographs before. Everybody got Yep. I see the flashing cameras. That’s good. and Murray and Ann the microphone over you for you. While it’s true that Super Test 3 is the catalyst to start this place, the real reason behind the whole starting at this place is because as Canadians, we’re a relatively uh modest group, shall I say. We don’t talk about our accomplishments. And I really thought it was time that we talked about our accomplishments on the water because they’re so significant. Super Test clearly fits in the number one category. But when we look around the room, we’ve got just a small sampling of what’s possible to be displayed that represents Canadian achievements. So that really becomes our reason for being. But we wouldn’t be here doing it if there wasn’t so much great support from boat owners, drivers, refinishers. So many people have come together. But Harry’s been very generous at giving credit to a large number of us. But really this display and its excellence uh falls in two areas. Harry certainly talked about the support people that have come forward, including Ed Skinner at 87 who showed up with his overalls. That was touching. But Ann and Harry, Harry Harry spent countless hours here, as have an I think without them, we wouldn’t have such a great display to show to you today. So, but we’re quite quite grateful to what they’ve done, and I hope you all enjoy it today as we get to tour around. There you are. [Music] Hi everyone. So, first I’d like to talk about the fact that in order to put this together, the exhibits together this year, we had an exhibit committee, uh, which consisted of, uh, Perry and Courtney and, uh, Matt Herman, one of our directors, and myself. So, I will apologize right now to all the racers who are getting constant emails from Harry begging for information because we were putting pressure on him every Monday night for the past six months. to reach out and say we need this information. So, thank you. Thank you very much to all of you who have done that. And as a result, putting this exhibit together, it’s it’s a great opportunity for both Courtney, myself, and Sarah to a degree because Sarah knows many of you. Okay. Um, so she knows many of you, and we got to meet you personally through all the materials that you provided us. So, it’s it’s a real honor to get to know the racing community at this level and it’s been so much information that we’ve learned and I am amazed at all everyone who does race. When I saw uh Tammy Wolf come in, of course it’s pink and I had to have that boat, but I have no idea how you can get in there and go that fast. I’m the one that yells and screams and a fear going in Santa’s Village roller coaster for kids. So, this is a complete honor. Uh again, thank you for inviting us into your community and thank you for being part of ours. Uh this year, we’ve added our kids in action section. So, you’ll see the little racing game that we’ve added. We’re going to continue to add more things every year, but it takes time and and some money. Uh we’re also adding uh a summer day camp this year. So for those who are looking for a place to send your little darlings, we will have we will have a summer camp running uh July and August. And Sarah Coulson will be our camp coordinator. So everyone knows Sarah. You know your kids are safe and going to have lots of fun here. And we’re going to be learning about boats and and doing all kinds of cool things as well. There’s all kinds of events planned for this year. On Sundays in July and August, we’re doing family Sundays. Uh, so we if you have a remote control boat, we have two ponds we’re going to race our boats in. Harry’s going to set up a racing course. We have uh some entertainment. We have just all kinds of fun things happening in here and maybe even some little racing competitions going on on the uh the racing game. Uh we will also uh in July long weekend, there’s an art show going on. So please check our website regular. We’re going to keep putting up what we’re doing. There’s so many things coming up that we just um I can’t remember all of it. and Harry will want the microphone back. So, um, and again, um, as you’re leading, we have some t-shirts this year that have the kids in racing and, uh, we can’t thank Chris Taylor enough and his team for putting that together for us. It brought in some great ideas for t-shirts. We did scout it around many kids and they they all like three designs, so that’s why we have three different designs. And, uh, what else have I got here? Oh, we also want to thank all our donors and sponsors. donors and our supporters. So many of you are supporters of the Canadian Race Book Hall of Fame and for those who aren’t, we can sign you up and then for those who are our donors as well. And uh thank you for coming and please, you know, this is evolving. We’re going to be adding more things. We don’t have all the information. We’re still missing a whole section on the referees and all the women that behind the scenes in the the organizations. Uh and we have so many more text panels to put together. So, if you come back every week or so or bring all your family and friends, we will be having new things to add to it. And if if you see something that we we’re missing, please let us know. Thank you. Well, today is a celebration. Uh it really is. And thank you for being here to celebrate with us. Uh we have two things, two stories, two exhibits that we are celebrating today. And there is a third in the works which I will tell you about later in a minute. But the first one I want to acknowledge is this. exhibit we’re calling Fast’s Glass. And I want to acknowledge right now the extraordinary contributions of Eric and Chris Gordon and Michaela Gordon in helping the whole Gordon family uh for being so supportive. The videos that we’re watching on our Facebook page are all produced by Eric Gordon. And Ann says, “Oh, get him to do more cuz he’s really funny and really good.” So Eric, you’re doomed. I’m sorry. Um I also want to acknowledge even though I don’t hear I didn’t think they’re here. Jackie and and uh Greg Keeling. Uh I’ve mentioned Jay Wright. Uh Jackie and Greg, Greg Keeling of uh North Face Enterprises are the builders of this building. So they are also a fantastic supporters of Fast Glass and you’re going to see one of their votes in there in a minute. I want to also acknowledge uh Matt Herman and John Kersbrook. We still have one boat to add to Fast Glass. It’s going to go right in this area. Uh it’s right now being prepared. uh he just came back, John did from Europe and uh he has not yet been able to put the boat to perfect and when I say perfect I mean it’s beyond perfect. So you got to come back to see uh the boat that he’s bringing in which is a Donsi original Donszi. The evolution from from wood to fiberglass to carbon fiber revolutioniz what is happening on the waters today. Not just for the racers, but also for the regular people who just want to go out and have a great time in the water, which is what all of us want to do anyway. But it also changed things as well because we went from wood to fast to to glass products. We also went from boating being kind of a a privileged sport to being something that was accessible to everybody because glass boats were very quickly made. I was talking to a gentleman by the name of Tom Bane with whom I raced many years ago. Actually, I just chased them around the course. Um, but uh Tom was the first one to experiment with building fiberglass race boats and I built my own wooden race boats. And Tom was a very He and I were comparing notes. He said, “How long did it take you to build a race boat?” And I said, “Well, I go crazy.” I said, “I can probably build a race boat in 3 and 12 to 4 weeks.” And I’m really at it. He said, “When I built my first fiberglass boat, it was 8 hours.” Wow. So that’s how fast it took to build the first one. Now, it didn’t work particularly well cuz his whole idea was he’d build a boat which was a clamshell, bottom and top, and rivet it across the top. Well, the first time he stuffed it in a race, the clam shell opened up. The boat broke in half and it went down to the bottom. I waved as I went by, but um it’s uh that was the beginning. And people, you need to make mistakes. You need to get out there and experiment. What glass did was suddenly boats were available. And there was a man by the name of Bill Kums in the United States who is the brains behind the checkmate boats that we all saw as kids running around the lakes. You know, we’re in the 70s and 80s. Some of you weren’t even born then. Um, but we have a representative here of MX13, which is a checkmate boat from 1973. I believe this is a model. So, we have one of those and thank you to the Gordon family for bringing that. But the the popularity of the V-bottom boats that Bill Kums was able to massproduce inspired a whole new generation of people. And from that evolution, we ended up with a whole new division of boat racing. Originally, it was all the privileged people who had the wooden boats, who could afford to build them, get them built uh for them, who were racing. But all of a sudden, people were running out down the road down the lake with their 65 and 70 horsepower MX13s running 60 65 miles an hour. And of course, there are girls around and guys want to impress girls who hate us have a race. And before long, we ended up with a whole new division in sport in racing called the sportsgraph division. And it was all fiberglass. And then of course things changed. It wasn’t just bottoms. They introduced tunnel boats. And that’s a whole new story as well. So, two elements in the fast glass. The whole idea of being readily available, affordable, and technologically advancing the whole sport. So, you’re going to see the Fast Glass exhibit in there, and I want to thank those people who have made it possible for us to have the boats here. The other one that we want to do is a long overdue story, and it’s really kind of our feature event this year as well, the long overdue story of the women in racing. Um, I was very fortunate to grow up with stories about this lady, Marian Carststead, nicknamed Joe, because when she was racing in the 1920s and she represented the UK, uh, what was a woman doing in a race boat? Well, they wouldn’t even call her Marion, they called her Joe because she was always working on her engines mechanic. So, she became Joe Cares and she broke the water for us, for all of the women I as far as I’m concerned. And she broke the water for my mother who was at age 13 got her mechanic hands dirty when she was working with her brother on a broken down dippy. Not that dippies ever break down, but they do. Uh, and uh, she ended up meeting my father at university and becoming his riding mechanic, racing mechanic. Not just the one who stays in the shore. She was in the boat and uh she was responsible for making certain kept checking on all the competition and reading the gauges at all time. And my father wrote in his book that she was the finest, most instinctive woman in a boat that he had ever met. In fact, he preferred her over any of the people he raced with and she uh she saved his life according to him at least three times in racing. So, we have a representatives of the past in the uh in this exhibit as well. And there are many more that we could talk about, and I’m not going to bore you with them. But we also are very fortunate to have with us today the ladies who are changing history again. Just as these ladies made history, they’re changing history again. Excuse me. Tammy Wolf over there. Tammy Wolf is the first lady, first Canadian to run in the F1 World Championships in the tunnel boats in speeds in excess of 140 mph. My mother would [Applause] approve. While we’re on the Tammy, right beside her is Tammy Everett, and her father was an F1 world champion in the tunnel boat class. And Tammy got into racing a few years ago. Actually, she ran a powder puff race with my daughter and they had a great time together. And then Tammy decided, I really like this. Tammy is now running OSY400, which is a world uh world regulated stock outboard class. So Tammy Wolf is right here. Wow. I want to acknowledge Tiffany Ael. I just saw you. Tiffany’s right here wearing pink. Uh Tiffany Ael is current reigning AXS hydro uh champion in Canada. She comes from the you’re the fourth generation I believe of Tiffany of Able Racers from her father grandfather Jack to Teddy to her father Eric. Uh and Teddy Ael has more uh world champ or national and international championship plaques in his base room than he knows what to do. And we have a lot of them here. And I told you a little personal story. I remember calling uh Tiffany Ael’s first first race. It was a Junior stock class. We have a Junior engine at the back there. And my good friend Jeff Lel, whose boat I’m standing in front of right here, who has now become a racer, an announcer himself, were calling out all these kids coming out. And here’s this, here’s the other one. And then this little girl came out and she roared past us. And we both stopped and looked and watched this girl with this absolute dead set game face on. And there was no doubt about what she was out to do. And she’s been doing it ever since. Tiffany Ael is one of the toughest drivers. Do not try to get inside this lady on the corner. Not going to work well. Tiffany, I want to acknowledge Michaela Gordon who is always available for commenting and exchanging notes at 2:00 in the morning on Facebook because she never quits. New Zealand time. New time. Even when she’s on vacation, she’s still talking to me. Uh Michaela drives these crazy T850 class boats and I’m telling you, they are the first ones. They’re direct descendant of the FE class that came from the MX13 that you see out here in the floor. And they are a thrill to drive. Tammy Wolf started in the FE class. Mark Rothermill’s boat, which is a blue one just behind me here, started in the FE class. And you learn to drive an FE because you don’t drive an FE, you fly them down the down the course. and talk to Michaela and talk to brother Eric and Father Chris and any of the any of the Gordons here about what it’s like to drive these T850s as an announcer. They are the most exciting class to call because they are simply completely out of control and I love that. So, these are the people who are with us here and I want to acknowledge right now and I know she’s around here somewhere. Sarah Coulson. Uh Sarah, there she is over there. Sarah’s wearing a t-shirt today. It says official on the back. Sarah is a referee for the Canadian Boating Federation as well as being a driver herself. Uh, and she is representing all the women who make racing happen on shore. I’m talking about the referees, the executives, the race promoters, and they are without them honestly, we wouldn’t be anywhere. Um, they have come into their own in the front of the boats and the drivers. They were winning now regularly, but for years and years, they were the ones who made boat racing happen. And it’s a long overdue time to acknowledge the challenges and the and the achievements of these ladies. So, please welcome all of [Applause] right. You are in 15 seconds to the start of the race. I’m watch. Oh no. Don’t jump the gun. Getting around the corner. What is that? What did you say? Don’t jump the gun. Go the government in 5 4 3 2 1 cut. Yes. You’re all legal. Please come in and and these ladies will uh entertain you questions along with Eric wherever you are. you managed to avoid the ribbon cutting very um concerning my my mother as a racer she was dad’s mechanic raced with him raced until she was expecting him and one story I have to tell you we have a problem a little bit of a problem with the United States right now I’ll tell you about on here. I don’t know whether Harry knows. Mom and dad were bringing the race boat back in from the Americans and they got pulled over. Of course, they wanted to look at the boat and mom was 5 months pregnant at that point. And they made her get up into the boat, get up to the hatch, open the engines, and my father was absolutely horrified. She made it down safely and that Christmas she gave birth to this one. So mom was really really involved. She knew the boats inside and out. She uh got us all into that thing. I have to say one thing though. I tried. Thank you. But I’m left-handed and it was set up for right-handed people. So instead of racing on the water, I raced in the water. My oldest sister Lonnie raced Thank you. and flipped it. And there’s a gentleman who came in last year. He said, “That was a boat I caused a flip. Young lady got a wonk on the head.” Um Lonnie raced it. Marian chose to swim. She was a Canadian Olympian. And also my kids sister Patty got into horses. So we were all involved. Thank you very much. Everybody, please come on in and wander around. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music]